Aussie V8 Supercars 2012 Season

[twomanymontes]

Why not start a new thread for these guys as well?

Nissans back!!!

Nissan on Thursday revealed that it will return to Australia's V8 Supercars Championship in 2013 after a 20-year hiatus.


The Japanese automaker last competed in the series in 1992, winning the championship for the third consecutive season, as well as the famous Bathurst 1000. In total, Nissan won 28 races during the 1980s and early 1990s. But a rules change beginning in the 1993 season outlawing turbocharged cars made the Nissan Skyline GT-R models ineligible and forced Nissan to exit the series, leaving Supercars' present-day manufacturers, Ford and Holden, to duke it out.


Nissan will join the series in 2013 when the new Car of the Future rules are put into practice. The new rules call for a spec chassis and other components to help control the cost. But the series says each car will be identified distinctly as a Ford, a Holden or a Nissan and will closely resemble their road-car counterparts. The new rules are intended to make it easier for manufacturers to join the V8 Supercars Championship.


“Nissan believes that, alongside Ford and Holden, we possess the most convincing motorsport DNA and track history in Australia, making a V8 Supercars Championship debut in 2013 an obvious initiative,” CEO and managing director of Nissan Australia Dan Thompson told V8supercars.com. “We are targeting No. 1 importer status in Australia and already making progress towards that as one of the country's fastest-growing brands. V8 Supercars will boost that momentum.”


V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane added, “We welcome Nissan with more than open arms. This announcement ratifies all we have known about V8 Supercars for a long time—that we are an international player, a growing following globally and in great demand by big business and corporate players.”


Kelly Racing will be Nissan's factory team and will have the full support of the Nismo Nissan Motorsport organization. The team will run four cars, two of which will be driven by co-owners Todd and Rick Kelly.


“I couldn't be more excited with the opportunity Nissan has offered Todd, myself and the entire team at Kelly Racing to become their official factory team,” Rick Kelly said. “Nissan's genuine enthusiasm, unwavering support and absolute professionalism through this evaluation has been tremendous and underpins their absolute intentions of championship success in the category—a dream we share and hope to deliver on.”

Nissan will announce its car and engine package at a later date.

[85t5mcss]

What? Nissan? Kelly Racing? All I can say is WOW! Didn't see that coming. I figured BMW would be there long before an Asian company.

[twomanymontes]

I was talking to my aussie brother in law, he said that Nissan dominated back in the 80's and early 90's. So it's not a surprise that they came back. As for BMW, I agree, They seem to be involved with almost all the series of road race motor sports.

[twomanymontes]

Replay of Round 1 at Adelaide will be aired Sunday at 3:30 on SPEED.

[85t5mcss]

Crap, not sure if I'll be home or not. Maybe I need to rearrange my schedule for the day.

[twomanymontes]

Yeah I have a lot of work to do in the morning, But I'llbe flipping chanels between the Las Vegas race and the Aussies.

[twomanymontes]

JAMIE Whincup has snatched a last-lap win in the opening race of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide from Ford's Will Davison.

The Tradingpost Falcon driver had tried to make it to the finish of the race without pitting again, though half a lap from home found himself unable to hold off Whincup, who had continually smashed the lap record in his pursuit of the leader.

For Whincup it was a win in the toughest week of his life after the passing of his father David last Sunday.

"I didn't think I was going to win but by far it was my best win today," said Whincup.

"I was a bit underdone coming into the race, I went out there and just gave it everything I had. It went quick in a way, I was so focused on fighting down the FPR cars."

Davison managed to make it home for second, while Garth Tander rounded out the podium in third after electing to pit late and refuel to make sure he made it home.

A punctured tyre delayed Craig Lowndes but he pushed on to finish fourth while the top 10 was made up of Lee Holdsworth, Fabian Coulthard, Rick Kelly, Todd Kelly, Mark Winterbottom (who elected to pit for fuel with just laps to go) and Steven Johnson.

There were 17 cars on the lead lap at the end of the 78 laps, however there are four teams who have damaged cars.

The high-speed turn eight claimed James Courtney, Taz Douglas, Jason Bright and David Reynolds.

All four have damaged cars and their participation in tomorrow's second race remains up in the air. The good news is that all four were OK, though Bright did go to hospital for a precautionary X-ray on his shoulder.

24 cars finished the race with another 78 laps to be run tomorrow to round out the 14th Clipsal 500.


Here's how our lap-by-lap commentary unfolded of today's race ..

Hi everyone, welcome to the streets of Adelaide and our lap-by-lap live updates from the first race of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship at the Clipsal 500.

We're ready and pumped for the 78-lap Race 1 with 28 drivers keen and eager to get racing this afternoon.

We're hearing reports that there may be rain hitting the circuit around 3.00pm local time (3.30pm AEDT). So hang onto your hats, this could get really good!

Expect drivers to be able to complete 27 laps per tank of fuel .. the magic number to get to is 52 (if it's dry) to make it home without needing to pit again for fuel.

Note all times quoted today are local time, 30 minutes behind Australian Daylight Saving Time.

2.22pm - Great sight on the grid, cars and stars ready to race. Lowndes and Tander to square off from the front row of the grid.

2.24pm - Lots of drivers out of their cars taking a drink - keeping the fluids up before a hot day at the office is highly important.

2.29pm - Grid being cleared ... the start of a new season is not far away ...

2.32pm - Only team personnel left on the grid with the cars. Now the siren sounds to start clearing everyone away.

2.34pm - 1 minute to go before the cars leave the grid on the warm up lap.

2.35pm - Formation lap begins and the cars roll away. Getting giddy, season 2012 is just about to fire up!

Start/Lap 1 - Bright and Premat start from pit lane.
Away we go! Clipsal is away and Tander leads into the chicane ... Lowndes next from Davison, Whincup, Winterbottom, Reynolds, Slade, Webb, who had a bad start.

End Lap 1 - 2, 888, 6, 1, 5, 55, 47, 19, 14, 9, 7, 15, 3, 4, 34, 49, 66, 17, 30, 22, 18, 12, 51, 21, 11, 8, 33, 91.

Lap 2 - Whincup lunges Davison for third at turn 9.

Lap 3 - Remember the kerb hop rule .. bad sportsmanship flag after 3 hops and pit lane penalty on the fourth.

Lap 4 - Whincup just ran the fastest lap of the race last time around, 1m23.1852s on lap 3.
Now he's all over the back of teammate Lowndes for second spot!

Lap 5 - No change at the front - tight fight between the top eight, the last of those being Slade in eighth and fastest to the first sector.
Big crash .... Douglas in the fence at turn 8 with Courtney and Bright, Safety Car is out. It's a big crash, lots of damage to those three cars.
Courtney reports to his team that he thinks something broke in the rear and pitched him into the fence. Looks like Bright slid on the fluid left behind from the HRT Commodore.

Lap 6 - Race slowed to a walk, all drivers are out and OK. Order is 2, 888, 1, 6, 5, 55.

Lap 7 - Fiore, Patrizi and Reindler all pit to top up on fuel.

Lap 8 - Wall and Reindler top up on fuel down the back of the pack.

Lap 10 - Restart and it's Tander leading away from Lowndes, Whincup, Davison, Winterbottom, Reynolds, Webb, Slade, Coulthard and van Gisbergen.

Lap 11 - Lowndes lunges Tander at turn 7 - he takes the lead! Now they go side-by-side to turn 8 and it's on! Davison lunges Whincup and gets third - Reynolds gets Winterbottom - it's going off!

Lap 12 - 888, 2, 6, 1, 55, 5, 47, 19, 14, 7.

Lap 13 - Rick and Todd Kelly getting stuck into it .. Rick past Todd for 10th spot.
Tander new fastest lap, 1m22.6980s, 0.67s to leader Lowndes.

Lap 14 - Lowndes responds with new fastest lap - 1m22.6325s .. David Wall is being monitored by Race Control for some fuel coming from it as well.

Lap 15 - Whincup pits. Rear tyres and fuel.

Lap 16 - Reynolds runs wide and drops positions, back to 12th.

Lap 17 - Tander new fastest lap 1m22.5221s.

Lap 18 - 888, 2, 6 - Davison has closed right in on Tander, who rubbed the wall at turn 8.

Lap 19 - Davison gets by Tander at turn 9 for second spot.
New fastest lap from van Gisbergen - 1m22.3283s back in 23rd after pitting a few laps ago.

Lap 20 - Caruso limping with front left tyre punctured.

Lap 21 - 888, 6, 2, 5, 19, 47, 14, 15, 4, 55, 7. Caruso has made it back to the pits ... he's back to 24th and a lap down.

Lap 24 - Davison just took six-tenths off Lowndes, margin now 1.64s. Reynolds pits.

Lap 25 - Winterbottom pits from fourth and behind on the road, Coulthard also comes in.

Lap 26 - Will Davison says he's happy with the tyre pressures ahead of his pit stop.... Lowndes is coming in this lap, Tander too so Davison takes the lead.
Slade in as well as Todd Kelly for their first stops.

Lap 27 - Lowndes rejoins as Whincup flashes past him.
Tander comes back out and instantly is in a fight with Winterbottom and van Gisbergen who have leap frogged him.
Davison fastest lap - 1m22.2784s .. report too of an exposed bolt in the tyre bundle at turn 1.

Lap 28 - Davison punches out another 1m22s lap .. he's coming in the next lap.
Holdsworth pits the IRWIN Ford, his first stop in the hurry flurry of a race in a Falcon!

Lap 29 - Davison pits. Tradingpost crew hook into things and refuel him and they are changing four tyres.

Lap 30 - Whincup back to the lead, Davison rejoins second from Lowndes.

Lap 32 - 1, 6, 888, 91 (who pits), 5, 2, 9, 19, 14, 55, 4.

Lap 33 - Whincup by 2.8s over Davison, remember they pitted on different strategies, Whincup came in after 15 laps and only changed rear tyres, Davison came in after 29 and did four tyres.

Lap 34 - Report that Jason Bright is going to get an x-ray on his shoulder from that earlier crash - it sounds like his car is done for the weekend.

Lap 36 - Order is 1, 6, 888, 5, 2, 9, 19, 14, 55, 4. Whincup new fastest lap, 1m22.1053s as Holdsworth lunges Reynolds for ninth. The Bottle-O man needs to be careful, he has three kerb hopes, one more and he'll have to have a pit lane penalty.

Lap 37 - We've settled into something of a rhythm now ... no signs of rain yet.

Lap 39 - 1, 6, 888, 5, 2.

Lap 40 - Whincup pits, Davison now leads again and sets new fastest lap.

Lap 42 - Davison building the margin over Lowndes, it's up to 3.02s. Whincup rejoins back in 11th but instantly is running quick lap times.
Holdsworth got past Coulthard for sixth spot.
Whincup sets new fastest lap on first flyer - 1m21.9731s. Only 0.02s away from James Courtney's 2010 lap record.

Lap 43 - Lowndes runs off down at turn 14 - dumps a pile of time to Davison, Winterbottom closes in on him.

Lap 44 - Order is 6 by 9.33s over 888, 5, 2, 19, 4, 14, 55, 7, 15, 1, who just set fastest second sector.

Lap 45 - Reynolds in the wall at turn 8 - big hit .... Safety Car will come out .... 33 laps to go ....
David admits his error .. it's a big whack. Pit lane lights up, in comes Slade, Coulthard, Ingall, Moffat, Fiore, van Gisbergen - Patrizi.

Lap 46 - Order under Safety Car shuffles as leaders decide to take this pit stop chance - Davison, Lowndes, Winterbottom, Tander, Webb, Holdsworth, T.Kelly - it's going to be tough for them to make it home from here on fuel .... Whincup stayed out.

Lap 49 - Restart with Davison leading R.Kelly, Whincup, Lowndes, Winterbottom, Webb, Tander, Holdsworth, T.Kelly, Coulthard.

Lap 50 - Lowndes wide and Winterbottom gets by him ... Whincup gets past Rick Kelly for second just down the road. Lowndes has a drama .. says it's funny in the rear. He's limping and will come to the lane.

Lap 51 - Davison by 1.45s over Whincup, R.Kelly, Tander, Winterbottom, T.Kelly, Webb, Coulthard, Holdsworth, Johnson. Lowndes pits, 4 tyre change and they send him back into the race after coming in with a flat left rear. He's now 22nd.
Rick Kelly pits from third spot as Whincup closes in on leader Davison.

