Whincup and Owen win dramatic race at Surfers

Jamie Whincup and Steve Owen won the second race at the Gold Coast 600, fighting off SBR’s Shane van Gisbergen to the end.

After a small drama at the start for Greg Ritter, who stalled the No.33 GRM Commodore at the line, with all the cars managing to avoid him, the dramatic accident packed start seen in Saturdays race had been averted, but a unknown technical problem for the BJR Commodore driven by Alain Menu saw the Swiss driver fall swiftly back from his starting position of fifth, eventually stopping on the track causing the first safety car deployment on lap one.

Pole sitter Luke Youlden had filtered in behind team-mate Steven Richards at the start, which Youlden later confirmed was the plan. FPR and GRM were the only two teams to opt to put their regular drivers in first for the No.6 and No.34 cars.

Soon after the restart, Cameron McConville, battling in the midfield to make up places after co-driver Tander’s shunt in qualifying, spun around David Brabham in the SBR Falcon, causing massive front-end damage to the car, putting it out of the race – and triggered the second safety car.

On the next restart, cars started to pick off Youlden. First Steve Owen got past for second in the Triple Eight car, and then as did Caruso in the GRM Commodore.

Steven Richards started building a lead with all the action behind, until it was wipred out on lap 14, when Mika Salo crashed out, causing the third safety car.

A number of teams took the opportunity to pit, but there were problems for FPR as Will Power wasn’t ready to board the leading Falcon, and with Youlden queued behind, the two lost over 20 places in the fumble.

With DJR opting not to pit their drivers, Warren Luff assumed the lead, with Steve Owen now the first car to have pitted, with Cameron McConville right behind in the HRT Commodore.

Caruso’s race become unstuck on lap 22, as the car, now driven by Patrick Long echoing the same strategy as Saturday, picked up a puncture from contact whilst trying to pass the BJR Commodore of Andrew Jones.

Debris from Perkins Supercheap Auto car caused the fourth safety car period on lap 34, and a packed pitlane saw problems for Bourdais. The four-time Champcar champion missed his stall, and tried to reverse into it. Advised that despite driving a car with reverse gear, this wasn’t allowed by his crew, the officials handed the Frenchman a drive through penalty, which was served by Jonathon Webb shortly after.

There was further chaos as the BJR Commodore of Andrew Jones slowed heavily on the pit straight, reportedly waiting for the safety car. The bottle-neck saw an unsighted Todd Kelly smash into the back of Jones, and then also into the rear of Yvan Muller. Although Muller could continue after some repairs to the rear, Jones and Kelly were out on the spot, and there was more debris for the marshals to clear.

The next safety car was caused when Steve Johnson in the DJR Falcon spun Castroneves into the wall, taking both cars out of the race.

On the restart, Holdsworth led the way, whilst Alex Tagliani, running in sixth in the Kelly Racing Holden, started to fall down the order. First passed by James Courtney and Jamie Whincup, who was following behind his championship rival as they both worked their way up the order. Tagliani was eventually taken out by ‘The Enforcer’ Russell Ingall, which Tagliani expressed disgust about.

Saturday’s race winner Garth Tander brought out the final safety car on lap 59, as he crashed on his second lap out of the pits. Tander admitted he was distracted from the GRM car ahead which was rejoining after it’s pit-stop, and clouted the wall at the first corner.

After another wave of pitstops followed, after which it was Whincup who led from Shane Van Gisbergen, with rival Courtney third – and FPR’s Mark Winterbottom having recovered from his pit-stop problems early on now in sixth.

The final stage of the race was uninterrupted, with no stops left and no more safety cars, it was a hard fight as Van Gisbergen fought Whincup on every lap for 40 laps, almost passing the Triple Eight driver twice. The SBR car was officially classed as leading the penultimate lap as he drew alongside, but the New Zealander had to settle for second, claiming his best result in the championship to date.

Mark Winterbottom battled his way up to third place, passing Rick Kelly, Paul Dumbrell and James Courtney in the final stint, to move back ahead of Tander for fourth in the standings, whilst Whincup’s victory closes him up to Courtney.

Tiago Monteiro and Tony D’Alberto looked set for a top ten result, but a late puncture saw them drop to seventeenth, as the international touring car drivers had a less successful race two. Giovanardi was taken out after contact with the other green car of Jacques Villeneuve early on, and the Castrol Racing car of Greg Murphy and WTCC points leader Yvan Muller finished 15th after Webb spun the car late in the race, for which the DJR driver copped a drive through penalty.

Gianni Morbidelli, who for a time held his own in the top ten on an alternate strategy, finished 14th with co-driver Dean Fiore in the Triple F Ford Falcon.

Andy Priaulx, who was running strongly upfront for the earlier part of the race, finished tenth with Craig Lowndes, with the Triple Eight Commodore struggling for pace in the final part of the race.

Courtney maintains his lead in the championship by 71 points from Whincup, with Lowndes 266 down on the Ford driver, with the next race in three weeks at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.