Winterbottom scorches in Darwin

(AAP) - At the helm of the blue oval's flagship Ford Performance Racing, Mark Winterbottom would have been forgiven for thinking his 2010 V8 Supercar title hopes had run aground.

While it had been plain sailing for Ford this year, it was all thanks to new poster
boy and series leader James Courtney - much to Winterbottom's frustration.
However, a stirring victory in the opening race of the Darwin round on Saturday put
Winterbottom back on course.
The man dubbed "Frosty" scorched the already unbearably hot Hidden Valley circuit,
claiming pole position before holding out Holden's two-time V8 defending champion
Jamie Whincup by just 0.79 seconds in the opening 120km race.
Ford's Shane van Gisbergen was third - his fifth podium of the year - with Courtney
fifth.
Winterbottom remarkably jumped from eighth to fifth on the drivers' standings thanks
to his maiden win of 2010.
Courtney still holds the championship lead - just.
At the halfway mark of the season, Whincup - armed with a brand new Commodore -
whittled the deficit down from 114 points to 87 ahead of Sunday's 200km race.
But Winterbottom was daring to dream after finally tasting victory.
"I hadn't been on pole for quite a while, hadn't led a race for quite a while, the
nerves were there a bit which was a nice feeling," he said.
"To get to turn around the form that we had, it's a real credit to the guys (at FPR)."
It was an amazing comeback after Winterbottom looked to have undone all of his early
good work in the last two rounds.
After finishing second in three of the year's first four races, Winterbottom became
Ford's forgotten man thanks to Courtney.
Once known more for his "Dancing with the Stars" stint, Courtney emerged as the man
to beat in 2010 after snatching the championship lead from Holden's Whincup with
four straight wins.
As a result, Whincup went into a round without the series lead for the first time
since 2008 when he arrived in Darwin.
While happy to finish ahead of Courtney, Whincup knew everything could change on
Sunday.
Racing in Darwin reverted to hard compound tyres on Saturday - not the faster soft
tyres used in the last two rounds which Courtney had dominated.
However, teams will be able to use one set of "sprint" tyres for Sunday's 200km race.
"When we go on soft tyres I am back in the pack somewhere and he is out front - my
set-up likes the hard tyres and his doesn't," Whincup said.
"We can say it doesn't make a difference...but the facts are pretty obvious.
"We've done a lot of work - it is going to be real interesting tomorrow."
The turning point on Saturday came when Winterbottom - led by "mentor", FPR's race
engineer Campbell Little - pitted in the 12th of the 42-lap race, one lap ahead of
Whincup.
By the time Whincup emerged from the pits, Winterbottom had improved his lead from
less than a second to more than four.
But Winterbottom's big lead was dramatically eaten up thanks to a fast-finishing
Whincup and stalling backmarkers, namely Tony Ricciardello and Karl Reindler.