Pye credits Team 18 for 'amazing' Race 23 charge

Scott Pye has paid tribute to Team 18 for his “amazing” charge from 22nd to ninth in the ARMOR ALL Sydney SuperNight.

Pye and teammate Mark Winterbottom qualified 22nd and 23rd respectively for the 32-lap night race.

The two Team 18 Commodores set their Q1 laps on Dunlop Hard tyre laps, but dropped down the standings after the field swapped onto softs for their final flyer.

Both Pye and Winterbottom made up ground in the opening laps, but the latter lost time in his lap 5 stop.

Winterbottom, who celebrated his 550th race start last week, was classified 18th.

It was a different story for Pye; the #20 DEWALT Commodore was brought in on lap 15 for Soft tyres.

Pye muscled through the field, set the fastest lap of the race - and claimed the bonus points to go with it - and recorded his first top 10 since July’s WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint.

"To get through for a top 10 after qualifying where we did was amazing,” said Pye, who is 15th in the standings.

"We didn’t make it through on the Hards in qualifying. We took a risk and tried to get through only on the Hard tyre and just missed out, but we were pretty confident that our car was fast and it showed in the race.

"We passed plenty of cars on track, got the fastest lap of the race and full credit to the guys, they did such an amazing job this week turning the cars around and finding a package which is strong.”

Winterbottom is now eighth overall, just 36 points ahead of Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown.

"It was a tough day, we had a quick car and just didn’t happen for us,” the 2015 champion said.

"I had a good start in the race, made up a few positions before we had a 20-plus second pit stop.

"It wasn’t my day, I thought we had a really good car but nothing to show from it today,

"I’m pretty gutted, but we’ll bounce back and look to do a better job tomorrow."

Cars will return to the track on Sunday for Race 24 qualifying at 2:30pm AEDT.

Race 24 will commence at 4:35pm, with the floodlit Race 25 to follow at 7:30pm.

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