Winterbottom signs for FPR

The Prodrive-owned team have also taken the opportunity to sign Winterbottom to a long-term option, with which the agreement may continue over a further three years.

Last month Winterbottom re-signed with his existing V8 Supercar team to continue on there for next season, but during the last week the two parties mutually agreed to part ways, making the move to FPR possible for Winterbottom.

Early last week FPR split with regular 2005 driver Greg Ritter, replacing him for the final two rounds with sportscar veteran David Brabham.

After dominating the 2003 V8 Supercar Development Series with four wins in six rounds for Stone Brothers Racing, Winterbottom has spent the past two seasons at Orrcon Racing, where he has struggled to reproduce the form he showed in the development series.

His best result in the main series is a fifth place with Jason Bargwanna at the 2004 Bathurst 1000.

"Joining Ford's factory V8 Supercar Team represents the biggest step of my career," said Winterbottom. "I am excited about joining forces with a driver as experienced as Jason Bright along with having the technical support of Prodrive.

"It has always been my goal to join a major team so I could be in a position to compete for the Championship."

FPR's motorsport director Tim Edwards is also happy with the move: "We are very pleased to finalise our 2006 driver line up with Mark Winterbottom joining Jason Bright.

"Given all of the work and progress that we have made this season, Mark is joining us at a very exciting time. He has displayed his talent both in the development series and in the main series and the length of our agreement with Mark reflects our belief in him becoming a vital part of FPR's future."