Bittersweet start for TeamVodafone

Jamie Whincup’s sensational start to the season was only marred by his teammate Craig Lowndes’s spectacular collision with fellow Ford driver James Courtney in the final leg of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
In what is regarded as the perfect weekend in motorsport, Whincup set practice, qualifying and race records as well as starting on pole position and winning both Saturday and Sunday races.

Whincup is one of only three drivers to have won the Clipsal 500 twice and acknowledged this was his best individual round result.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Whincup said. “This is the sort of weekend you dream of as a kid.”

“We have been working towards today since the Monday after last years final round. As a Team we knew what we did wrong and we weren’t going to make the same mistakes this weekend.”

“Everybody wanted to hit the ground running and that is exactly what we have done,” Whincup concluded.

While Whincup celebrated, Lowndes lamented on what could have been a dual podium. The Team’s dream run was shattered on Lap 56 when Lowndes and Courtney clipped each other while exiting Turn 10, putting an end to the race for both cars.

Lowndes #888 Falcon, which debuted this weekend, suffered extensive damage and an assessment will be made once it returns to the Team’s Queensland base.

“I am bitterly disappointed and I feel really bad for the Team on what could have been the first ever 1, 2 for TeamVodafone,” Lowndes explained.

“I’m delighted with Jamie’s results and it looks like I might have to go on the tools this week to help the boys get the car back in shape.”

“On what started badly in race two finished just as bad,” he continued.

TeamVodafone will only have two weeks to prepare for Round 2 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series which will be held at Eastern Creek Raceway March 7-9.