Whincup leads Triple Eight 1-2 at Barbagallo

Jamie Whincup won the first of three races as the V8 Supercars series returnes to Western Australia after a one year break, leading a Triple Eight Race Engineering 1-2 with team-mate Craig Lowndes in tow.

Whincup had secured pole from Ford Performance Racing driver Will Davison, and went on take the chequered flag less than a second ahead of Craig Lowndes in the 50 lap race.

“It’s a perfect day here in Perth and it’s a great feeling to get this win,” said Whincup.

“We let everything slip in New Zealand, but we’ve worked hard and come back strong today.”

“Lowndes was coming at me hard at the end there, his car must have been better on its tyres. With the soft tyre tomorrow we may as well forget about today though!”

Davison had secured the front row in his FPR Ford Falcon, but fell behind Lowndes to finish third, but the 28-year-old was still delighted with his podium result.

“It’s awesome, it’s been a year and half since my last podium!” said Davison.

“I’ve been saying all along that I’d love to get my first podium for the team at the Trading Post Perth Challenge, and I’m really happy for myself and the FPR team.”

Local driver Karl Reindler also scored his best career result, qualifying in sixth place in the Britek Holden Commodore, and following team boss Jason Bright home to finish in seventh place.

“I have to qualify up there more often! It was my best result but probably one of the easiest races I’ve ever had. Up the front, the racing is pretty clean. There was Van Gisbergen and Brighty, who got past me at the end there, but the racing was clean.”

“Everyone’s been talking about home advantage and I honestly didn’t think I had one but it seems to be showing at the moment.

“The tyres were barely holding on in the end but we made it through for the best result of the season and being in front of my home crowd makes it ten times better!”

Races two and three of the weekend take place tomorrow.