Lowndes fights off fast finishing Winterbottom

Craig Lowndes drew on all his experience to fend off Mark Winterbottom in the final race of the SkyCity Triple Crown at Hidden Valley this afternoon. The race had major championship implications for the veteran, allowing him to significantly narrow the margin to Jamie Whincup in the standings.

Winterbottom almost accomplished the ultimate redemption after an extremely disappointing incident with team-mate David Reynolds in yesterday’s race; however he fell a tenth short of Lowndes’ Red Bull backed Commodore at the chequered flag. David Reynolds rounded out the podium in his FPR built Falcon to round out a promising weekend for the Blue-oval at the Darwin-based circuit.

After qualifying his Bottle-O backed Falcon on pole, Reynolds looked on track to attain his first V8 Supercar victory after coming close in the 120 kilometre sprint race yesterday. The 27 year-old led the field away from the start, before a red flag triggered by mid-field carnage brought his pursuit for victory to a halt. Reynolds again led the field away from the restart, before Jeremy Moore called Craig Lowndes into the pits in an undercut strategy which paid dividends for Red Bull Racing.

In the time-shortened race, Lowndes looked to have victory all but sown-up with just minutes remaining in the race. However, Mark Winterbottom had other ideas, and set off on the seemingly impossible task to chase down Lowndes after finding a way past Reynolds into turn 1. The FPR pilot did all he could to reel in the three time champion, however it was a case of too little, too late. Jonathon Webb capped off an impressive weekend in Darwin, guiding his Tekno Autosport Commodore to 4th ahead of HRT’s Garth Tander, who rounded out the top-5.

The final 100 kilometre sprint was marred by opening lap carnage, which removed 7 cars from the race and left many more with significant damage. It was triggered by contact between Jason Bright and Scott McLaughlin, with the two trading paint and forcing Tim Slade into the outside wall. Chaos ensued as the field desperately attempted to avoid the cars strewn all over the racetrack on the entry to turn 3. A red flag was promptly called to clean up the damage, which took over half an hour to clear.

James Courtney triggered another yellow-flag when his HRT Commodore lost power on the entry to turn 6. The removal of Courtney’s entry further shortened the race, which was only 24 laps in duration as a result of the time lost under caution.

Shane van Gisbergen steered his VIP-Petfoods backed Commodore to 6th, ahead of Will Davison in the second factory Falcon. Scott McLaughlin managed 8th, though he will come under investigation for his involvement in the opening lap calamities. Maro Engel achieved a career best V8 Supercar result of 9th in his Erebus Motorsport prepared SP Tools Mercedes, while Jason Bright rounded out the top 10 for Team BOC.

Championship leader Jamie Whincup was forced to take a drive through penalty after a pit-lane infringement, which sent the Red Bull Racing pilot to the back of the pack where he eventually finished 19th. The avoidable infringement will leave the reigning champion fuming, as he spun the rear wheels before the car was dropped from the jack.
In terms of the championship standings, Whincup’s lead has been significantly cut as a result of Lowndes’ success in the final two races of the weekend. Whincup now leads by 159 points over Lowndes, while Will Davison sits a further 275 points behind in third. Shane van Gisbergen also moves up to 4th in the championship, capitalising on the difficult weekends of the BJR combo of Bright and Coulthard.

The next round of the V8 Supercar championship will see the teams travel east to Townsville for the Sucrogen 400 on the 5th-7th of July.