Lap 52 - Whincup gets by Davison for the lead down at turn nine hairpin. FPR tell Will that was the right thing to do. Remember Jamie definitely has to pit again, the others are all trying to sneak home without stopping again but are probably not quite on target just yet - a Safety Car would be a big help.
Don't forget Lowndes .. he's still on the lead lap in 22nd .. but can go to the end on fuel.

Lap 53 - 1, 6, 2, 5, 7, 19, 14, 4, 17, 18. Owen has a spin and Reindler just misses him too at turn 7!

Lap 56 - Whincup breaks the lap record - 1m21.8369s - he's pushing as hard as he can .. he needs to stop again .. the guys behind are trying to make it home without stopping again ... but J-Dub has to make margin, he's six laps out of step on his last fuel stop with the guys behind.

Lap 58 - 1, 6, 2, 5, 7, 19, 4, 14, 17, 18. Cars with three breaches of kerb hop are Webb, van Gisbergen, Slade and Owen - one more and they will get a pit lane penalty.
Whincup lowers the lap record again, 1m21.8251s.

Lap 60 - Been a great drive from Todd Kelly ... 11th to sixth and pressuring Webb.

Lap 61 - Webb pits after tagging the wall. The team are putting it into the garage.

Lap 62 - Whincup hacks the lap record again - 1m21.7575s .. margin to Davison 10.05s.

Lap 63 - The common consensus is that plenty of teams are now thinking they might just pit and refuel and not gamble on making it to the end on fuel. What a spicy race!

Lap 64 - Tander moves past Davison to second ... the HRT car has picked up the pace .. so they clearly have decided to go for it - and stop again.

Lap 65 - 1, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 14, 17, 18, 3.

Lap 66 - Whincup is coming in from the lead ... pit lane awaits him. van Gisbergen was just in before as well.
Don't forget Lowndes either - he can run to the end .. he's 17th after that puncture early on and if others try to make it home without stopping, he could leapfrog a fair few of them such will be their slow pace.
Whincup comes back out in seventh in front of Ingall.

Lap 67 - D'Alberto and Slade pit - they've decided not to play the fuel game ... playing it safe. FPR reckon they can make it .. but it's tight, tight, tight ....

Lap 68 - Whincup is back out there and flying ... first flyer is 1m21.0507s - absolutely smashed the lap record!!!

Lap 69 - Order is 2, 6, 5, 4, 14, 1, 66, 91, 12, 11.

Lap 70 - This is going off! Tander is going to pit .. then Will Davison and Winterbottom who are trying to make it on fuel ... then Holdsworth, Whincup, Coulthard, Ingall, Patrizi, Fiore, Reindler.

Lap 71 - Whincup is now in a race against himself and the others .. he's flying .. he's 13 seconds off the leader Tander and 10.4s behind Davison ... he can take that time away from here on in .... this is going to be a mega finish.

Lap 72 - Davison just ran a 1m22.8413s .. is that the pace that will get him home on fuel? Heart rate in FPR garage must be going nuts ... they've rolled the dice with both cars and Winterbottom is doing 1m24s ... it's tight!
Tander pits end of the lap ... Davison takes back the lead .... 6 to go .. can he make it on fuel? Or will FPR come unstuck?

Lap 73 - At this rate, Whincup should be able to mow down the two FPR Falcons ... he's ripping time out of Davison and Winterbottom.
Ingall pits from sixth ...

Lap 74 - Whincup gets by Winterbottom at turn 7 now he is chasing Davison. 6.67s to find .. there is time.

Lap 75 - Lowndes is up to seventh spot ... he's ripping up through the order as well.
FPR tell Davison to alert them if he gets the fuel light come on.

Lap 76 - 3 laps to go ... Davison by 4.6s ... Whincup is peddling as hard as he can go ...

Lap 77 - Davison stuck behind lapped car of David Wall .. clears him but cost him some time .. 2 laps to go ... could that small delay be enough to get Whincup to get past him?
Fuel light comes on in Davison car ... they tell him to bring it home ....

Lap 78 - Davison stays out ... one to go .. can he make it? Gripping Clipsal finish .. classic Adelaide end ....
Winterbottom pits - he couldnt make it and hands a podium spot to Tander.
Whincup lunges at turn 8 - Davison coughs and he's limping home ... crushing for FPR .. they tried ... he'll limp home second ...
But Whincup is the Clipsal king and wins the opener of 2012. Holden fans go nuts ... a great win - we're sure his dad Dave would have loved that one .....

Davison makes it home second ... gutsy effort and his car has stopped on the slow down lap .. just after it made it. Wow. He drove a great race ... and just making it to the line was an achievement.

Tander is third, Lowndes got to fourth, Holdsworth fifth then Coulthard, Rick Kelly, Todd Kelly, Winterbottom, Johnson.

A stunning Clipsal 500 opening race .... and we get to come back and do it again tomorrow!

[twomanymontes]

WILL Davison has righted the wrong of yesterday when he ran dry of fuel on the last lap and won the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

The Tradingpost Ford driver was too strong today, leading home Ford Performance Racing's first 1-2 race finish in nearly four years with Mark Winterbottom following him home in second.

"It's my first win in a couple of years and a 1-2 for FPR," said Davison, who took his seventh career V8 Supercar race win.

"I can't tell you how proud I am. We did everything right yesterday but today was unbelievable.

"It's my first win with FPR, it's just great for Tradingpost because it's their first win too.

"It's early days in the championship, we've been talking our car up all along, there are so many great teams out there, it's going to be a fun year."

Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander made it two podium finishes in two days in third place, while Saturday winner Jamie Whincup managed to finish fourth.

The net result is that Davison now leads the V8 Supercars Championship for the first time in his career with 288 points from Tander and Whincup.

Only 13 cars finished on the lead lap in today's 78-lap marathon which, amazingly, went from start to finish without the appearance of a Safety Car.

Craig Lowndes was fifth from Shane van Gisbergen, David Reynolds, Lee Holdsworth, Fabian Coulthard and Tim Slade.

Only 26 cars started the race after Jonathon Webb and Greg Murphy's cars were too badly damaged in a qualifying accident this morning.

Just one car - James Moffat - failed to finish with power steering problems in his Norton Falcon, while James Courtney had a second tailshaft failure and limped home in 25th, 13 laps down.

The V8 Supercars teams will move to Albert Park for the non-championship event at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in a fortnight's time.

The next championship event will be at Symmons Plains in Tasmania on March 30-April 1.

Here's how the race unfolded in our lap-by-lap coverage ...

Hi everyone and welcome to the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide - we're getting ready for Race 2 of the V8 Supercars Championship.

It's a new day with a new grid - a grid reduced to 26 cars with both Greg Murphy and Jonathon Webb out after a major crash in qualifying.

Note: Any times referenced are Central Standard Time (CST), 30 minutes behind Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) in Melbourne, Sydney etc.

2.30pm - The grid is a sea of colour, the sun is out and the countdown to race start is on. Looking forward to this one .. if it's half as good as yesterday it will be a belter!

2.33pm - Vanessa Amorosi performs the National Anthem on the grid ahead of the 78-lapper.

2.35pm - The cars leave the grid .. James Courtney will start from pit lane. Update on his qualifying drama today was a broken tailshaft.
Drivers being reminded to work on developing temperature in brakes and tyres on this formation lap.

Start/Lap 1 - Another Clipsal classic commences! First chicane and it's Tander who leads! Whincup second from Winterbottom, Davison to fourth past Lowndes.
Caruso spins turn four, gets clipped on the way through. He's now 26th and last.
End of lap 1 - 2, 1, 5, 6, 888, 15, 47, 4, 9, 7, 55, 14, 3, 17, 8, 91, 49, 11, 30, 18, 66, 21, 33, 12, 22, 34.

Lap 2 - End of lap and Tander just getting a margin, as Frosty zeroes in on Whincup. Davison fastest on the road that time. The FPR Falcons are strong early.

Lap 3 - Settling into a rhythm now ... Holdsworth new fastest lap, 1m22.6815s and running eighth after a great fifth place yesterday.

Lap 4 - Tander has Whincup right on him now! Douglas up from 23rd to 18th - great start!

Lap 7 - Classic Clipsal stuff - top nine are nose-to-tail! Nothing in it! Tander leads, van Gisbergen ninth ... 4 seconds covers top 9!
Caruso is regularly turning in fastest laps .. he's 26th and last though ... 28.9s off the lead.

Lap 8 - Whincup takes the lead from Tander at turn nine.

Lap 9 - Order at the front, 1, 2, 5, 6, 888. Whincup new fastest lap, 1m22.0430s last time around .. let's see what pace he can create now he has clear air.
Remember the kerb hops too ... do it four times and you're in the lane for a pit lane penalty ... Lowndes already has one .. as does van Gisbergen, Ingall and Douglas.
Whincup runs 1m21.9919s to be fastest on the road but now has one kerb strike.

Lap 10 - Order 1, 2, 5, 6, 888, 15, 47, 4, 9, 55.

Lap 12 - Whincup by 1.08s over Tander.

Lap 15 - No change up front .. Winterbottom now with one kerb strike against his name as he continues the hunt on Tander. Patrizi pitted a lap ago to get out of the traffic too.

Lap 16 - Moffat into the garage in the #18 Team Norton DJR Falcon. Sounds like a power steering problem.

Lap 17 - Order 1, 2, 5, 6, 888, 15, 47, 4, 9, 55.

Lap 18 - 5 drivers in top 10 have 1 kerb strike - Whincup, Lowndes, Winerbottom, van Gisbergen, Reynolds.

Lap 21 - Lowndes pits from fifth spot .. four tyres and fuel.

Lap 22 - Slade pits from seventh in the Lucky 7 Falcon. Looks like they've just changed rear tyres.

Lap 23 - Order is 1, 2, 5, 6, 15, 4, 9, 55, 14, 3. Rick Kelly pits again - Moffat is still in the pits with more dramas with the power steering - and Douglas and Wall both pit also.

Lap 24 - Tander pits from second, van Gisbergen also in the lane, which is a busy place to be! Todd Kelly has a wheel nut drama .. huge delay.

Lap 25 - Whincup pits from the lead. Davison in as well .. Vodafone crew stick four Dunlops on the #1 Holden.

Lap 26 - Winterbottom now takes over lead .. Tander comes steaming down pit lane and slots in behind Davison, though lunges him at turn four to get back in front.
Whincup is now up to two kerb strikes too ... Winterbottom and Holdsworth pit from the front, Reynolds now leader.

Lap 27 - Winterbottom rejoins behind teammate Davison .. Will has got a spot over where he was before the stops started.

Lap 28 - Whincup says he's got a drama in the car and it's sounding strange. He's been on the radio to Mark Dutton for the last few laps talking about it ... Developing story ...

Lap 29 - Order after the stops is 1, 2, 6, 5, 888, 15, 9, 47, 4, 55.

Lap 32 - Whincup by 1.4s over Tander, Davison, Winterbottom - who set new fastest lap on lap 30 - 1m21.8250s.

Lap 33 - 1, 2, 6, 5, 888, 15, 9, 47, 4, 55, 14, 91.

Lap 35 - Whincup by 0.81s over Tander.

Lap 36 - Johnson has lost a lot of time with a fuel rig drama at the last stop .. he's back in 20th. Power steering pump has been changed in Moffat's car, but still no fix to the problem so it's parked for the rest of the day.

Lap 37 - Tander dives Whincup at hairpin but now it slows and Davison gets past and Winterbottom too! Big drama for the champ! He's back to fourth.

Lap 38 - No real update on the Whincup situation .. he's losing time there to the top three now ... lost a second that time around.
Tander kerb hops to get his first strike.

Lap 39 - TeamVodafone say Jamie is talking about a misfire and the engine isn't as economical as it should be. They're going to tread water for a while.

Lap 40 - Davison is right on Tander for the lead. Winterbottom third, Whincup fourth from Lowndes, who is 3.6s behind his teammate.

Lap 42 - Tander by 0.7s over Davison, Winterbottom, Whincup another 2.8s behind. Will lost some time a lap ago when he had a run at turn 9 and locked up when Tander blocked to the inside.

Lap 43 - 2, 6, 5, 1, 888, 15, 9, 47, 4, 55.

Lap 44 - From a pit lane start, Courtney is up to 14th, having just moved by Jason Bright.

Lap 47 - Davison to the lead, Winterbottom follows him through. Tander third, Whincup slipping back to Lowndes.

