Craig Lowndnes wins first race at Homebush finale

Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Craig Lowndes has won the penultimate race of the 2012 V8 Supercars season in a fuel economy race at the Sydney Olympic Park circuit.

Stone Brothers Racing driver Tim Slade had claimed pole position in the top ten shootout, whilst team-mate Lee Holdsworth was unable to take part on the installation lap due to a broken gearbox shaft, and was pushed into the pit lane.

The race became even worse for SBR, as Shane van Gisbergen, in his final weekend in the Championship, and Tony D’Alberto made contact on the first lap. Van Gisbergen then hit the medical car as he tried to rejoin, but was forced to retire whilst the medical car came into the pits with damage to the right-front corner.

Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison had nipped past Tim Slade at the start, whilst the safety car held the field until lap four, when the race was restarted, with Tony D’Alberto given a drive-through penalty for the incident with van Gisbergen on the opening lap.

Steven Johnson brought out the second safety car of the day on lap six, stopping his Dick Johnson Racing Falcon with an electrical problem just past Turn 4 whilst he was running in a strong third position.

The race started again on lap ten, with Davison eking out a small lead from Slade’s Ford in the 49 degree heat during the next phase of the race. On lap 19 the safety car was out again as David Wall and Tony D’Alberto came together, which saw almost everyone dive into the pit lane.

FPR’s Mark Winterbottom, DJR’s Dean Fiore and Tekno Autosport’s Michael Patrizi opted not to stop, with Patrizi having made his first stop earlier on, and moved to the front of the order, with Davison rejoining fourth on the road.

The race restarted on lap 22 and the officials handed down another drive-through penalty for Tony D’Alberto for the incident with David Wall, which happened at the same place as his collision with Shane van Gisbergen on the opening lap.

On lap 27 the race fell apart for Davison, pitting and retiring with broken steering, whilst Russell Ingall in the Walkinshaw Racing Holden and Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney had a coming together at Turn 10, both suffering damage but able to continue.

Winterbottom pitted at the end of lap 28, which handed the lead to Tim Slade in the SBR Falcon. Slade led at this point ahead of Triple Eight’s Jamie Whincup, with Alexandre Prémat in third in the Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden and James Courtney in fourth in the HRT car, despite heavy damage.

Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes was now moving up the order, passing Jason Bright’s Brad Jones Racing Holden for fifth on lap 34 and then Prémat’s Holden (who’d fallen behind Courtney) for fourth on lap 36.

On lap 44, Jason Bright crashed out at Turn 1 which brought out the safety car again for a fourth time. The majority of the field pitted, and with each team with only one pit box, as usual the teams would be forced to stack behind each other, but Triple Eight strategically served Lowndes before Whincup, with Whincup pulling aside in the pit lane. Whincup’s championship is just a formality at this point, whilst Lowndes is battling FPR’s Mark Winterbottom for second in the standings.

Lowndes joins the race in third place whilst Whincup’s sacrifice saw him drop down the order to 11th.

The race restarted again on lap 47, with Michael Caruso leading the field in the #34 GRM Holden, who’d decided not to pit behind the safety car, and with Tim Slade in second place with Lowndes behind in third.

Caruso pitted just one lap after the safety car had come in, handing the lead back to Slade, with the two Holdens of Lowndes and Courtney in pursuit.

Fuel economy was now in play, as the lead trio tried to battle it out at the front but also ensure they could make it to the end of the race, having to get 30 laps out of the tank.

Alexandre Prémat’s strong race came to an end on lap 59. The French driver pitted with what was apparently heat exhaustion in the blistering conditions.

On lap 62, Slade made a mistake at Turn 9 and fell back to third position behind Lowndes and Courtney.

Eight laps later, Slade was able to get back ahead of Courtney for second at Turn 9, as the HRT driver backed off in order to ensure he made the finish on fuel.

With some of the slowest final laps in the Championship’s history, Craig Lowndes coasted to his seventh win of the season, and moves up into second place in the standings, just three points ahead of Mark Winterbottom who finished in ninth.

Tim Slade took his best result of the season with second for Stone Brothers Racing, it was also the best result of the year for HRT’s James Courtney, and was his first podium since the Yas Marina race at the start of 2011.

Jonathon Webb finished fourth for Tekno Autosports, with Jamie Whincup recovering after stacking in the pits behind his team-mate to fifth. Rick Kelly was sixth for Kelly Racing in their last weekend with Holden, with team-mate Karl Reindler seventh in the sister Holden Commodore in his last meeting for the team.

James Moffat was eighth for DJR, with Mark Winterbottom ninth and Michael Caruso tenth, both benefitting from pitting later in the race to ensure they made the finish.

The 30th and final race of the 2012 V8 Supercars season takes place on Sunday at 3pm AEST.