Triple Eight still on top after hour five at Bathurst

The Triple Eight Race Engineering pairing of Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell still lead after five hours of the Bathurst 1000.

It was Dumbrell who led the field into the fifth hour of the race. They were three wide up Mountain Straight on lap 104 as Rick Kelly overtook both Craig Baird and Dale Wood. Safety car number five of the race was called one lap later for the recovery of the Brad Jones Racing Commodore of Andrew Jones who made contact with the wall at Murray’s Corner. Most of the field took advantage of the safety car period to pit.

After a driver change in the pits Jamie Whincup led the field away on the restart on lap 109. However only a handful of laps later the field found themselves behind the safety car again after another of the Brad Jones Racing Commodores also had an off at Murray’s Corner, with David Besnard behind the wheel. Whincup led the field away on the restart on lap 115 ahead of the Ford Performance Racing Falcon of David Reynolds and the Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney.

With less than 50 laps to go the margin between the top ten runners tightened during the fifth hour, with only 2.5s between positions one to three. As well as worrying about their competition, drivers also had to focus on fuel conservation ahead of the final fuel stops.

After five hours of racing on the 6.2km circuit Whincup still leads from Reynolds and Courtney. Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Michael Caruso is in fourth and Mark Winterbottom is in fifth for Ford Performance Racing.