Jamie Whincup wins as Shane van Gisbergen claims championship lead
Jamie Whincup won the final Supercars championship race of the weekend at the Tailem Bend circuit, leading a Triple Eight Race Engineering 1-2 with team-mate Shane van Gisbergen claiming the championship lead from Scott McLaughlin who had a struggling weekend.
Whincup started the race from pole position and kept control over the race until the chequered flag.
Van Gisbergen meanwhile lost a position to Brad Jones Racing driver Tim Slade at the start, a position he regained not long after.
One incident in a rather calm race came when Nissan Motorsport driver Andre Heimgartner crashed into the back of Holden driver Garth Tander when entering the pits, with the Nissan driver retiring and Tander continuing the race with a severely damaged rear end of the car.
Whincup won the race in style, crossing the finishing line eleven seconds ahead of team-mate van Gisbergen and 13 seconds ahead of Erebus Motorsport driver David Reynolds who completed the podium.
Slade, who briefly got past van Gisbergen at the start of the race, finished fourth ahead of his team-mate Nick Percat.
Scott Pye claimed sixth for Walkinshaw Andretti United while 23Red Racing driver Will Davison claimed seventh as the top Ford driver and Craig Lowndes rounded off the top eight.
Former championship leader McLaughlin had a terrible race, starting tenth and finishing tenth. The result has brought van Gisbergen into a 19-point lead over the DJR Team Penske driver ahead of the final five race weekends.
The next race marks the start of the endurance races with the Sandown 500 on September 16th.
