Winterbottoms thoughts on breaking Murphy's record.
Winterbottom so close to Murphy mark - Motor Sports - Fox Sports
Winterbottom so close to Murphy mark
By Cameron Tomarchio
October 06, 2007 BATHURST 1000 pole-sitter Mark Winterbottom knows how close he came to etching his name further into history.
The Ford Performance Racing driver slipped up in the left-hander coming out of The Chase at Mount Panorama, costing him 0.2sec in his 2min 07.0908sec flying lap.
Four-time winner and Tasman Motorsport driver Greg Murphy holds the all-time record time of 2min 06.8594sec, which he set in 2003, but Winterbottom believes he would have gone close to breaking the mark reckons if he hadn't made the error.
"The car stepped out and I thought I'd try and make up some time on the brakes where the car was strong," Winterbottom said.
"It was a little bit dirty and the tyre temp was probably not as great as it could have been, and it had a little bit of a wobble, but luckily I pulled it and I only lost a little bit of time.
"It was probably the difference between a six-eight and a seven-zero.
"I wouldn't have smashed (Murphy's) record but I think it would have been down to the one-thousandths of a second.
"It would have been very close and I thought the wind was a factor in that lap as well, there was heavy wind.
"Without that wide run it would have been pretty close."
