Winterbottom takes win as brakes fail Whincup

Mark Winterbottom took victory ahead of James Courtney, as Jamie Whincup retired allowing Courtney to rebuild his championship lead.

Jamie Whincup had claimed pole position for the second round at Townsville, ahead of team mate Craig Lowndes, and was leading comfortably until the brake line went on lap eight.

Lowdnes faired little better, damaging his steering in a clash with Holden stable mate Garth Tander, then later hitting the back of James Courtney caused enough damage to the Commodore that Craig retired, meaning a double DNF for TeamVodafone.

“The boys did an awesome stop and from there I was able to put my head down and make up some time out of sequence.” said Winterbottom.

“On my second stop it was a late call and we’ve actually rehearsed last minute pit stop calls so the guys were really under pressure but pulled it off beautifully. From there I was able to get back out in front of Garth (Tander) and James (Courtney) and with fresh rubber started to pull away.”

James Courtney now extends his championship lead back to 120 points over Jamie Whincup, whilst Mark Winterbottom has now moved up to third in the standings.

Courtney avoided punishment for clashing with team mate Steven Johnson in yesterdays race, with some expecting a points penalty to be awarded.

In the press conference, Courtney commented on the incident:
“Garth and Will didn’t get penalised after their collision at Winton so I wasn’t at all surprised.”

Tander added “the bollocking you get from your team owner is worse than any penalty you get”.

Courtney replied: “Yeah Richard (Dick) Johnson wasn’t too happy.”.