Photo: Freighliner Racing

Two wins from two races for Tim Slade at Winton

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Tim Slade claimed his first ever V8 Supercars Championship victory yesterday and made it two from of two in the second and final race of the weekend at Winton today.

The Brad Jones Racing driver started fourth and found himself in a battle for the lead with reigning champion Mark Winterbottom in the early stages.

The Holden and Ford drivers were on different strategies, with Slade going for two stops while the Prodrive Racing Australia driver went for three.

Slade’s strategy proved to be victorious, claiming the victory by close to seven seconds ahead of Winterbottom.

Winterbottom finished second and has taken over the championship lead from Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin by 27 points. McLaughlin had a tough race, starting sixth but finishing down in eleventh.

DJR Team Penske Ford driver Fabian Coulthard finished on the final podium spot after heading the field early in the race after a lightning start, which was investigated as a potential jump start but was later cleared by the stewards.

Shane van Gisbergen finished fourth for Triple Eight Race Engineering, taking advantage of the safety car to climb up through the field after a mistake in qualifying.

The safety car had been issued to recover the stranded Holden of Lee Holdsworth which stopped with a gearbox issue.

The Ford duo of Cameron Waters and Scott Pye claimed positions five and six while Erebus Motorsport driver David Reynolds stormed his way from 17th on the grid to finish seventh ahead of the Triple Eight Race Engineering pair of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

Michael Caruso rounded out the top ten for Nissan Motorsport.

Pole sitter Chaz Mostert had a dreadful race, losing the lead to Coulthard into the first corner and then getting caught out by the safety car period, opting to drop to the back and fuel to the finish, but the Prodrive Racing Australia driver eventually finished 20th after sustaining damage in incident with James Courtney’s Holden Commodore after the restart.

The V8 Supercars Championship continues in four weeks’ at Hidden Valley Raceway.