Jamie Whincup bounces back for eleventh Townsville win
Jamie Whincup has further stamped his authority as the king of Townsville as the Triple Eight driver racked up win 11 around the Far North Queensland circuit, leading from pole to the finish.
The seven-time series champion put in a classic, calculated drive to take win number 121 of his career off the back of a tough weekend in Darwin where he lost ground to championship rival, Scott McLaughlin.
It was McLaughlin who suffered woes in qualifying, the DJR Team Penske driver making a mistake on his quick lap which saw him only manage 16th for the start of the 39 lap race while championship rival Whincup secured pole position in the Top 15 Shootout.
Whincup converted perfectly off the start line to beat the hard-charging Chaz Mostert to the first corner as the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver flew past the Erebus Motorsport car of David Reynolds off the line.
In the run to the Turn 2 hairpin, contact between Anton de Pasquale and Shane van Gisbergen caused a concertina effect, resulting in the Triple Eight car suffering damage as well as both Kelly Racing machines amongst the smashed metal.
McLaughlin was able to thread his way through the carnage to end up eighth after starting 16th, being positioned behind Lee Holdsworth’s Tickford Racing entry where he stayed through the round of pit stops.
Out front, Whincup controlled the race, having covered the undercut of Mostert with some fast laps as Cam Waters took the lead for Tickford, going long in his first stint to have fresh tyre life at the end of the race.
The strategy for Waters paid off, dropping to fourth as he came out from his pit stop but picking off Reynolds and Mostert to take second with daylight to Whincup in front.
Further back, the two Team 18 cars of Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom struggled late in the race, Pye dropping from as high as sixth to fighting with the Team Sydney car of Chris Pither and de Pasquale’s Erebus to stay in the top ten, only just managing to do so on the run to the line.
Whincup managed to pull out nearly seven seconds over Waters by the time the chequered flag came out, controlling the 39 laps as Mostert made another appearance on the podium.
A hard-charging Fabian Coulthard was able to wrestle fourth place off David Reynolds, coming home as the quickest DJR Team Penske car as McLaughlin finished seventh, just behind the Tickford car of James Courtney.
Bryce Fullwood finished strong to make it a double-Top 10 for the WAU cars in eighth, well clear of the defensive Pye and aggressive de Pasquale who was able to bounce back after being spun on the first lap.
Last to be classified was van Gisbergen, nearly 10 laps down on his winning team-mate after the opening lap contact, all but ruling the 2016 series champion and bridesmaid for the past two years out of this year’s championship challenge.
