Craig Lowndes wins, title goes to the wire
Craig Lowndes battled against the odds to take victory in race one in Sydney, whilst trouble for Triple Eight team-mate Jamie Whincup sees his Championship lead more than halved ahead of tomorrow’s finale.
Lowndes looked set for a tough day, struggling in the top ten shootout and lining up tenth on the grid, whilst Whincup was on target to wrap-up his third title early; fastest in qualifying and fifth in the shootout, starting behind polesitter Will Davison, Lee Holdsworth, Mark Winterbottom and Shane van Gisbergen for Race 27 of the Championship.
Will Davison, with his third pole of the year in the Ford Performance Racing Falcon FG, fended off Holdsworth’s Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden at the start, but slipped behind Holdsworth and his FPR team-mate Mark Winterbottom on the tenth lap before crashing out, which brought out the first safety car of the day.
This opened up the race to alternate strategies, with Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup amongst those opting to pit on lap 12.
James Moffat was one of the others who pitted under the first safety car, but he was soon hit with a drive-through penalty from the stewards for an unsafe pit release by the Dick Johnson Racing team. Moffat came back to eventually finish in eighth place.
Craig Lowndes was slowly picking his way up through the top ten, having not stopped at the first safety car before the second safety car was called on lap 25, for Championship leader Jamie Whincup hitting the wall at Turn 5.
Whincup recovered to the pits for repairs, and rejoined four laps down – going on to be classified in 20th place, picking up 45 points as a result.
With the scramble for the pits under the second safety car, Russell Ingall emerged as the unlikely leader in the Paul Morris Motorsport Holden, with Steve Johnson’s DJR Falcon second and Greg Murphy third in the Kelly Racing Holden.
At the restart, Mark Winterbottom passed ‘net’ leader Lee Holdsworth for fourth, but then spun Greg Murphy out of third on lap 32, which earned the FPR driver a drive through penalty.
After Ingall and Johnson pitted, Michael Caruso was now in the lead in the #34 Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden, with Rick Kelly now in second ahead of Craig Lowndes, but with Lowndes soon passing Kelly on lap 42.
The third and final safety car was on lap 46 as Jason Bright, returning to the Championship after missing the last two races, stopped at the chicane in his Brad Jones Racing Holden.
At the final restart, Caruso was hounded by Lowndes for ten laps, before the Triple Eight driver took the lead on lap 61 and started to break away.
The race became a fuel saving race, with Rick Kelly falling out of third and pitting with two laps to go. Michael Caruso ran out of fuel on the final lap and lost two spots to Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and Stone Brothers Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen, but still managed to cross the line for fourth.
Lowndes, also conserving fuel, just held off Tander to take the win by less than a second, and took the maximum 150 points for the win and close in the standings to just 83 points to Jamie Whincup.
Mark Winterbottom recovered well from his drive-through to finish fifth, whilst Rick Kelly’s late pit-stop kept him in the top ten, finishing just behind his brother Todd in ninth and tenth spots.
The final race of the 2011 International V8 Supercars season takes place at 15:05 local time on Sunday 4th December, with Triple Eight team-mates Lowndes and Whincup fighting for the title.
