Scott Pye has claimed his second podium of the year by finishing second in Saturday’s 120km race at the Winton SuperSprint, with both cars inside the top-10.
After starting in fifth, he drove superbly all afternoon, just missing out on claiming his second win this year.
After returning from illness today, James Courtney moved from 13th to ninth during the race, in what was a solid drive considering the limited amount of laps he has had this weekend.
Courtney returned for practice 3 this morning, after missing all Friday running with a bug. Jack Perkins, who was in the car for the co-driver session in the morning, stayed in car 25 for the remainder of the day, and did an excellent job.
Scott put in a great second lap in qualifying to move into the top five, while JC did a good job to put the car in 13th despite only having nine laps before rolling out.
Come race start, the cars split their strategy.
JC stopped on lap 6, with most of the field, while Scott stayed out.
A chunk of time was lost sitting behind Stanaway, who was not in the race for the lead after being forced to stop on lap 1, but once Scott cleared him on lap 17, the pace of the car was on show.
Despite being on older tyres than most, his pace was as good as anyone.
He eventually stopped on lap 23, popping out in fourth, and on the hunt for the top 3.
Meanwhile, JC was locked in a battle for top-10 positions.
After getting past Coulthard for third, and pulling up on the back of Kelly for second, the safety car was called with nine to go.
Scott had fresher tyres than the two cars in front but everyone on new tyres lost their advantage as the pressures dropped in cold conditions.
After getting past McLaughlin on the restart, he was able to hold off Van Gisbergen for the last seven laps, but just didn’t have enough to move past Kelly in the dying stages, crossing the line in second.
JC did a great job to hold those around him off after the restart, finishing in ninth.
A good day for the team, with some more gains in qualifying made. Bring on Sunday.
Scott Pye
“It was a really good day for everyone, and it’s great to be back on the podium again.
“The car was great today, and the guys made a really good call on strategy which put us in the position to win at the end.
“We just didn’t quite have enough for Rick at the end, who’s pace was excellent in the closing stages, so it would have been nice to grab another win but hey, second is great.
“Looking forward to tomorrow now. Bring it on.”
James Courtney
“It was nice to be back in the car that’s for sure. Still not feeling 100 per cent, but a lot better than yesterday.
“A big thanks to Jack for stepping in and doing a really good job, it gave us a good base to go off today.
“There was a little left in the table in qualifying which was disappointing, we could have been a bit higher up, but we moved forward in the race which was nice.
“Congratulations to Scott and the team on second today, shows the car is good so we will look to capitalise tomorrow.”