Lap 48 - Davison by 0.79s over Winterbottom ... then it's Tander, Whincup, Lowndes. Frosty and J-Dub both have two kerb strikes, as does Reynolds in 10th.
Slade in from the top 10 - a very consistent day from the Stones #47 Falcon. He rejoins 14th.

Lap 49 - 6, 5, 2, 1, 888, 15, 9, 4, 55, 14. Lowndes pits end of the lap from fifth. Lowndes should be able to make it home from here judging by his fuel economy so far this race. A small stall exiting the pits.

Lap 50 - Davison by 1.32s, building a margin on Winterbottom. Whincup pits from fourth.

Lap 51 - Davison pits from the lead ... four tyres, fuel and a roll centre change for the #6 Falcon. Tander and van Gisbergen in as well. Will nearly hit the SVG car as it came into its pit bay.

Lap 52 - Winterbottom stays out as leader from Holdsworth and Reynolds, but Orrcon car pits end of the lap and Lee does too. Reynolds also in as is Coulthard so Davison takes back the lead.
Frosty rejoins in front of Tander but there's fluid coming out of the right hand side .. drink bottle overfill? Water brakes overfill more likely .. Tander nearly slipped off on it ... went through the chicane - and got a kerb hop count! He's up to two.

Lap 53 - Davison leads ... Winterbottom, Tander, Whincup, Lowndes next all with 2 kerb strikes .. Will has none.

Lap 54 - David Wall will get a pit lane penalty for 4 kerb hops. He's 19th on the road at the moment.

Lap 55 - Davison has built a 4.43s lead over Winterbottom. Whincup in fourth is 11s off the lead.

Lap 56 - 6, 5, 2, 1, 888, 15, 9, 47, 4, 55.
Courtney is in .. he says the car has broken another tailshaft. A big fat zero for the former champ for the weekend by the looks of things .. ouch.

Lap 57 - Davison by 4.3s over teammate Winterbottom.

Lap 58 - Davison upset about being stuck behind Fiore as he put a lap on him - his margin back to Frosty has dropped to 3.36s.

Lap 59 - Tander has had his kerb hop removed from when Winterbottom dropped water in front of him - he's been reset to one.

Lap 60 - 17 cars left on the lead lap .. last one is Patrizi.

Lap 61 - We just reminded ourselves that Tander and Whincup have won the last nine races here between them. Maybe today is the day for FPR to stop that?

Lap 64 - 6 by 4.24s over 5, 2, 1, 888, 15, 9, 47, 4, 55. No Safety Car for the race at all so far.

Lap 66 - Davison puts Patrizi down a lap last time around, now 15 cars left on the lead lap. Bright is the last of them.

Lap 68 - Davison by 3.35s over teammate Winterbottom. Could they pull off a 1-2 for FPR? By our quick numbers they haven't had a 1-2 race result since 2008 in Darwin when Steve Richards led home Mark Winterbottom in Race 3.

Lap 69 - Courtney rejoins to try and grab a few points .. he's 25th and 13 laps down after tailshaft repairs.
Davison goes by Bright to put him a lap down ... 14 cars left on the lead lap.

Lap 70 - Davison by 2.79s, Winterbottom eating in the margin. Reynolds is all over Holdsworth too for ninth and in front of them Slade - in eighth - is struggling to make it home on fuel.

Lap 71 - Reynolds gets by for ninth.

Lap 72 - Davison by 3.57s to Winterbottom, controlling the margin.
Davison fastest of race to second sector .. now we're seeing what is left in the #6 car.
Builds margin to 3.93s, Holdsworth gets by SBR teammate Slade for ninth.

Lap 74 - 6 by 3.6s over 5, then 2, 1, 888, 9, 15, 55, 4, 47.

Lap 75 - 4 to go .. Will leads by 3.50s ... he hasn't had a race win since Bathurst 2009 - that was a whole 28 months ago!!

Lap 76 - 3 to go .. gap is 3.77s. Winterbottom says on the radio he can't catch Will.

Lap 77 - 2 to go ... can Will Davison break the strangehold of Triple Eight and Walkinshaw Racing on this race event?
Rick Kelly gives away seventh spot after pitting for a splash of fuel. Rejoins back in 11th.

Lap 78 - Last lap, Davison leads by 4.20s and he's on his way home ... so close yesterday .. today he's driven a beautiful race from sixth on the grid.

He wins! Even with a lock up at the last corner .. Will Davison wins the Clipsal 500! A 1-2 for FPR .. stunning stuff! Winterbottom second, Tander again third for HRT on the podium.
Whincup and Lowndes next from van Gisbergen, Reynolds, Holdsworth, Coulthard and Slade.

[85t5mcss]

Missed it all. Havent bun home long. Missed Cup also. Crap! Had fun, though.

[twomanymontes]

Some pretty good wheel to wheel racing for those guys. I am really liking the paint schemes on those cars too!

[twomanymontes]

Woo Hoo!!! Sunday at 5PM The Tasmania Challange at Symmons Plains.

[twomanymontes]

Got to watch the replay today. There was some really good side by side racing! Wish the NASCAR guys could race like this!

Winterbottom And Davison Lock Out Front Row


FORD Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison will start from the front row of the grid for today's Race 3 of the V8 Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

Winterbottom clocked a 51.4020s lap to take his 22nd career pole and first since Townsville last year, while teammate Davison locked out the front row, just 0.09s slower.

"I wasn't sure how we'd go then, but on the second lap it was 90 percent right - I wasn't really expecting that from practice," said Winterbottom.

"It's a great reward for the team and their hard work - when to get that fast lap in was really tough," said Davison.

Shane van Gisbergen was third with reigning champion Jamie Whincup fourth and his TeamVodafone teammate Craig Lowndes fifth.

Birthday boy Garth Tander was sixth from David Reynolds' Bottle-O Falcon.

The big surprise of the session was Team iSelect's Taz Douglas, the Victorian rookie posting the eighth fastest time - a personal best and also a best for his Lucas Dumbrell-owned team.

The top 10 was rounded out by Jonathon Webb and an improved Steven Johnson.

Just 0.87s covered the top 26 cars in one of the tightest sessions of the year.

The 59-lap race will be held at 4.10pm this afternoon.


Here's how the session unfolded in our minute-by-minute live update coverage:

Hi everyone, welcome to Symmons Plains on the outskirts of Launceston and qualifying for Race 3 of the V8 Supercars Championship.

We'll be bringing you live updates from the track on who is setting the pace in the hectic 20-minute session.

With 28 cars and a 2.4-kilometre circuit, there's not much room to move and there's no doubt there will be some drama as we've seen here in previous years.

We will count down on the time remaining with our updates - hearing there's a major head wind down the back straight ... and a big tail wind down the main straight towards the hairpin.

20m to go: Cars leave the pits, some on hards and some on soft tyres. Todd Kelly doesn't leave the pit lane .. he's car on the 'go' jacks.

17m to go: Whincup runs really wide at hairpin, messy first flyer and then ruins the next lap by running wide at turn 2.

16m to go: Webb, fastest in Practice 4, fires his first shot and goes to the top, 51.7688s as Holdsworth fires off at turn 2.

15m30s to go: Webb goes on with it, fastest to 2nd sector on the next lap, slightly slower, 51.7844s but still sits on top from Owen, van Gisbergen, Patrizi, Moffat.

15m to go: Winterbottom and Davison yet to set a time.

14m30s to go: Both Todd Kelly and Alex Premat only just left the pit lane .. they didnt want to go out and run on hard tyres before they run on softs. They wanted to solely run on softs and not get tricked into the grip levels of the hards.

13m30s to go: Order 19, 18, 49, 3, 9, 91, 47, 12, 888, 4. It's very mixed up at the moment!

13m to go: Reynolds steps up in the Bottle-O Ford, fast on Friday, fast on Saturday and goes to second, 0.06s down on Webb.

12m to go: Winterbottom jumps to 3rd as Davison sets fastest first split time. He's flying! 0.12s up to second split .. end of the lap and it's 51.6798s to jump to the top.

11m to go: Order 6, 19, 55, 5, 18, 7, 49, 3, 33, 9.
Davison goes slightly quicker, 51.6578s to have 0.11s over Webb.

10m to go: Whincup jumps to third .. it's busy busy out there, traffic everywhere and a busy piece of road.

8m to go: Tander jumps to top .. 51.5082s ... Slade spins down at the hairpin. Order has jumbled .. Taz Douglas jumps to fifth - wow!
van Gisbergen jumps to top on 51.5082s .. then Tander, Davison, Whincup, Douglas, Webb, Holdsworth, Lowndes, Winterbottom, Slade.

6m to go: Pit lane full of cars .. track not quite as busy at the moment. Get ready for the final flurry as cars come charging back out to have another run.

5m to go: Order 9, 2, 6, 1, 30, 19, 4, 888, 5, 47.

4m to go: Major lock up for Douglas at turn 2, he reckons he's destroyed a tyre.

3m30s to go: Lowndes goes a little quicker, jumps to third spot.

3m to go: Reynolds jumps to fourth, 0.14s off the benchmark of van Gisbergen.

2m to go: Winterbottom jumps up to third .. it's van Gisbergen still on top - can he get his first career pole?

1m30s to go: Davison goes quicker ... bang to the top! 51.5019s. Winterbottom follows him across line and beats it! 51.4762s .. FPR now 1-2.

45s to go: 5, 6, 9, 888, 2, 1, 55, 30, 19, 4.

15s to go: Winterbottom improves to 51.4020s, 0.09s on Davison. Whincup jumps to fourth.

[twomanymontes]

Spun And Won!







JAMIE Whincup has overcome an early race spin to win Race 4 of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

The TeamVodafone pilot started from fifth on the grid but was able to work his way through the order to claim his 54th career race win.

An early race spin at the hairpin on lap nine dropped him back to fifth, but he picked his way back through. The win closes his margin to championship leader Will Davison to 18 points - the same number it was entering this weekend in Tasmania.

"We had a tough weekend all in all so to come away with that I'm a little bit shocked," said Whincup, who led home five Fords to claim his eighth race win at Symmons Plains and thus move past Peter Brock and Garth Tander with most race wins at the Tasmanian circuit in championship history.

"It's crazy how this sport works. Nothing went right all weekend and we walk away with a third and a win. I don't want to dwell on the negatives but we'll improve on that.

"Lucky enough in the spin I nailed it and spun it around!"

Shane van Gisbergen ended up second for SP Tools Racing.

"We're pretty stoked, today we were pretty good," said the Kiwi on team owner Ross Stone's 59th birthday.

"It's a good lift for the boys."

Tradingpost FPR Ford pilot Davison finished third - but not without drama.

"It was a bit tougher than yesterday's race," he said in a race where he clashed early with pole-sitter Craig Lowndes, the damage putting the TeamVodafone driver out of the race.

"It was a shame to have a touch with Lowndes. I knew he was behind me, I didn't really know where he was. I just felt the hit and that was that."

Stone Brothers Racing had a strong day with Tim Slade fourth and Lee Holdsworth sixth, separated by Mark Winterbottom, who lost time stalling on the exit of his second pit stop.

Michael Caruso charged through from 22nd on the grid to finish seventh from James Courtney, Jonathon Webb and Todd Kelly - who started 19th.

It was a tough day for Garth Tander - he had a clash early with David Reynolds that damaged the steering on the later's Falcon, and later the HRT driver suffered a puncture from a clash while in a dice with Webb and Rick Kelly. Tander eventually finished 22nd.

A total of 24 cars finished on the lead lap with the V8 Supercars Championship to resume in three weeks time for the ITM400 Hamilton in New Zealand.

Read on below for our lap-by-lap coverage of Race 4.

Hi everyone and welcome back to Symmons Plains for our lap-by-lap coverage of Race 4 of the V8 Supercars Championship in Tasmania.

This one is over 84 laps with both the soft and hard tyre to be used and two pit stops on the menu.

Remember the way they line up: 888, 6, 5, 9, 1, 55, 2, 4, 47, 19, 33, 22, 17, 3, 15, 30, 14, 18, 7, 49, 91, 34, 12, 66, 8, 11, 51, 21.

It looks like Ingall is the only driver to start on soft tyres from 24th. He had an electrical drama yesterday that cost him two laps.

The cars are out on the grid, all 28 of them, with plenty of VIPs and guests taking advantage of the chance to get up close to the cars.

For those who are going to run the reverse fuel strategy, look for cars pitting around lap 12.

