Back in 2009 the third round of the V8 Supercar Championship was at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria. This was straight after the Hamilton 400 street race in NZ. Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes were driving Fords for Team Vodafone in that year. Whincup had won the previous four races heading into the Winton round and was to go on and win the title from Holden drivers Will Davison and Garth Tander, but not without a few hiccups on the way. Here’s Ian Hepenstall’s review of the third round from Winton…..
Lowndes triumphs, Whincup vulnerable in V8 Supercars?
The pressure is on V8 Supercar Championship Series leader Jamie Whincup after his seemingly invincible armor was dented at Winton Motor Raceway in regional Victoria in the third round of the V8 Supercar Championship today.
For the second day running Whincup was not on the first step of the podium and in fact finished a midfield 13th today giving the chasers hope of bridging a gap that is 114 points to second (Will Davison) and 300 points to sixth (Garth Tander).
It was a pit lane mistake that appeared to push Whincup down the pack. He got stuck behind his team-mate Craig Lowndes, who went on to win today’s race, in pit lane after some uncharacteristic errors from the team.
Lowndes went on to triumph after gambling on using the new Dunlop Sport Maxx Sprint tyre on consecutive days. That earnt him the win from Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and Toll Holden Racing Team’s Tander. Lowndes also won Saturday’s race from Whincup and kiwi Steven Richards (FPR).
Saturday was a strong day for New Zealand drivers with Richards third, Shane Van Gisbergen (Stone Brothers Ford) sixth, Jason Richards (Team BOC Holden) 13th, Fabian Coulthard (Wilson Security Ford) 15th and Greg Murphy (Sprint Gas Holden) 22nd.
It was a tougher in Winton today with Van Gisbergen the best of the kiwis in 12th with Steven Richards 16th, Murphy 20th, Jason Richards 26th while Coulthard did not finish.
Lowndes’ decision to run the soft tyre option again, they were one of only a couple of teams to do so, helped him get a sufficient lead to hang on for victory.
“We had a good think about it last night and sat down to think whether we could get another 15 or 20 laps out of the tyre,” he said. “We’ve learnt a lot. We re-used the tyre for a second time and it worked here. We have to take that on board as we go to different tracks.”
Tander and Winterbottom maintained that Whincup was vulnerable with 20 races still left in the season.
“You’ve only got to have a few more races like today and all of a sudden everybody has had a few bad races. It’s still up to us to take race wins off them and that’s the goal,” Tander said, adding the soft tyre should be used “everywhere”.
Winterbottom agreed: “It’s nice you can get some points back. It’s going to be very hard to pull the lead back though.”
Whincup lamented the result as one of the worst showings in recent memory.
“That was the worst race I have done for a long time,” said a bitterly disappointed Whincup. “It has upset our momentum and has cost me some valuable points. Thankfully there is still a long way to go in this Championship.”
Lowndes again surprised the field when he came out of pit lane for the second race on the same yellow tyres he finished on yesterday. His was the only car that used the soft tyre at length in the previous race and then came out on the same the next day.
Within three laps Lowndes passed the field and his team-mate Whincup. Hot on his tail was Autobarn Racing’s Paul Dumbrell who started on the soft tyres in fifth and was quickly into second behind Lowndes.
Sprint Gas Racing’s Greg Murphy went from 20th to ninth within five laps. Likewise Jim Beam Racing’s Steve Johnson went from 18th to sixth in six laps.
Dumbrell passed Lowndes on lap eight to take the lead after the pair pulled a massive gap on the rest of the field. The rest was down to strategy and luck that there was no safety car before they changed tyres to ruin the advantage they had built.
The safety car came but Dumbrell still had advantage as he had pitted when many others didn’t. But Dumbrell faded late in the race and was hauled in by Lowndes, Winterbottom and Tander.
Whincup was again the man in Armor All qualifying, the 20 minute Sunday dash to set the grid for the afternoon race. He sat on Armor All pole ahead of Winterbottom, Lowndes and Tander who fought back from yesterday when he suffered from accidents out of his control.
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