A quick chat with reigning V8 Supercar champion Mark Winterbottom

51 Thoughts was lucky enough to speak to Bottle O Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and got his thoughts and honest appraisal of how his season been thus far.

1.  How would you rate your 2016 season?

Not that great, it was great to roll out with number one and stuff like that but you want to defend it or at least have a good crack. The first half of the year was ok but we sort of haven’t improved and others have. We could have been better but we still have a lot to race for at the end. So if we can win some races it will make a year that probably hasn’t been that good into a better year at least. It is what it is and obviously it’s not as good as last year.

2.  Where do you think you have struggled the most this year?

There are a few areas but we just have to keep improving in different spots. We think we can improve but it just takes a bit of time to get on top of everything and stuff like that.

3.  It didn’t go well as you might have expected at Sandown and Bathurst, have you and the team review what went on?

Sandown was a bit unlucky for Dean Canto really, I think we could have won the race and that would have changed the whole landscape of the championship really. Bathurst was a componentry failure; we have reviewed it but could you have done anything different? Probably not really. It was one of those things but there is about 550 points we lost in two races. Bathurst we would have finished on the podium and Sandown we could have won that race given the strategy that we had. It could have turned it (the season) around and we could have been fighting for a championship but we sit sixth and those two races cost us massively.

4.  What are your expectations for Pukekohe this weekend?

It is going to be tough because there are four sprint races with no pit stops. So you qualify and race, you can’t really make up any spots in the pits. It’s all done on the track and it’s pretty tough, you will probably get different winners across different races and no pit stops definitely makes it harder.

5.  What can you take forward into next year?

There’s good and bad so you have to take the positives and just work to improve on our weaknesses and hope that the new tyre compound suits us better than the opposition. We just try again and you don’t give up in this sport so we always keep trying.

6.  What’s the new tyre compound?

It’s a new construction more than a new compound, it’s a lot squarer than the current tyre so it will change the geometry and the way that the car hits the road and we think it will play a big part in next year’s championship