Update on Will Davison's Ford on the front row - engine change overnight after dramas yesterday.

30 second signal is given and the engines crank into life on the grid - the formation lap is under way.

Start/Lap 1 - Away we go! Great jump by Lowndes to lead, but Davison goes side by side and crowds across to lead into hairpin, Lowndes back down inside and hangs on to lead - awesome start!

End Lap 1: 888, 6, 5, 9, 1, 55, 2, 4, 22, 47.

Lap 2 - End of lap and Whincup gets by van Gisbergen after it went for a few corners!

Lap 3 - Lowndes and Davison starting to sneak away from Winterbottom. Davison reporting a vibration in the #6 Falcon.

Lap 4 - New fastest lap, Whincup 52.3666s in fourth spot.

Lap 5 - Whincup now zeroes in on Winterbottom for third spot. Dives into turn six, gets it done to snatch the spot.

Lap 6 - Now Jamie is starting to chase Will Davison for second spot ... could be a Vodafone sandwich in a minute.

Lap 7 - It's Lowndes, Davison, Whincup, Winterbottom, van Gisbergen, Reynolds, Tander, Courtney, Slade, Holdsworth. Moffat down the back after an early drama.
Ingall on the soft tyre has made eight spots to be 15th.

Lap 8 - Reynolds off the road down at turn six .. from sixth place .. bad news for the Bottle-O Falcon.
Winterbottom reporting some understeer on the hard tyres.

Lap 9 - Whincup loops it at the hairpin! He drops back to fifth, just in front of a charging Courtney.
Reynolds is in the pits and they're having a look at the damage - steering after clash with Tander apparently.
Whincup locked the rears into the hairpin to miss Davison and looped it.

Lap 10 - 888, 6, 5, 9, 1, 22, 47, 4, 19, 3.

Lap 13 - Davison pits from second spot. The Tradingpost crew send him back out on soft tyres.
Next time around, Lowndes and Winterbottom pit. van Gisbergen takes the lead.
Lowndes rejoins but Davison leap frogs him and he can't beat him out.

Lap 14 - Whincup and Slade pit .. as do Holdsworth, Webb, Johnson, Douglas. Everyone decided to come in early, get on the soft tyre as soon as they can.

Lap 15 - Davison sets new fastest lap, 52.2425s. He's 11th, best of the guys to have stopped so far.

Lap 16 - van Gisbergen and Courtney pit, Ingall on softs takes over the lead.
Winterbottom new fastest lap, 51.9677s .. Lowndes' car is leaking water from the right rear window - Race Control keeping an eye on it.

Lap 17 - Ingall leads ... 21.24s back to Davison, then Lowndes, Winterbottom, Whincup, van Gisbergen, R.Kelly a big mover next in the queue.
Winterbottom another new fastest lap, 51.9038s.

Lap 19 - Winterbottom goes quicker again! 51.8000s, 1.69s behind Lowndes.
All cars in the race are now on the soft tyre but leader Ingall is the only one yet to visit pit lane. He'll end up with a short last pit stop for fuel later on .. he's trying a different strategy to the rest to try and move up on his grid of 24th.

Lap 23 - Ingall by 16.9s as Davison closes in on the Supercheap Auto Commodore. The title leader is the effective race leader and has Lowndes shadowing his every move.

Lap 26 - No change, Davison still under pressure from Lowndes, Winterbottom is catching the pair of them. They have dropped off Whincup who is 8.6s behind.

Lap 27 - Order 66, 6, 888, 5, 1, 9, 47, 15, 4, 34, 22, 3, 19, 7, 2.

Lap 28 - 21 cars on the lead lap.

Lap 29 - Lowndes starting to look menacing on Davison's rear bumper.

Lap 30 - Lowndes hits Davison into the hairpin, Craig was down the outside, but the left front is ruined. He's out .. Safety Car being scrambled.
Ingall pits so Davison takes over the lead from Winterbottom and Whincup. But Ingall has left his pit bay with the fuel attached and they need to clean up the aftermath. He rejoins 15th.

Lap 32 - Order while we roll around under Safety Car: 6, 5, 1, 9, 47, 4, 15, 34, 22, 3, 19, 7, 2, 14, 66.

Lap 34 - Safety Car pulls in, back to racing. Davison leads us away. He was struggling before the SC period, he's been told if he is struggling too much not to fight his teammate Winterbottom who is right behind him.

Lap 35 - 6 and 5 pull clear, 2s over Whincup.

Lap 36 - Winterbottom has a run up the inside of Davison into the hairpin, Will hangs on.

Lap 37 - Remember Ingall the only driver in the field on hard tyres at the moment.

Lap 38 - Caruso is up to seventh spot .. he started 22nd!
Winterbottom gets by Davison at turn 6 to take the lead.

Lap 39 - Whincup now all over Davison for second and van Gisbergen is going with them as well. It's tight up the front.

Lap 40 - 5, 6, 1, 9, 47, 4, 34, 22, 15, 3. The Stones Falcons are charging along nicely!

Lap 41 - Whincup gets a good run off the hairpin ... Will is struggling with his car. Perhaps a tyre pressure adjustment at the next stop? It's a long run until his next pit visit though ... He needs to do about another 10 laps before he can pit for fuel.

Lap 42 - Whincup fighting hard, goes side by side with Davison down the back straight, J-Dub gets it done. Through to second. Now van Gisbergen zeroes in.

Lap 43 - Tander reporting a cut tyre .. left front is gone. It's popped and limping into the pits. Replay shows it was contact with Rick Kelly at the hairpin and that bump has immediately punctured the Dunlop ...

Lap 45 - 5, 1, 6, 9, 47, 4, 34, 22, 3, 7. Tander rejoins 25th.

Lap 46 - Winterbottom by 1.16s over Whincup. Jamie has seven more laps before he pits according to radio instruction from engineer Mark Dutton.
van Gisbergen gets third from Davison at turn six.

Lap 47 - Now Slade is next in the queue to line up and have a crack at Davison.

Lap 48 - Whincup is coming for Winterbottom - gap down to 0.66s.
Rick Kelly and Wall both pit.

Lap 49 - Winterbottom pits from the lead. Caruso is also in. D'Alberto, T.Kelly and Webb also in the lane. They'll run to the flag from here with 35 laps to complete.
Winterbottom was slow away with a major stall.

Lap 50 - van Gisbergen, Davison, Slade, Premat, Coulthard, Reindler all in there ..
Davison gets out in front of van Gisbergen ...

Lap 51 - Whincup pits from the lead. Holdsworth in too .. let's see where Jamie comes back out .. he should be in the lead after Winterbottom's delay leaving the pit bay.

Lap 52 - Whincup rejoins as Courtney takes the lead on the road. Jamie comfy out in front of Davison, van Gisbergen and Slade. Courtney pits end of the lap, as do Owen, Bright and Patrizi.
Johnson now leads .. has to pit again though of course.

Lap 53 - Winterbottom is now effectively fifth behind Slade. That delay hurt him.

Lap 54 - It's 17, 1, 6, 9, 47, 5, 4, 34, 22, 7.

Lap 56 - Whincup closing in on Johnson. Order update, 17, 1, 6, 9, 47, 5, 4, 34, 22, 7, 19, 33, 14, 49, 8, 3, 15, 12, 2, 91, 18, 66, 21, 30, 11, 51, 55 - retired is 888.

Lap 59 - van Gisbergen has got by Davison, who's reporting brake issues. Sounds like the numbness that Will gets in his feet is perhaps starting to affect him again as it did yesterday - this is the distance point of yesterday's race length.

Lap 60 - Whincup to the lead from Johnson, van Gisbergen, Davison, Slade, Winterbottom, Holdsworth, Caruso, Courtney, T.Kelly. Ingall pits for a pit lane penalty for the refueling miscue earlier on.

Lap 62 - 1, 17, 9, 6, 47.

Lap 64 - 1, 9, 6, 47, 5, 4, 34, 22, 19, 7. Premat is 11th and knocking on the door of a top 10 finish. Johnson has pitted and is last car on lead lap in 23rd.

Lap 66 - Whincup by 3.66s over van Gisbergen, Davison next hanging on from Slade and Winterbottom, Holdsworth sixth so five Fords are chasing the leading Holden.

Lap 68 - Coulthard up to 11th from 17th on the grid ... he, Steve Owen, Alex Premat and Jason Bright all having a scrap on the fringe of the top 10.

Lap 70 - 1, 9, 6, 47, 5, 4, 34, 22, 19, 7.

Lap 71 - Whincup is holding the margin to van Gisbergen, he's looking the goods.

Lap 73 - Now 21 cars left on the lead lap, Taz Douglas is the last of them.

UPDATE: Race Control will investigate the early contact between #55 Reynolds and #2 Tander post-race.

Lap 75 - Order remains the same up front .. everyone is trying to bring it on home .. Whincup has a cushion of 3.79s over van Gisbergen.
If Jamie can win he'll have eight Symmons Plains wins to have more race wins than anyone at this track in the history of the championship.

Lap 77 - There's been some big movers ... Caruso seventh from 22nd on grid, Todd Kelly 10th from 19th, Owen 12th from 20th, Bright 14th from 25th.

Lap 78 - If they finish as they run with Whincup in 1st and Davison 3rd, Will will still lead the championship. Will, will .. oh you know what we mean!

Lap 80 - Good fight between Courtney and Webb for eighth spot. Tander rejoins after splashing in some more fuel .. he's right on Webb's bumper and is 23rd, one lap down.

Lap 81 - David Russell's Pepsi Max Crew car smoking everywhere. Sounds terrible too, engine not nice .. he's in the pit lane. Was 26th.

Lap 83 - 2 to go for Whincup, he leads by 4.61s over van Gisbergen .. Davison still third and on target for another podium.

Lap 84 - Whincup is on his way home .. one to go ...
He makes it home ... race win number 54 for the reigning champion. A great job after starting fifth.
van Gisbergen and Davison round out the podium, Slade next from Winterbottom and Holdsworth. Caruso 7th from Courtney, Webb and T.Kelly.

[twomanymontes]

I have to say it was dissapointing to see the Fords pretty much dominating both races, but it was some really good driving by all drivers.

I'm not a Pepsi fan by any means, but this was one of the coolest paint jobs I have seen on a race car!


But I am really a fan of this one!

[twomanymontes]

Only caught the last few laps today, But man!! That was some serious racing!

WILL Davison has extended his lead in the V8 Supercars Championship with victory in today's fifth race of 2012 on the streets of Hamilton in New Zealand.

The Ford driver started from sixth on the grid and made up ground on a hectic first lap of 59 before seizing the lead from Garth Tander on lap 27 and leading home Jamie Whincup and Tander to take his first V8 Supercar race win on Kiwi soil.

The result now pushes the Tradingpost FPR Falcon driver out to a 30-point advantage in the championship over Whincup.

"It's unbelievable, the form this weekend has been amazing," said Davison.

"The Shootout was terrible but apart from that we've been strong. The cars are rockets, I somehow popped out second on the first lap from sixth on the grid!

"We can still improve the car for tomorrow. We were all quick at different stages. It's great to stand on that top step."

Whincup's result was his fifth podium in New Zealand.

"I made a rookie error and stalled in the pits, it was my mistake today," he said.

"It was hard racing with Garth at the end. It was good solid stuff. I respect racing good guys."

Tander's finish was also his fifth Hamilton podium after starting from pole.

"We've got to tune up the car a bit over the race distance," said the HRT pilot.

"We didn't quite have the speed late in the stints but I think I know what we need to do to make it better for tomorrow."

Craig Lowndes finished fourth from Rick Kelly, who clawed his way back from 14th on the grid, while the rest of the top 10 was made up of Steve Owen, James Courtney, Michael Caruso, Fabian Coulthard and Russell Ingall.

Kiwi favourite Shane van Gisbergen started on the front row but contact on the opening lap with David Reynolds pushed his SP Tools Falcon back down the order. He then had to pit to replace a front spoiler and copped a pit lane penalty for too many kerb hops. He finished 22nd.

Mark Winterbottom also had a tough day, a bent steering arm losing him two laps to repair and he ended up 23rd.

Fellow FPR pilot David Reynolds was on target for a career-best fourth but a suspension breakage dropped him out with seven laps to go.

Kiwi fan favourite Greg Murphy had further dramas with his Pepsi Max Crew Commodore and ended up retiring, while Frenchman Alex Premat crashed out to cause the only Safety Car period of the race.

