2/12/12 – Telstra 500, Homebush Bay, Sydney: WILL Davison was successful at bringing home the highly coveted win that Ford were looking for to mark the completion of the current era of V8 Supercars !
It was a dominant win as Davison had qualified in pole on Saturday, started the race in second and then led the race pretty much from the beginning after an early battle with Garth Tander for first place. It seemed an easy ride for the veteran who won this 30th race of the year with – in V8 Supercar terms – a whopping lead of 2 seconds !
“This is magic,” said Davison from the podium, “.. particularly here at Homebush. I’ve led the last four years here and had disastrous results, but to win here now, it’s such a grueling event and its great to go into the off season with our eighth win of the year.”
“It’s great for all the Ford fans to go into the off season with a great win. Everyone at the team deserves this.”
Not wrong, and the capacity crowd provided much applause to cheer him to the end of what was a relatively clean race. Only 2 safety car entries in 74 laps and the final 65 were un-interrupted.
So Davison gave Ford what they had asked for, but it was Craig Lowndes who also delivered for the Red team with the second place on podium which gave him second also in the championship.
On podium third, James Courtney ended his challenging season on a high note.
“What a way to finish the championship!” said Lowndes.
“We had a great battle with Will and James, and to get second in the championship we had to put our best foot forward.”
“All in all I’m happy the season’s over, I’m sad to say goodbye to Vodafone and I’m looking forward to next year.”
With the title of ‘best of the rest’ (ie the first non-TeamVodafone or Ford Performance Racing team entrant to head home ), Tim Slade came in at fourth place for the race and fifth in the championship.
Jamie Whincup ended his championship season in fifth.
The remaining Top 10 consisted of Jonathon Webb, David Reynolds, Steve Owen, Jason Bright and Steven Richards.
Pole-sitter Garth Tander finished in 16th spot after being forced to pit with tyre issues.
Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom recovered from an opening lap incident with James Moffat on turn #1, to drive back through the field, only to suffer a similar puncture to Tander, and finish in 18th spot.
It was a disappointing sendoff for Shane van Gisbergen’s final race in V8 Supercars for the foreseeable future; the #9 SP Tools Falcon suffering from clutch problems early in the race and failing to finish.
Equally disappointing no doubt for Greg Murphy who’s fastest lap was also his last after he hit the wall in the 5th lap and posted a DNF. That’s him in our gallery walking off the track for a short cut to pits through the crowd.
A total of 22 cars did however finish the day’s race.
All Teams and drivers will now take a well-earned break before the 2013 season, and the debut of Ford’s Car of the Future, commences at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide in February 2013.
Click here for full results of the day.
Please enjoy the gallery below which covered the final race, various events and entertainment on Sunday.
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Congrats Lowndsie. I used to be so hoping we were likely to pull it off, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
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