Lowndes and Luff take inaugural Pirtek Enduro Cup title

Triple Eight Race Engineering claimed the top two positions in the inaugural Pirtek Enduro Cup of V8 Supercars with duo Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff claiming the title despite finishing eighth in the final Gold Coast race.
“The PIRTEK Enduro Cup really is a Championship within a Championship and it was fantastic to win this inaugural version with Warren,” said Lowndes.

“I think the concept from the Queensland artist that created the trophy is a unique one, which makes it a little more valuable.”

Team-mate Jamie Whincup with co-driver Paul Dumbrell claimed second position ahead of Ford Performance Racing duo and Bathurst 1000 winners Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards.

Ford duo Will Davison and Steve Owen claimed fourth in the standings ahead of the ever improving Erebus Mercedes duo of Lee Holdsworth and Craig Baird.

While the Pirtek Enduro Cup is over, the fight rages on for the overall V8 Supercars title with two race weekends left of the season. Lowndes has taken over the championship lead, a mere six points ahead of team mate Whincup.
“It’s the best shot that I’ve had in a long time at the championship,” said Lowndes.

“We lost a few spots there somewhere. The car was reasonable, it was really just a matter of who wanted to jump the kerbs the most. I wasn’t prepared to jump as much kerb as most other people. The more risk you take, the faster you go, all in all though we came away with some good points so looking forward to Phillip Island in a month’s time,” said Whincup.

Closest to the Holden duo in the standings is leading Ford driver Winterbottom who has dropped back to 88 points behind Lowndes.
“It was a tough day for car five. Richo had some damage in the rear to a couple of components and the crew did a good job to fix it, but we lost two laps so the race became a salvage operation. The great thing about this team is that even when one car has a bad day someone else can get a good result. We leave here 88 points down and while we hoped it wouldve been better we are still well in contention so will keep fighting to the end,” said Winterbottom.

The next round of the V8 Supercars is at Phillip Island 23 – 24 November.

Final standings Pirtek Enduro Cup