A total of 23 cars finished with 20 on the lead lap.

The teams will return to the circuit tomorrow for another 200-kilometre race, with the Race 6 winner to be awarded the Mark Porter Trophy.

Here's how the race unfolded in our lap-by-lap coverage:

Hi everyone and welcome to our lap-by-lap coverage of the ITM400 Hamilton in New Zealand.

Today's 59-lap race is over 200-kilometres and is Race 5 of the season.

Garth Tander will start from pole for the second time in his career in Hamilton, while fellow row starter Shane van Gisbergen and third-fastest David Reynolds have both equaled their best-ever qualifying performances.

The update of penalties from the CAMS Stewards has come through and there are no issues from qualifying to report.

Cars are on the grid and the grid is about to be cleared ahead of the race.

Remember that both the soft and hard tyre must be used by each car in this race.

Cars are off on the warm up lap with everyone starting on hard tyres - Greg Murphy reporting an engine issue - he's coming in to the pits to the garage.

Start/Lap 1 - Away we go! van Gisbergen gets the jump, Reynolds pushes through, Tander wide .. Dave Reynolds leads! Tander next from Gizzy and Will Davison .. now Reynolds drops back from wide run at turn 2 ... Tander back to lead, Davison next, Gizzy dropped back ...

Order is 2, 6, 55, 1, 49, 18, 5, 17, 4, 888, 9. Crazy first lap!

Lap 2 - Winterbottom lunges Owen into turn 1 and Moffat and Johnson follow him through.
Webb will be given a 10 second hold penalty to his pit stop for a false start.

Lap 3 - Tander by 0.4s over his old teammate Davison, Reynolds next, van Gisbergen back to 17th and slipping back .. no doubt some steering dramas after a clash exiting turn 2 on the opening lap with the wall.
Remember the turn 4 kerb hop rule - bad sportsmanship flag after the fifth instance and Pit Lane Penalty after the sixth.

Lap 4 - Davison closing in on leader Tander. Winterbottom with new fastest lap last time around on lap 3, 1m24.4887s - he runs fifth.
Top five have cleared away, Moffat next in sixth from Johnson, Owen, Lowndes, Holdsworth,

Lap 5 - Slade being given a mechanical black flag for loose bodywork. He'll have to report to pit lane to get it sorted out.
The steering in the van Gisbergen car is damaged as he runs back in 17th and now rounds up Ingall for 16th.

Lap 6 - Order 2, 6, 55, 1, 5, 18, 17, 49, 4, 15 - Lowndes is into the pit lane and they're going to soft tyres. He rejoins with clear track to play with.

Lap 7 - Lowndes new fastest lap, 1m23.3649s - he runs 24th after making his first pit stop.

Lap 8 - Whincup and Winterbottom peel off into the pits to get onto their soft tyres. Tander continues out front from Davison and Reynolds. Frosty gets out in front of 'JW', who loses heaps of time leaving the pit box. Lowndes is in fact in front of him after his early stop.

Lap 9 - Leaders pit .. Tander, Davison, Reynolds all head into the pit for soft tyres.
New leader is Rick Kelly who started 14th on the grid and stays out.
Winterbottom's early stop has helped jump Reynolds, who is also losing a spot to Lowndes, who slips past as David comes up to speed.

Lap 10 - Rick Kelly pits from the lead, Courtney and van Gisbergen, Fiore all pit. Patrizi stays out as leader.
Winterbottom sets a new fastest lap, 1m23.1846s.

Lap 11 - Order is 91, 30, 8, 2, 6, 5, 888, 55, 1, 18.

Lap 12 - New fastest lap from Winterbottom, he's right with Tander and Davison.

Lap 13 - Reynolds lunges Lowndes into turn 5, but goes wide and Whincup gets them both on the run to the next corner!

Lap 14 - Bright leads - he's the only driver yet to pit.

Lap 15 - Order is 8, 2, 6, 5, 1, 55, 888, 17, 49, 18.

Lap 17 - Winterbottom now struggling. He's got serious steering dramas and is coming into the pits to get the bent steering arm sorted. Ouch ...

Lap 18 - Moffat now into the pits too after a touch with D'Alberto sees him touch the concrete down at turn 7. The Norton Ford is in the garage.

Lap 19 - Holdsworth (12th), van Gisbergen (17th) and Douglas (22nd) all have 4 kerb hops.
Bright pits so now everyone has been in once.
Order 2, 6, 1, 55, 888, 49, 17, 15, 3, 22.

Lap 20 - Winterbottom rejoins the race ... he's down two laps and back in 26th.

Lap 21 - Now Davison is having another sniff at leader Tander. Great race between these two.
Moffat is out with a broken diff in the #18 Falcon.

Lap 22 - Davison reckons he's stronger than Tander - he tells his team on the radio. New fastest lap to Whincup behind them, 1m22.9893s.

Lap 24 - Order is 2, 6, 1, 55, 888, 49, 15, 3, 22 (from 17th on grid) and 17.
van Gisbergen gets a bad sportsmanship flag for his fifth kerb hop.
Murphy limping with either a puncture or something more serious .. he's not sure. He's 27th and four laps down .. it's been a bad day ...

Lap 25 - Whincup is chipping away at the Tander/Davison gap ... he's 3.6s behind in third spot.

Lap 27 - Davison lunges and gets the lead at turn one! Tander back to second .. nice job from Will. FPR tell him now to save fuel that he has the track position.
Order now 6, 2, 1, 55, 888, 49, 15, 22, 3, 17.

Lap 28 - Davison by 0.82s over Tander.
van Gisbergen has had his sixth kerb hop - he'll get a drive through soon. How the day has gone bad ...

Lap 30 - van Gisbergen pits but it's for tyres, fuel and a new front spoiler. He'll have to come back in to serve the pit lane penalty.

Lap 31 - Davison has built the margin to 1.7s back to Tander. van Gisbergen serves his penalty .. he's back to 25th and one lap down. Now .. make it two laps down as the leaders go back when he rejoins the track.

Lap 32 - Webb, Premat and Douglas all to cop Bad Sportsmanship Flag for kerb hops.

Lap 33 - Order 6, 2, 1, 55, 888, 49, 15, 22, 3, 17.
End of the lap, 49, 888 and 22 all pit for their second stop.

Lap 34 - Whincup peels into the pits from third spot, Johnson also in from 10th.

Lap 35 - At the start of lap 35 the pits are busy again, Davison and Tander both in. Reynolds also in the lane at the same time.
Pit lane is busy ... Whincup and Tander race to turn 2 ... GT on cold tyres, he hangs on!
This helps Davison build a little bit more of a margin as they scrapped.

Lap 36 - Davison by 2.34s over Tander, but Garth goes wide at turn 2 and Whincup is back onto him again!

Lap 37 - Order 6, 2, 1, 8 (yet to pit for second time), 55, 888, 15, 49, 22, 3.

Lap 38 - Premat in the wall at turn 7. Safety Car called.

Lap 39 - Order until Safety Car is 6, 2, 1, 55, 888, 15, 49, 22, 3, 34. D'Alberto has five kerb hops, one more and he'll get a pit lane penalty.

Lap 40 - Reindler stops on the pit straight. The Fair Dinkum Sheds Commodore has died. It won't re-fire and he needs to get towed out of the way.
Premat's Commodore proving a bit of an effort to drag onto the back of the tilt tray truck at the moment.

Lap 43 - Restart with Davison leading us away from Tander, Whincup, Reynolds, Lowndes, R.Kelly, Owen, Courtney, D'Alberto and Caruso.
Great restart from Davison, gives himself some breathing space into turn 1.

Lap 44 - Order 6, 2, 1, 55, 888, 15, 49, 22, 3, 34.
It's all pretty tight in what effectively becomes a shootout to the flag!

Lap 45 - D'Alberto just hit the kerb for the sixth time .. he'll have to give up ninth spot in the Team Hiflex Falcon. Such a shame after a strong drive but rules are rules.
New fastest lap from Will Davison, 1m22.9689sm now 0.7s clear of Tander.

Lap 46 - Tander responds with a new fastest lap, 1m22.9366s. It's soooo close.

Lap 47 - Great job from Coulthard, he's 10th from 15th on the grid.

Lap 49 - It's all still tight at the top .. Davison by 0.73s over Tander who has Whincup still right with him. The Champ is looking a bit stronger than the HRT ace at the moment on the run home. Tander with two kerb strikes, Whincup with one - so he can use them up in the late laps.

Lap 50 - Reports of a broken exhaust or header on the James Courtney car. He's eighth in his brand new HRT Commodore.

Lap 51 - No change up front. 6, 2, 1, 55, 888, 15, 49, 22, 34, 14.

Lap 52 - Davison now by 1.2s.

Lap 53 - Reynolds in drama! Into the pits! Right front damage, he's hit the wall. Fourth place is gone. That lifts Lowndes to fourth.
He's out - the damage is too bad - the upright is broken in the right front. Looks like it may have broken from a hit on the kerb rather than the wall.

Lap 54 - Order 6, 2, 1, 888, 15, 49, 22, 34, 14, 66.

Lap 55 - Davison by 1.44s over Tander, Whincup right with him. 3.6s back to Lowndes in fourth.

Lap 56 - Whincup slips by Tander for second down at turn 2. He hangs on as they go into turn 3 side-by-side.
Ingall now up into 10th from 16th on the grid.

Lap 57 - 2 to run and Davison has 2.5s over the champ.

Lap 58 - Davison 2.45s clear on his run home.

Lap 59/Finish: It's Will Davison's day, race win number three of the season. Whincup second, Tander hangs onto the final podium spot from Lowndes.
Rest of top 10 is made up of R.Kelly, Owen, Courtney, Caruso, Coulthard and Ingall.

[twomanymontes]

MARK Winterbottom has broken through for his first race win in the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship today at Hamilton in New Zealand.

The Orrcon Steel FPR driver held off a fast-finishing Jamie Whincup to claim the Mark Porter Trophy in the last running of the ITM400 Hamilton street race.

"I had really good speed on the good tyres and Jamie had very good speed at the end," said Winterbottom, who celebrated his 250th V8 Supercars Championship race start in style by taking his 18th career race win.

"I really wanted that win, an awesome result.

"It's definitely good to win anytime. It's good to hang on. Jamie's one of the best passers in the category but I wasn't going to let it go."

Winterbottom qualified on the front row of the grid with teammate Will Davison on pole, but it was the former that got the jump off the line and dominated the race to pick up his first win in New Zealand.

Davison ended up finishing third and retains a 21-point lead in the championship over Whincup.

"I give it everything I had, but it was a crazy battle in tough conditions," said Whincup.

"I got very close. I thought I was odds-on. The car hung onto its tyres well. I had to push Frosty back down the pit lane at the end coming back to the podium because he was out of fuel!"

Craig Lowndes finished fourth from the best of the Kiwis, Fabian Coulthard in the Lockwood Racing Commodore.

Lee Holdsworth was sixth from David Reynolds, Tony D'Alberto, Todd Kelly and Shane van Gisbergen.

It was a day of drama for the Holden Racing Team. Garth Tander ended up 26th, 12 laps down, after pitting for repairs from contact with a tyre bundle while trying to pass D'Alberto.

A range of cars received pit lane penalties for triggering the timing sensors at the turn four chicane - the worst of them Frenchman Alex Premat who picked up three - plus a post-race 28-second penalty for a fourth indiscretion too late in the race to be brought into the pits.

Also given post-race 28-second time penalties were Jason Bright and James Courtney for the same reason, the duo ending up 21st and 22nd respectively in the final results.

The V8 Supercars Championship now moves back to Australia for the Tradingpost Perth Challenge at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth in a fortnight's time on May 4-6.


This is how the race unfolded in our lap-by-lap coverage:

Hi everyone and welcome back to Hamilton in New Zealand.

We're a little sad as we are about set to take off on Race 6 - this is the final V8 Supercar race on the streets of Hamilton, which has hosted us since 2008.

Today's race is the same format is yesterday - 59 laps, 200 kilometres and both soft and hard tyres must be used by each driver.

The sky is clear, the fans have arrived en masse and we're not far away from getting Race 6 of the championship underway.

The traditional Haka has been completed on the grid, the cars are lined up and the Kiwi fans are ready to see if their local racers van Gisbergen, Murphy and Coulthard can top the Aussies - oh, and the Frenchman!

Good news for Jamie Whincup fans - his car is repaired and on the grid ready to race. Some last minute checks being carried out on the #1 Commodore.

