MOTORSPORT: Falcons fly the flag at Bathurst

There’s life in the Ford Falcon yet… at least on the racetrack at Mount Panorama.

While the last FGX Falcon road car rolls from the Broadmeadows production line today and the Blue Oval's 92-year local manufacturing history ends, the last of the roaring Ford V8s will be battling for fastest time in Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 qualifying this afternoon.

And with two Fords in the top three after yesterday’s sizzlingly fast practice sessions, the chances of Falcon being farewelled while also sitting on top of the pile is certainly strong.

The obvious impediment standing in the way of the Blue Oval? Jamie Whincup and his Red Bull Holden VF Commodore. This combination, along with co-driver Paul Dumbrell, led all three session yesterday.

Four-time winner Whincup finished with a flourish on new tyres, setting a 2min 05.2946sec time, the fastest ever recorded on Thursday at Bathurst and the third fastest practice time ever. Incidentally, Whincup also owns the fastest practice/qualifying time of all time, a 2min 4.9sec effort set 12 months ago in the final Friday practice session.

The two Falcon drivers chasing him are DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard and Prodrive Racing Australia’s Chaz Mostert, who were respectively just 0.07sec and 0.41sec off the pace.

Both were conscious of the significant moment in Australian automotive history coming up today and were also a little uncomfortable talking about it.

“Of all weekends for it [Ford] to be shutting its doors, on Bathurst weekend I think is a bit of a shame,” said Shell Helix Falcon driver Coulthard, whose co-driver is motoring.com.au’s Luke Youlden.

“It would be nice to finish the weekend off and get a result for the Blue Oval. A lot of people have supported the brand over the years.

“I started off in a Ford, went to the other side [Holden] and I am now back in a Ford, so I have had the support for many years. So it would nice to repay those fans.”

Added 2014 Bathurst winner Mostert, who shares the Supercheap Auto Falcon with Steve Owen: “I have been in Ford for quite a few years now and it is definitely sad to see manufacturing stop in Australia.

“But in saying that there are a lot of fans are moving on from that and they have been working with Ford for a lot of years. It would be pretty special to get a win this year, but it’s also a pretty special year because it’s 10 years since the great man Peter Brock left us as well.

“So it’s a pretty big weekend all-round.”

The two Ford teams – neither of which receive financial backing from the factory -- are marking the closure of Ford’s manufacturing facilities at Broadmeadows and Geelong in different ways. DJRTP features signage on its cars while PRA will thank the workers of Ford with a commemorative photograph in pitlane.

Behind the top three yesterday came Wilson Security GRM’s Scott McLaughlin in the Volvo S60, ahead of Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright in the Team BOC Holden. Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander, winner of the Sandown 500 with Warren Luff, showed strong qualifying form to be sixth.

Completing the top 10 were Tim Slade (BJR), Will Davison (BJR), Shane van Gisbergen and James Courtney (HRT).

Defending Virgin Australia Supercar Champion Mark Winterbottom (Prodrive) was 11th and defending Bathurst winner Craig Lowndes (Triple Eight) 14th.

Whoever does come out on top of qualifying this afternoon will have only temporary bragging as it earns passage into the ARMOR ALL top 10 shootout on Saturday afternoon, where pole for Sundays 161-lap classic will be determined.

The weather forecast is fine so times are expected to tumble lower than Whincup’s practice and qualifying mark during today’s sessions.

The biggest loser on Thursday was rookie James Golding, who smashed the second GRM Volvo he was sharing with James Moffat into the wall at Reid Park during the co-driver session in the middle of the day, putting the car out of action until Friday morning practice.

Golding, rated as the next big thing to come from the veteran talent hunter Garry Rogers’ stable has not had a great introduction to the main game, crashing the same car into the fence on the opening lap of the Sandown 500 last month after a tyre deflated. This time round he was taking responsibility.

Mind you, he joins a fairly well credentialed list of rookie crashers at Bathurst including Tander and Mostert.

DJR Team Penske’s Scott Pye was lucky not to be also surveying a steaming pile of junk, oversteering off the track at high speed at Skyline in the day’s opening session. The car skipped across the gravel trap and launched high off the tyre wall but came back to earth without mortal damage.

Defending race winners Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards also had a difficult day after an off at the high-speed chase by Lowndes in session one damaged the front splitter and slowed the set-up process.

Following on from a poor Sandown 500 showing, it is undoubtedly unsettling for this crack crew to arrive at Bathurst and to make such a poor start.

"It was a challenging day. It was probably one of the hardest Bathurst lead-ins we've had for a while,” Lowndes said.

“I think that both Steve and I really just weren't comfortable in the car and of course with that it's hard to get a lap time around this place because it's all about confidence.”

Comfortable with long-run pace, the carsales.com.au Nissan Altima pairing of Todd Kelly and Supercar rookie Matt Campbell are looking to find some extra speed across a single lap ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session. The #7 carsales Racing Altima enjoyed a trouble-free day, which provides both drivers a platform to improve upon.