MOTORSPORT: Frosty heats up V8 debate

It was appropriate the V8 Supercars circus hit the tropics last weekend, because two more wins for Mark 'Frosty' Winterbottom in the Prodrive Racing Australia Ford Falcon FG X had the pitlane jungle drums beating. The natives – especially those with the usually dominant Holden Commodores – are getting restless.

After winning the first six championship races, the 12 VF Commodores on the grid have been able to win once in the last 11 race starts, when Craig Lowndes took historic victory 100 in Darwin. Will Davison's Erebus Mercedes-AMG E63 scored a surprise win in Perth, but otherwise it's been three cars from the soon-to-be ex-factory Ford team that have dominated the running.

Nine wins from 11 starts for the new Ford, with Winterbottom claiming six of them has seen the young veteran sprint away to a 248 point lead over Lowndes, with Brad Jones Racing's Fabian Coulthard strong in third.

Second and third place finishes in the two 200km races for the eccentric, sometimes brilliant and currently contract-less for 2016 David Reynolds moved him into fourth in his PRA-fettled 'The Bottle-O' Falcon, with Winterbottom's Pepsi-Max team-mate Chaz Mostert fifth.

The Falcons are winning the races without marching into the distance – that simply doesn't happen in a parity formula like V8 Supercars. But the stats are clear, they are winning.

Their ultimate speed is even more obvious in qualifying, where they are consistently at the front. Tellingly, rookie Andre Heimgartner lobbed his Super Black Racing (also a customer of PRA) FG X into seventh grid spot on Sunday, his fourth top 10 of the year. His speed as much as any among the Ford drivers is raising eyebrows, given the traditional travails even talented first-year players suffer in this category – and Heimgartner is talented.

And this dominance came at a track that Winterbottom predicted would be among the car's sternest tests for the season.

Having suffered through two years of what it believed was aero-based deficiencies of the old Falcon FG II, PRA has clearly done a brilliant job with the FG X, which was homologated for racing over the summer via V8 Supercars' aero testing process conducted at East Sale RAAF base in Victoria.

What's emerged from that test is a car that has resolved the rear grip issues of its predecessor without cranking up the drag so much it is a slow in a straight line.

In fact just the opposite. The FG X has the ability to both rocket out of corners and run high straight line speeds. It's a mix no-one else is as good at right now.

There are various theories rumbling around pitlane as to why it is happening. They start with 'PRA are just doing a better job'; the team insists the new-found speed has a lot to do with underbody chassis development.

But rivals point to the Falcon's massive rear wing end plates as a possible speed advantage, arguing they provide more downforce in a yaw state – cornering to you and me – and therefore more grip to punch on to the next straight quicker despite a flat rear wing. Yaw-state aero is not something the official V8 Supercars process tests for.

Another theory is the delicate parity process at East Sale was compromised. It's not an argument V8 Supercars buys into, especially as all five manufacturers were represented at the test and signed off on the results.

But if the FG X has an advantage via that process then there is an irony there, given how dudded the Ford-men felt over the last couple of years.

They can rightfully point to the fact that nothing was done to 'aid' the Falcon through that period, nor were attempts made to slow the VE and VF Commodore in the 2011-14 era when Jamie Whincup won four consecutive championships. That factor helps explain why the leading Holden team owners like Roland Dane (Triple Eight), Ryan Walkinshaw (Holden Racing Team) and Brad Jones are all taking the 'we must work harder' line.

And it mustn't be forgotten Holden took the opportunity to re-homologate its aero package over the summer too (as did Nissan). The Commodore is better, but the FG X seems to have taken a greater stride.

Such is the competitive pressure being applied by PRA that even Triple Eight has cracked, with Whincup's old engineer Mark Dutton donning the headset once more after stepping away to become team manager from the start of 2014. Whincup's 391 points gap to Winterbottom looks insurmountable right now, but with upgrades coming for the next outing at Ipswich at the end of the month both he and Lowndes will be looking to start turning the tide on their test track.

But if it doesn't turn and PRA and Winterbottom hold their form and nerve (the latter has been questioned quite bluntly this year) through another 19 races, then a first drivers' and teams' championship for the factory men in their last year of Ford's involvement would be fitting way to end a sometimes rocky journey.

That's especially the case for Winterbottom, who has raced for the team since 2006 and never finished worse than fifth or better than second in the title chase. He has been Whincup's rival so often, but rarely bettered him. This year, instead of Whincup, he has been challenged by his hugely talented young team-mate Mostert and admitted he has to had to adjust his driving style to adapt to the FG X.

Considering Winterbottom's talent and loyalty, the prospect of him finally beating the Lion and becoming King of the Jungle would be something only the most one-eyed Holden supporters would surely begrudge.