All cars will start the 59-lap race on hard tyres.

Plenty of guests, teams and VIPs out on the grid ahead of this last race in Hamilton.

Jamie Whincup admits on the Channel 7 coverage that his crash in qualifying revolved around trying to find a tenth of a second in the chicane. He says he's got the best crew in the world to get his car repaired and ready to race.

Weather is sunny - 20 degrees as the grid is being cleared.

1 minute signal is given.

Formation Lap commences and the cars roll away to warm up their tyres and brakes - when they form back up we'll get this thing started!

Start/Lap 1 - Away we go! Frosty leads! Davison back to second. Pole on the outside didnt work for him! They lead, Lowndes next, Whincup shuffled back.
Order 5, 6, 888, 3, 55, 14, 1.
Reynolds gets D'Alberto and now Coulthard gets him at turn 6 - busy first lap!

Lap 1 Order - 5, 6, 888, 3, 14, 55, 1, 4, 2, 15, 18, 49, 19, 9, 17, 7, 47, 22, 12, 34.

Lap 3 - Reynolds wide at turn 1, loses spots and back to eighth. Winterbottom by 0.78s over Davison from Lowndes in third with fastest lap last time around.
Great start from Premat .. from 28th to 23rd in 2 laps.

Lap 4 - Report of a loose rear bumper on James Courtney's car. Officials happy for it to continue on racing. He's 17th.
Davison new fastest lap last time around, 1m24.3900s.

Lap 5 - Winterbottom by 0.74s over Davison. Remember too - turn 4 kerb hops ... 4 warnings, 5th is a bad sportsmanship flag, sixth a drive through pit penalty.
Premat has a spin down at turn 2 after a touch from Bright. He's now back to 28th and last.

Lap 6 - Officials monitoring Webb and Lowndes for loose rear bodywork on the former and fluid coming from the latter.

Lap 7 - Caruso is the first into pit lane.
Bright to be given a Pit Lane Penalty for the earlier contact on Premat.

Lap 8 - The leading FPR duo have pulled away by 4s over Lowndes. Pits are busy, Holdsworth, Reynolds and Tander all peel off into the pits.
End of the lap Lowndes and Coulthard peel in .. FPR boys stay out in front with Winterbottom new fastest lap, 1m24.0191s.

Lap 9 - Patrizi facing wrong way at turn 1. Gets going again, but back to 17th. Got hit by Douglas.
End of the lap Winterbottom peels into the pits. D'Alberto and Whincup also.

Lap 10 - Davison leads and just ran a 1m23.9373s last time around ... trying to leap frog his teammate once he's pitted. Whincup leapfrogs D'Alberto in the pit shuffle.
Davison pits from the lead ... he comes back out behind teammate Winterbottom. No change between the teammates.

Lap 11 - Order is 5, 6, 888, 4, 1, 3, 2, 14, 55, 91 - 91 is yet to pit.

Lap 12 - Winterbottom gap to Davison is 2.75s - he's picked up ground over the course of the first pit stop and in and out lap.

Lap 13 - All cars have done one stop now .. order is 5, 6, 888, 4, 1, 3, 2, 14, 55, 15.
Owen limping with front right damage in the VIP Petfoods Falcon. He's limping back to the lane after the right front was busted on the way into the end part of the chicane. Ouch!

Lap 14 - Premat just hopped the chicane for the sixth time, he'll have a Pit Lane Penalty for that soon.

Lap 15 - Whincup pressing Holdsworth for fourth spot. Gets it done down at turn two. Now he has to hunt his teammate Lowndes who is nearly six seconds in front of him.

Lap 16 - Winterbottom to Davison is 2.71s.

Lap 18 - Tander pits with damage after contact. Safety Car is called as the HRT pilot sits in the pits having his front spoiler replaced. There's left-over debris all over the road, hence the Safety Car.
Tander had tried to get a move on D'Alberto in turn 6 but found himself squeezed into the tyre bundle on the apex of the corner.

Lap 19 - Order 5, 6, 88, 1, 4, 3, 14, 55, 15.
Webb pits to top up fuel and take on tyres. He is now off sequence with the rest of the field in terms of pit strategy.

Lap 21 - Restart back to green flag conditions. Order is 5, 6, 888, 1, 4, 3, 14, 55, 15, 9.
Caruso into the pits - damage from earlier contact with Moffat clearly hampering him.

Lap 23 - Moffat to receive a Pit Lane Penalty for the contact with Caruso.

Lap 24 - Remember everyone now on soft tyres for the run home - one more stop to be made.

Lap 25 - Order 5, 6, 1 (now past Lowndes), 888, 4, 3, 14, 55, 15, 9. Whincup got by Lowndes for third spot down at turn 2 last time around.
Davison says he's got oversteer in the last sector of the lap.
Premat is getting another Pit Lane Penalty for 6 kerb hops at turn 4. That's his second one .. sacre bleu!

Lap 26 - Davison has four kerb hops. He is going to have to be careful from here on ...

Lap 27 - van Gisbergen chipping away - is now past Rick Kelly for ninth. He started 14th.
Whincup is closing in on Davison, who is puzzled why he's getting kerb hops - says he's not doing anything different from previous sessions.

Lap 30 - Winterbottom by 2.02s over Davison, who has Whincup right on him. Then it's Lowndes, Holdsworth, D'Alberto, Coulthard, Reynolds, van Gisbergen.
Whincup gets by on Davison for 2nd spot at Turn 2.

Lap 31 - 5, 1, 6, 888, 4, 3, 14, 55, 9, 15.

Lap 32 - 25 cars on the lead lap. Tander did get back onto the circuit with repairs made .. he's 27th, 11 laps down.

Lap 33 - End of the lap Lowndes and Holdsworth into the pits. Todd Kelly and Slade as well.

Lap 34 - Whincup catching Winterbottom, he's trimmed gap to 1s ... Frosty peels into the pits end of the lap.

Lap 35 - Whincup and Davison pit at the end of the lap. Let's see where Frosty is in comparison with them on exit ... he's in front of Whincup, but JW has made ground overall.

Lap 37 - Still a few cars out front yet to make their second stop.

Lap 39 - Order is 12, 8 (both yet to make final stop), 5, 1, 6, 888, 4, 14, 55, 3. End of the lap Fiore and Bright both pit so the order resume as normal with Winterbottom leading.

Lap 40 - Winterbottom by 1.91s over Whincup ... he's holding on so it's a straight fight between Ford Performance Racing and TeamVodafone .. Davison and Lowndes fighting for third, Craig 5.8s down on Will though.

Lap 43 - The race has really settled down into a rhythm. No change up front. Oh, Premat has got back up to 5 kerb hops. He will be losing his mind .. how frustrating!

Lap 44 - Winterbottom hasn't had a race win just yet this year .. last one was 2011 finale race at Sydney.

Lap 46 - Order 5, 1, 6, 888, 4, 14, 55, 3, 7, 9, 47, 22, 15, 12, 66, 19, 17, 8, 91, 51, 11, 30, 18, 21 - they are the 24 cars on the lead lap.

Lap 48 - Rick Kelly gets by Courtney for 12th spot.

Lap 51 - Winterbottom by 2.01s over Whincup. Davison safe in third, 8.4s clear of Lowndes. He'll retain his points lead if they finish this way. It will be trimmed from 30 to 21 by our quick numbers.

Lap 52 - Whincup trims the gap to 1.66s. And he's only had 1 kerb hop. Winterbottom has 3. Jamie could use them up late in the race to attack if he gets close enough.

Lap 54 - Whincup slices another few tenths .. gap 1.11s.

Lap 56 - TeamVodafone remind Jamie he can kerb hop each lap from here on in. He has plenty up his sleeve to use without being penalised.
Gap now 0.8s! He's coming .....

Lap 57 - Winterbottom has Whincup all over him! The Commodore is hooked onto the back of the Falcon - this thing ain't over!
Can Frosty hang on?!??!?!

Lap 58 - 2 to go ... 0.3s the gap at the line.
Whincup bumps the fence exiting turn 3 - knocks the mirror off, but he's still pushing on with it! He's got a great run off turn 5 .... all over the back of Winterbottom!

Lap 59 -1 to go! Whincup is pushing sooooo hard. He bumps Frosty into turn 1 and Frosty blocks into turn 2.
Wow!!
These guys are going at it hard ... fans going nuts!
Winterbottom hangs on to win his first race of 2012!

FPR take another win, Whincup second, Davison third from Lowndes, Coulthard, Holdsworth, Reynolds, D'Alberto, T.Kelly and van Gisbergen.

A great finish to the race ... thank you New Zealand for having us for the fifth and final ITM400 Hamilton.

[85t5mcss]

Heck of a race. Great finish. I really need to subscribe to DVR and watch the entire season.

[twomanymontes]

Just buy some cheap tapes and a VCR! LOL!

I wish I knew when they were being shown. It does seem like 2 weeks after the actual race. I keep wanting to go to the site and see what happened, but I say no and wait for it to air. LOL!

[twomanymontes]

Winterbottom Wins First Race In Perth


FORD Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom has won the first race of the Tradingpost Perth Challenge, taking victory in today's 50-lap race by 3.2 seconds over TeamVodafone's Jamie Whincup.

Winterbottom survived an opening lap stoush with Garth Tander and displayed impressive pace on hard tyres to put himself well into contention early in the race.

On opposing tyre strategies, Winterbottom pitted for softs one lap before rival Whincup pitted for his set of hard tyres.

Whincup rejoined the race behind Winterbottom, who was never headed and went on to claim his second race win in a row.

"We went in blind ... we hadn't been out in the dry, but the car was a jet and it was a ripper job by the boys," said Winterbottom.

Whincup's second place has handed him the championship lead, courtesy of Will Davison's demise on the opening lap.

"It's a bit too early to be talking about the championship ... I'm sick of being the bridesmaid to be honest," said Whincup.

"We had a few little issues and just didn't quite have the pace today.

"The idea behind starting on softs was that hopefully the rain poured down and then we'd stick the wets on and happy days. That didn't happen but it was worth a gamble."

Pole-sitter Garth Tander's day ended in disaster on the opening lap, when contact with David Reynolds sent the Toll HRT Commodore spinning in front of the field.

Will Davison was caught up in the incident and was forced to pit with suspension damage, eventually finishing 25th.

Craig Lowndes rounded out the podium, with Lee Holdsworth, James Courtney, Tim Slade, Shane van Gisbergen, Michael Caruso, Rick Kelly and Jason Bright rounding out the top ten.

Click here for full race results.





Here's how the race unfolded...

Hello and welcome to Perth's Barbagallo Raceway for the opening race of the Tradingpost Perth Challenge.

Today's race is 50 laps in duration, and teams must use both the soft and hard tyres during the race.

All times quoted are local West Australian time (2 hours behind AEST).

Cars are on the grid. The FPR crew are working on damage to Mark Winterbottom's car after Garth Tander hit the right front door moving into grid position.

Tander tells 7 Sport that one of the FPR crew opened the door as he drove past and that caused the damage to Winterbottom's car.

The polesitter is HRT's Garth Tander. Alongside him on the front row is Team BOC's Jason Bright.

1405 - Cars are out on their warm-up lap. Jason Bright, Jamie Whincup, David Reynolds, Greg Murphy, Russell Ingall and Karl Reindler are starting the race on softs, the rest of the field is on hard tyres.

Skies are overcast but the rain is holding off for now.

Lap 1 - Bright grabs the lead through the esses and leads the race. Whincup gets past Tander too. Winterbottom makes an aggressive pass on Tander and he spins infront of the field.

Will Davsion collects him. Tander with heavy damage heads to the pits. The race stays under green, with a local yellow at the final turn.

Now the safety car is deployed. Frantic repairs going on to Davison's car while Tander is out of his car and heading back to the garage.

Replay shows that it was David Reynolds who made contact with Tander and van Gisbergen may have tapped Will Davison in the opening lap melee.

Davison is out on track but is reporting massive damage to the #6 Tradingpost Falcon, says "something must have broken." Team tell him to head back to pit lane.

Lap 4 - still under safety car. Davison is in the garage. The order at this stage is Bright from Whincup, Winterbottom and Coulthard.

Lap 5- race restart. Bright has established a good lead already, remember he won his first ever V8 Supercar race here last year.

Lap 7- James Moffat is in the sandtrap at turn 6. Safety car is called out again.

So the leaders Bright and Whincup are on softs, behind them Winterbottom, Coulthard and Webb. Reynolds - in P6 - is the next driver on softs.

