Winterbottom and Lyons victorious at Surfers Paradise

The Ford Performance Racing duo of Mark Winterbottom and last minute stand-in Richard Lyons have taken victory in the second race at the Gold Coast 600, snatching victory from Jamie Whincup in the final laps.

The start was more frenetic than yesterday’s, with every team except for Triple F Racing opting to run their international driver at the start. Ryan Briscoe bogged down in the No.2 Holden Racing Team Commodore from second on the grid as the lights went out, which gave Sébastien Bourdais a clean getaway, but it was Andy Priaulx in the second Triple Eight Commodore who had the best start, passing the two FPR Falcons to move into second behind his team-mate.

The safety car was called on the first lap after Christian Klien was spun out in the No.55 Rod Nash Racing Ford by Jan Magnussen in the Paul Morris Motorsports car. Darren Turner also clipped the stray 55 car as he went past and the recovery vehicle was needed to reclaim Klien’s car.

The green flag was waved on lap five whilst Magnussen was called in for a drive through penalty. Briscoe was quick to start the recovery drive after his bad start passing Boris Said in the No.49 Paul Morris Motorsports Holden for sixth, but Said would cause controversy, straightlining the second chicane on countless occassions to maintain track position from Simon Pagenaud.

Eventually the stewards gave Said a warning, and shortly after Pagenaud, Marc Lieb and Patrick Long were able to pass the US racing veteran.

Ryan Briscoe and Garth Tander’s race effectively ended on lap 12 with a broken rear-axle on the No.2 HRT Commodore, falling out of fifth place.

On lap 14, Augusto Farfus was spun around by Richard Westbrook, the first of two hits the Brazilian BMW regular took. Westbrook, in the No.7 Kelly Racing Holden was also given a drive through for the incident.

Around 20 laps into the race, many drivers started to receive drive through penalties for exceeding the number of kerb hops they were allowed at the second chicane – which was seven with resets twice in the race. Amongst those punished were Fabrizio Giovanardi, who was penalised twice, as well as Dean Fiore, Allen Simonsen and Darren Turner, though the Holden Racing Team contested the call on Turner. The stewards still decided a penalty was in order, though shortly afterwards the sensor was deactivated as it was deemed to be malfunctioning.

Mika Salo lost ground in the No.6 FPR Falcon after picking up a puncture whilst running in fourth just one lap before the pit window opened to complete his minimum distance, which forced the No.6 car onto an alternate strategy.

Bourdais was the first of the two Triple Eight drivers to pit when the pit window did open, but Priaulx pitting one lap later gave the No.888 car the advantage coming out of the pits with Lowndes onboard. With cold tyres though, Lowndes was unable to fend off Whincup who passed him for the lead almost immediately.

The second safety car was called for debris, left by an incident when Augusto Farfus was again knocked into the wall in the No.34 Garry Rogers Motorsport car, this time by Steve Owen in the No.49 Holden. Owen was later served with a penalty for the move.

The final safety car was on lap 54, after Gianni Morbidelli, the only international driver on the track at this point, was spun by Tony D’Alberto. Morbidelli was facing the wrong way down the track but was told by a marshal to loop around, without checking that Jason Bright’s Brad Jones Racing Commodore was coming around the corner and the two made contact whilst Morbidelli was heading the wrong way around the circuit. Although the contact was thankfully light, both cars were out of the race.

This safety car was perfectly within the pit window for a final fuel stop which was terrible news for Craig Lowndes who would have to queue behind his team-mate in the pits, dropping him from second to 12th. Lowndes would later lose out even more, stopping for tyres and dropping to 20th place.

Jason Bargwanna in the No.14 Brad Jones Racing entry lead briefly at the restart with Will Davison’s FPR Falcon behind, the two now off sequence from the rest. Whincup was third and was effectively race leader. Davison wasted no time in passing Bargwanna and tried to build a lead, but after pitting would only be able to finish 14th.

Whincup was under threat from Winterbottom throughout the remainder of the race, finally being passed on lap 94 and heading onto take victory with Whincup finishing second.

Whincup’s second place with Lowndes down in 20th sees the two-time Champion leave the Gold Coast with a 143 point lead on Lowndes heading to the next race in Tasmania.