James Courtney claims his first win since 2011

James Courtney won the final V8 Supercars race of the weekend at Winton, his first since the opening round of the 2011 in Abu Dhabi. The Holden driver started from pole and was never seriously threatened for the lead after that.

Once again there was first lap drama as championship leader Jamie Whincup’s Triple Eight Holden made contact with Todd Kelly. The Nissan driver spun off track, beaching his Altima on the infield and forced the deployment of the safety ca.

The next safety car period came in the second part of the race as race two winner Mark Winterbottom’s Ford Performance Racing Falcon clashed with Rick Kelly, leaving the second of the Jack Daniel’s Nissans in the gravel.

There was a third and final safety car when Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright went off track on his own, again shuffling the pit stop strategy for the drivers.

There was drama until the very end as the other Brad Jones Racing Holden of Fabian Coulthard claimed second in the race from the Dick Johnson Racing Ford of Chaz Mosert on the last lap. Mosert then received much pressure from Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and the Tekno Holden of Shane van Gisbergen, but was able to fend them off to secure the final podium position.

Ford’s Will Davison looked set for a podium finish as well until he made a mistake in the final laps and dropped to sixth position.

James Moffat was the best placed Nissan driver in eighth position behind David Reynolds’ Ford in seventh and ahead of the other DJR Ford of Tim Blanchard in ninth. Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes was the final driver in to the top ten while championship leader Whincup only managed 13th position and title rival Winterbottom 17th.

The next round of the Championship is the first of the endurance events at Sandown Raceway on September 15th.