| Jamie Whincup celebrated a very sweet victory at the Falken Tasmania Challenge at Symmons Plains on Sunday, with his 5th victory of the V8 Supercar Champion season. This now brings his tally of points to 96.
This came at a very opportune time after a very disappointing run for champion Craig Lowndes who was set back in the grid after continued runs into the sand traps during lead-up events and shot out. It was however, and action packed 84 lap race for the Team Vodafone driver, with many safety car periods as car after car came to grief. Whincup completed the required 84 laps in 1 Hr, 22 minutes 7.8219 seconds, putting him ahead of Toll Holden Racing Team’s Will Davison, who finished second in a time of 1:22:08.2613. “We put in a great team performance”, Said Whincup, ” .. strategy plays a major part and once again our guys got more right than wrong.” “I am absolutely stoked to win at Tasmania for the third year in a row.” Fabian Coulthard (1:22:08.4376) of Wilson Security Racing was third and the 129 points he picked up put him ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen. Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom finished the race in fourth with a time of 1:22:11.4237, which would have been for him, more than a little dissapointing as he was in a commanding position until a tangle with Greg Murphy on lap 53 cost him around 20 seconds. “I was just unlucky to get caught up with ‘Murph’. I passed him and instead of just slotting in behind me he’s tried to re-pass, hit me in the rear, straightened me up and pushed me into the wall; I think he just messed up,” Winterbottom said. “I thought I was racing for position. I didn’t know I had that big a gap to Jamie (Whincup). I was pushing because I didn’t want to get stuck behind people.” “Early on I knew I was doing good times. The team gave me a target and I was consistently under that. I flat-spotted a tyre early on when I put the hard tyres on and I was pretty much just hanging on from there.” Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Lee Holdsworth (1:22:12.2661) rounded out the top five and, in doing so, moved into fourth on the standings. Russell Ingall (1:22:15.6348) of Supercheap Auto Racing finished sixth, and he was followed by Fujitsu Racing driver Jason Bright (1:22:16.7048), Sprint Gas Racing’s Jason Bargwanna (1:22:17.3259), Ingall’s team-mate Tim Slade (1:22:17.5383) and Michael Patrizi ensured Wilson Security Racing had two cars in the top 10 when he crossed the line a time of 1:22:17.8549. |
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