Lap 8- Steve Owen is the first car to pit and switches to softs.

Lap 9- Moffat is out of the sand and back on track, albeit with a front splitter full of sand! Sounds like a broken top wishbone for Will Davison so the crew might repair it and get him back out.

Lap 10- Race restart #2. Bright leads Whincup and Winterbottom. van Gisbergen makes a dive on Courtney and gets past into P7.

Lap 11- Reynolds moves past Webb for P5. Winterbottom and Coulthard holding their own on hard tyres in P 3 and 4, sandwiched between the soft tyre runners.

Lap 14- Whincup passes Bright for the race lead. Some dark clouds on the horizon, could be a concern for teams!

Reynolds hauls in Coulthard and moves into 4th, Coulthard doesn't make it easy for him though.

Lap 15- Winterbottom is impressive on the hard tyres, matching the pace of the cars around him and now pressuring Bright for P2.

Lap 17- Back in the pack Tony D'Alberto, Steve Owen Taz Douglas are involved in a good scrap for 21st -23rd.

Lap 18- Order is Whincup, Winterbottom, Reynolds, Bright, Coulthard, Webb, Murphy, van Gisbergen, Ingall and Courtney.

Reynolds took advantage of team-mate Winterbottom's pace and followed him through past Bright.

Lap 20- Drivers are reporting some spots of rain around the circuit.

Lap 21- Brothers Todd and Rick Kelly are battling for positions 14 & 15, followed closely by Fujitsu Racing's Alex Premat.

Lap 22- Lowndes slides into pit lane for his compulsory stop - swaps from hards to softs. A brave move considering there's uncertainty over whether it will rain shortly.

Lap 23- Meanwhile ate the front of the field his teammate Whincup is pressing on and building a gap of over 3 seconds. Looks like its starting to spit a bit harder, Winterbottom has the wipers on now.

Lap 25 - Half race distance. Whincup leads by 3.8 seconds over Winterbottom, Reynolds and Bright.

Lap 26- Problems for Steve Owen, plenty of smoke coming from the rear of the #49 VIP Petfoods car.

Lap 27- van Gisbergen sneaks down the inside of Murphy at the final turn for P6. Ingall follows suit on Murphy.

Webb pits for softs. Coulthard and van Gisbergen pit, as does Courtney.

Lap 28 - Todd and Rick Kelly, Fiore, patrizi, Wall and Reindler pit.

Lap 29- Winterbottom pits and swaps to softs. This will be a crucial time for the FPR driver. He'll need to make some good ground on his tyres before Whincup pits.

Lap 31- Race leader Whincup pits from a 11 sec lead over Jason Bright. Swaps to hards and has to restart the car in the pit bay. He rejoins behind Winterbottom, handing the FPR driver the effective race lead.

Lap 34- Coulthard serves a pit lane penalty for an unsafe release and drops to P20.

Lap 36- Order is Winterbottom, Whincup, van Gisbergen, Lowndes, Holdsworth, Webb, Courtney, Slade, Bright and Caruso.

Winterbottom and van Gisbergen are effectively on the same strategy and are on softs, Whincup is on hards and separates the two.

Lap 39- Courtney passes Webb for P6.

Lap 40- Lowndes is ranging up on the back of van Gisbergen, and this has allowed Holdsworth to close up to the rear of Lowndes. They battle for the final podium position.

Lap 42- Coulthard moves past Todd Kelly and into P15.

Lap 43- Winterbottom encounters traffic, but he holds a 4.7 second gap to Whincup with just 7 laps to go.

Lap 45- Top five is Winterbottm, Whincup, van Gisbergen, Lowndes and Holdsworth.

Lowndes, Holdsworth and Courtney all get past van Gisbergen. The Giz is holding steady behind Courtney so there doesn't seem to be an issue with the car.

A great job from Lowndes to sit in 3rd after starting 16th.

Lap 48- Now van Gisbergen, Courtney and Slade are fighting for 5th - Courtney fends off Slade and is headed for his best race result this year.

Stone Brothers Racing suspect an intermittent miss with van Gisbergen's #9 SP Tools Falcon may be to blame.

Final lap- Winterbottom leads by 3.8 seconds.

And Winterbottom wins Race 7 of the V8 Supercar Championship! Another great result from the factory Ford team.

Whincup finishes second, ahead of teammate Lowndes, with Lee Holdsworth and James Courtney rounding out the top five.

And some consolation for today's runner up Jamie Whincup is he now holds the championship lead.

[twomanymontes]

Davison Wins In the West


WILL Davison has won today's first race of the Tradingpost Perth Challenge, leading home pole-sitter Jamie Whincup and his FPR teammate Mark Winterbottom.

It was the fourth race win this year for Davison, and his first at the Barbagallo circuit.

"They were coming at me and I was just hoping that their softs would start dropping off," said Davison.

"The car was super consistent and it worked a treat, I'm stoked."

"We've found at times that when there's more soft tyre running the track goes a bit slippery which makes it worse on the hard tyres, but my car certainly hung in there beautifully."

"It was a nervewracking race but I just kept my cool. After yesterday this is such a good way to bounce back."

Whincup got the jump off the line but Davison, on soft tyres, got past on lap three and held the lead to the chequered flag, despite a late race push from his TeamVodafone rival.

"We had a good car and we pushed on but it was the same story as yesterday, very good but not quite good enough," said Whincup.

"We've been the number one team for a while and we want that back so we're going to keep working. We're not going to let this one get away."

Yesterday's race winner Mark Winterbottom finished third, ahead of Fabian Coulthard and Lee Holdsworth.

Craig Lowndes, Tim Slade, Jason Bright, David Reynolds and Garth Tander rounded out the top ten.

The third and final race of the Tradingpost Perth Challenge starts at 2.05pm local time (4.05pm AEST).

Click here for full race results.


Here's how the race unfolded...

Hi everyone and welcome to Race 8 of the V8 Supercar Championship here at Barbagallo Raceway.

Here's the grid for this 50-lap race.

1. Jamie Whincup - #1 Vodafone Commodore

2. Mark Winterbottom - #5 Orrcon Falcon

3. Will Davison - #6 Trading Post Falcon

4. Lee Holdsworth - #4 IRWIN Falcon

5. Jason Bright - #8 BOC Commodore

6. David Reynolds - #55 Bottle-O Falcon

7. Tim Slade - #47 Lucky 7 Falcon

8. Fabian Coulthard - #14 Lockwood Racing Commodore

9. Michael Patrizi- #91 Tekno Autosports Commodore

10. Jonathon Webb- #19 Tour de Cure Commodore

11. Dean Fiore - #12 Jim Beam Falcon

12. Shane van Gisbergen - #9 SP Tools Falcon

13. James Moffat - #18 Norton Security Falcon

14. Craig Lowndes - #888 Vodafone Commodore

15. Rick Kelly - #15 Jack Daniel’s Commodore

16. Michael Caruso - #34 Fujitsu GRM Commodore

17. James Courtney - #22 Toll HRT Commodore

18. Alex Premat - #33 Fujitsu GRM Commodore

19. Russell Ingall - #66 Supercheap Auto Commodore

20. Garth Tander - #2 Toll HRT Commodore

21. Todd Kelly - #7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore

22. Tony D’Alberto - #3 HIFlex Falcon

23. Steve Owen - #49 VIP Petfoods Falcon

24. Steve Johnson - #17 Jim Beam Falcon

25. Greg Murphy - #51 Pepsi Max Crew Commodore

26. David Wall - #21 Wilson Security Commodore

27. Taz Douglas - #30 Gulf Western Oil Commodore

28. Karl Reindler - #21 Fair Dinkum Sheds Commodore

Teams must use both the hard and soft tyres during this race.

All times quoted are in local time (2 hours behind AEST).

1110- 5 minute signal. Teams and guests starting to clear the grid. The sun is shining over the circuit!

Looks like 4 cars starting on softs - Will Davison, Russell Ingall, Greg Murphy & Karl Reindler - so the majority are starting with a hard tyre strategy.

1115 - Cars on their warm-up lap.

Race start - Whincup leads them through the first turn. Winterbottom slots in behind.

Davison, on the soft tyre, passes his teamate and into P2.

Lap 2 - van Gisbergen siddles past Patrizi for P9. Meanwhile, Davison is trying to capitalise on the soft tyre gain and is pressuring Whincup for the lead.

David Reynolds penalised for a jump start and will be held for 10 seconds during his pit stop.

Lap 3- Davison attacks Whincup and fires past at the final turn for the race lead.

Lap 4 - there's some angst between Rick Kelly and James Moffat back in the mid pack. The two HRT cars of Courtney and Tander are getting involved too. Left front tyre appears to be rubbing on the #15 Jack Daniels Commodore.

Lap 5 - Ingall passes Lowndes and Patrizi for P10, he's on the soft tyre too and will be wanting to make the most of it.

Lap 6- Rick Kelly off into the sandtrap but rejoins well down in P27.

Lap 8- van Gisbergen moves past his SBR teammate Tim Slade, into P8. Both drivers are on hard tyres.

Lap 9- At the front, Davison has built a lead of 2.2secs to Whincup. Davison about 2-3 tenths a lap quicker on the soft tyres. Is it enough though?

Lap 10- Order is Davison, Whincup, Winterbottom, Holdsworth, Bright, Coulthard, Reynolds, van Gisbergen, Slade and Ingall.

Lap 11- Murhpy, on softs, passes Patrizi for P11, who's now facing a charge from Lowndes.

Lap 13 - And Lowndes finally gets past Patrizi - he's moved up 2 spots since race start.

Lap 14- Steve Owen runs wide at turn 1, he rejoins but it's a flat tyre on the #49 VIP Petfoods Falcon so he heads straight to pit lane.

Lap 15- Karl Reindler the first to pit, swaps from softs to hards.

Lap 18- At the front the gap from Davison to Whincup is 3.9 seconds. Winterbottom a further 2 secs behind. Ingall and Murphy haven't managed to make much inroads on their soft tyres, still running P10 & 11.

Lap 20- Murphy pits now and switches to the hard tyre. Top ten order remains the same.

Lap 22- Ingall pits from P10 to swap to hard tyres. Patrizi in also.

Lap 23- Webb pits from P18. At the front Davison has pulled the gap to 5secs over Whincup.

Lap 24- Holdsworth, Bright, Lowndes and Fiore are in. Lowndes exits ahead of Ingall.

Lap 25- Winterbottom, Slade and van Gisbergen pit. A quick roll centre change for the #9 SP tools Falcon. Slade gets out ahead of his teammate.

Lap 26- Whincup pits for softs. Coulthard follows suit. Whincup rejoins ahead of Winterbottom. Meanwhile race leader Davison is in and swaps to the hard tyre.

He rejoins well ahead of Whincup, who's feeling the heat from Winterbottom- they're nose to tail.

Lowndes has just done the fastest lap of the race - 57.01s

Lap 28- Whincup and Winterbottom are fighting hard for position! A little contact between the two but so far the advantage stays with Whincup.

Lap 29- Courtney pits, so the order is Davison, Whincup, Winterbottom, Holdsworth, Bright, Coulthard, Slade, Lowndes, van Gisbergen and Murphy.

Lap 30- Reynolds has good pace and he's harassing Ingall (on hards) for P12. He gets past Ingall, and Caruso.

Meantime Garth Tander does the fastest lap of the race - 56.95 - he's down in P15.

Lap 33- Davison leads by 3 secs over Whincup, who's got a little bit of breathing space from Winterbottom.

Lap 36 - Reynolds now into P10, a good recovery after serving a time penalty during his pit stop.

Lap 39- Bright is complaining of tyre issues, but is staying out and fending off BJR teammate Coulthard for P5.

Lap 40- Coulthard now makes his way past Bright.

Meanwhile, Whincup has closed the gap to 1.6 secs to race leader Davison.

Lap 44- 7 laps to go and the top 10 is Davison, Whincup, Winterbottom, Holdsworth, Coulthard, Bright, Lowndes, Slade, Reynolds and van Gisbergen.

Lap 45- Tander muscles his way past van Gisbergen for P10. The Giz didn't make it easy!

Lap 47- Lowndes is now ranging up on Bright, they're battling for P6 and Slade is getting in on the action now too.

Lap 49- Lowndes gets past at the final turn and Slade sneaks past Bright too.

