Photo: V8 Supercars

James Courtney beats Shane Van Gisbergen to victory in Adelaide

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James Courtney became the first driver to win the Clispal 500 back-to-back since Jamie Whincup in 2009. The Holden Racing Team driver won the race just 0.7602 seconds ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen who put hard pressure on Courtney in the second half of the race.

”How good is that! Shane had a younger set of tyres at the end, but it was a really good fight,” said Courtney after the race.

Tekno Autosports driver Van Gisbergen got past Courtney at one stage of the race in turn nine, but handed the lead back to Courtney as he out braked him self and pushed the HRT driver out of the way.

Celebrations were double for Holden Racing Team as Garth Tander completed the podium in third position. Tander had a couple of looks at Van Gisbergen for second place earlier in the race, but was not able to get past.

Jamie Whincup claimed fourth position on the final lap after a controversial clash with Prodrive Racing Australia driver Chaz Mostert in turn ten. The reigning champion got up on the inside of Mostert, the two made contact with the Ford driver spinning off into the wall and collecting James Moffat as an innocent victim. Both Mostert and Moffat retired as a result of the extensive damage to their cars.

Mark Winterbottom claimed fifth position ahead of yesterday’s winner Fabian Coulthard in sixth position, with Nissan Motorsport driver Rick Kelly in seventh position and Tim Slade in eighth. Craig Lowndes and Todd Kelly rounded off the top ten.

Marcos Ambrose showed significantly improved form in this race, qualifying ninth and finishing 12th after being in the top ten of the main part of the race.

Disaster continued for Volvo Polestar Racing driver Scott McLaughlin who started fourth and was in the mix of the top fight in the first half of the race, before dropping four laps behind the leaders due to two lengthy pitstops to try and fix an alternator problem. The Kiwi finished 18th in the end.

Courtney has claimed the championship lead on 258 points with Coulthard in second on 241 points and Tander in third place on 237 points. Next up for the V8 Supercars teams is the non-championship round in Melbourne during the Australian F1 Grand Prix.