Final lap - Will Davison wins Race 8, crosses the line 2.9 secs ahead of Whincup. Then Winterbottom, Coulthard, Holdsworth, Lowndes, Slade, Bright, Reynolds and Tander.

[twomanymontes]

Davison Survives To Claim Second Race Win



WILL Davison has hung on to claim another race win in a nail-biting finish to the Tradingpost Perth Challenge.

Davison, on degarding soft tyres, held out a last lap charge from hard tyre-shod rivals Jamie Whincup and teammate Mark Winterbottom to chalk up his second race win of the day.

"What a race... I thought we were done there with that safety car, I thought how on earth am I going to do this?" said Davison, referring to the 35 laps he raced on his set of softs.

"I looked after them as well as I could, but those last five laps ... I reckon I had nothing but canvas on the tyres!"

"This is my sponsor's home event so to get two wins today, I couldn't be happier after yesterday."

Mark Winterbottom made a bold move on Whincup at the final turn to snatch second- a battle that continued after the chequered flag- and record a 1-2 finish for Ford Performance Racing.

"I thought Jamie and Will were going to have a crack up around the top so I went as wide as I could, and we banged doors," said Winterbottom.

"That's probably the best finish we've ever had in Perth so it's been a great weekend."

The race was thrown into chaos when a safety car for a sandtrapped Taz Douglas on lap 14 picked up the wrong TeamVodafone car.

This shuffled the order and relegated effective race leaders Lowndes and van Gisbergen well down the middle of the order. Lowndes recovered to finish 6th while van Gisbergen's tyre troubles saw him finish 18th.

Jason Bright finished fourth, ahead of local West Aussie Michael Patrizi - his best race result of the year.

Fabian Coulthard was seventh, followed by Tim Slade, Michael Caruso and Steve Johnson.

Click here for full race results.


Here's how the race unfolded...

Hi everyone and welcome to Barbagallo Raceway for the third and final race of the Tradingpost Perth Challenge.

FPR's Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison have each won a race - can anyone knock FPR off from the top step this afternoon?

Here's how they line up for Race 9...

1. Jamie Whincup - #1 Vodafone Commodore 2. Craig Lowndes - #888 Vodafone Commodore 3. Will Davison - #6 Trading Post Falcon 4. Mark Winterbottom - #5 Orrcon Falcon 5. David Reynolds - #55 Bottle-O Falcon 6. Fabian Coulthard - #14 Lockwood Racing Commodore 7. Shane van Gisbergen - #9 SP Tools Falcon 8. James Courtney - #22 Toll HRT Commodore 9. Michael Patrizi- #91 Tekno Autosports Commodore 10. Tim Slade - #47 Lucky 7 Falcon 11. Rick Kelly - #15 Jack Daniel’s Commodore 12. Garth Tander - #2 Toll HRT Commodore 13. Lee Holdsworth - #4 IRWIN Falcon 14. Dean Fiore - #12 Jim Beam Falcon 15. James Moffat - #18 Norton Security Falcon 16. Jason Bright - #8 BOC Commodore 17. Jonathon Webb- #19 Tour de Cure Commodore 18. Tony D’Alberto - #3 HIFlex Falcon 19. Todd Kelly - #7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore 20. Steve Owen - #49 VIP Petfoods Falcon 21. Michael Caruso - #34 Fujitsu GRM Commodore 22. David Wall - #21 Wilson Security Commodore 23. Steve Johnson - #17 Jim Beam Falcon 24. Taz Douglas - #30 Gulf Western Oil Commodore 25. Greg Murphy - #51 Pepsi Max Crew Commodore 26. Alex Premat - #33 Fujitsu GRM Commodore 27. Karl Reindler - #21 Fair Dinkum Sheds Commodore 28. Russell Ingall - #66 Supercheap Auto Commodore


The clouds are looking ominous to the south and the west in the last half an hour, will we see rain during this race? It's a question keeping the team strategists guessing..

All times quoted are in local time (2 hours behind AEST)


2.02pm- The grid is clearing now. Pole-sitter Whincup is starting on softs, the opposite strategy he took in the first race.

Mark Winterbottom, Jason Bright, Greg Murphy and Karl Reindler are the only other drivers starting on softs.


2.05pm - Cars are out on their warm-up lap.. moments away from the start of the final race! David Reynolds has stalled on the grid, with a starter motor problem. He'll have to start from pit lane.

Race start- Whincup gets the jump and leads the race, Lowndes falls from 2nd to 4th. Winterbottom and Davison are sandwiched between the two TeamVodafone cars.

Lap 2- It's Whincup from Winterbottom, Davison, Lowndes, Coulthard, van Gisbergen, Courtney, Slade, Patrizi and Rick Kelly.

Lap 3- there's some light rain faling around the circuit but they are all pressing on for now. Whincup and Winterbottom have cleared out, behind them Davison is holding up a freight train of cars.

Lap 4- van Gisbergen attacks Coulthard and makes the pass into P5. Reynolds finally leaves pit lane, 4 laps down.

Lap 5- Whincup leads by 2 secs over Winterbottom. Davison is a further 2 secs behind and Lowndes is chasing.

Lap 7- Bright, on softs, moves past Courtney and into P7.

Lap 8 - Murphy slides past Patrizi for P10. Murph's making the most of starting on softs.

Lap 10- Whincup's pulled the gap out to 4.3 secs. Order is Whincup, Winterbottom, Davison, Lowndes, Bright, van Gisbergen, Coulthard, Murphy, Courtney and Slade.

Lap 12- Bright's the big mover at the moment, he makes the pass on Davison for P3. The front running three are all on softs.

D'Alberto off at turn 4 and drops to P27.

Lap 14- Good battle between Davison, Lowndes and van Gisbergen for 3-5th.

Taz Douglas is off at turn after what looks like a tap from Tony D'Alberto. Safety car is called.

Meanwhile a whole host of cars dive into pit lane - among them Lowndes, van gisbergen, Tander, Courtney, Slade, Holdsworth, Ingall.

Race leader Whincup heads to pit lane, Winterbottom and Bright follow. The remainder of the field also follow suit. Some teams had to double stack there to avoid getting caught out by the safety car.

Still under safety car conditions and the order is; Whincup, Winterbottom, Bright, Davison, Patrizi, R. Kelly, Reindler, Coulthard, Caruso.

Lowndes and van Gisbergen, who were the first to pit, are well down the order. Seems the safety car might have picked up the wrong car, or waved them through.

Lap 19- Race restart.

Lap 20- Whincup leads, on hards. Davison is pressuring in 2nd, he's on softs. And he makes the pass and is the new race leader.

Lap 22- Roland Dane is very unhappy with the call from race management. Meanwhile his charge, Whincup, is passed by Patrizi on softs, can the local WA boy hang on for his first ever V8 podium?

Lap 25- The battle here is whether Davison can make his softs last for the rest of the race, as opposed to Whincup who should stay strong on the harder tyre to the end.

Lap 30- Davison leads Patrizi by 1 sec, with Whincup almost another second behind.

Alex Premat locks up into turn 6 and spears through the sandtrap, rejoins in P25.

Lap 32 - Bright is now on hards, and he's starting to pick off drivers with degrading soft tyres. He passes Rick Kelly for P7.

Lap 33- Rick Kelly loses another position to Michael Caruso. Steve Johnson is having a look at Kelly also.

Lap 36- van Gisbergen has lost a bit of ground, he thought there was an issue with his tyres but is pressing on, down in P18.

Tander pits for a fresh set of softs, rejoins in P24.

Lap 37- At the front, Davison holds a 1.5 sec lead to Patrizi and a 2.5 sec lead to 3rd-placed Whincup. Winterbottom is 2.8 sec behind race leader Davison.

Lap 41 - Winterbottom is closing the margin to Whincup, but can he get past in the last 10 laps for a podium finish? Both drivers are rounding up Patrizi now.

Lap 43- Whincup and Winterbottom are right on the back of Patrizi. At the front Davison leads by 2 secs.

Lap 44- Whincup gets past Patrizi, and Winterbottom eventually follows through. Still a great job by Patrizi to hold his own in a pressure situation.

Lap 45- Tander is carving his way back up the order, now in to P21 and in the middle of a big pack of cars.

The gap from Davison to Whincup has closed to 1.5 secs but wait...Wall and Rick Kelly are off in the sand at turn 1. Safety car? No!

Lap 48- 2 laps to go and the gap is under a second. can Davison hang on with degrading softs?

Lap 49- Whincup moves to pass but Davison holds on.

Final lap- Whincup throws everything at Davison. Winterbottom is in this too. He passes Whincup into the final turn!

It's Davison, Winterbottom and Whincup! What a great battle... and an FPR 1-2 for the final race here in Perth.

[twomanymontes]

Winterbottom Win Closes Up Title



MARK Winterbottom is back in the V8 Supercars Championship fight after claiming victory in an action-packed Race 10 at the Phillip Island 300.

The Orrcon Steel Ford driver won his third race of the season, though a late-race smash that eliminated both Will Davison and Jamie Whincup has launched 'Frosty' into second in the points, just 10 behind Whincup.

Davison ran off the road at the high speed turn three after rubbing with Tim Slade on lap 29, eventually spearing through the grass and smashing into Whincup, who was turning into turn four.

But for Winterbottom it was his first race win at Phillip Island since 2006.

"Now we're talking!" said Winterbottom, who won his 20th V8 Supercars Championship race one day out from his 31st birthday.

"It's about making minimal mistakes. Awesome car, awesome job by the boys. Bring it on tomorrow.

"I want to lead the title from start to finish. If you lead the title you're in the best spot. I don't care what the others say. 10 points off the lead is a great result from that race."

SP Tools pilot Shane van Gisbergen made it to second from 11th on the grid, escaping an amazing high-speed lose at turn one that sent the field scurrying.

Fellow Stone Brothers driver Tim Slade landed in the final podium spot, racing home Garth Tander, Lee Holdsworth and Rick Kelly at the end of 32 laps.

Jonathon Webb was seventh from Jason Bright, Michael Patrizi and Steve Owen.

The end result of Davison and Whincup failing to finish sees Whincup retain his lead, just 10 clear of Winterbottom (1095 points to 1085) with Davison now third on 1066.

Craig Lowndes had contact with Bright earlier in the race, the contact sending the Team BOC Commodore to the grass and an eventual eighth placed finish, while Lowndes received a pit lane penalty and recovered to 13th.

Front row starter David Reynolds qualified on the front row for the first time in his career and led the early stages of the race before a fuel hose mishap saw him need to pit a second time for fuel and eventually finish 21st in The Bottle-O Falcon.

24 of the 28 starters finished with Frenchman Alex Premat the first retirement after contact sent him into the wall on lap two.

The V8 Supercars Championship will continue tomorrow with Race 11 over a longer, 200-kilometre race length.


Here's how the race unfolded in our lap-by-lap coverage:

This race is over 32 laps (140 kilometres) with Mark Winterbottom starting on pole after earlier taking his 23rd career pole position in the V8 Supercars Championship earlier in the day.

The race has a time certain finish of 1 lap after 5.15pm local time with some light showers pre-race setting the stage for a really interesting race.

Remember the grid: It's Winterbottom on pole from Reynolds (best-ever qualifying by the Bottle-O Falcon pilot), Bright, Davison, Slade, R.Kelly, Lowndes, Whincup, Tander, Holdsworth.

Update post-qualifying is that Karl Reindler, who qualified 26th, has received a five grid spot penalty for impeding Steve Owen while he was on a fast lap during qualifying.
That drops the #11 Fair Dinkum Sheds Commodore to 28th and last on the grid.

Weather conditions are much nicer now as the cars sit on the grid - earlier there were showers but it's dry with the sun shining through (but still a few clouds around) as we are not long away from the cars being released on the formation lap.

The grid is cleared and the cars head off on the warm-up lap. Race start not too far away!

Start/Lap 1 - Great jump by both front row starters and Reynolds sweeps into the lead at turn 1! Winterbottom next from Davison and Slade, D'Alberto off at turn 2, goes to rear of the field.
Shocking start from Whincup, he's down to 12th!

End Lap 1: 55, 5, 6, 47, 8, 15, 2, 9, 888, 1 - the Vodafone boys muscled past Coulthard and Holdsworth late in the lap.

Lap 2 - Reynolds by 0.77s - Premat has crashed coming into the last corner. Major rear damage to the Frenchman's Fujitsu Commodore - Safety Car is called. Premat says he was hit from behind.

Lap 3 - Order 55, 5, 6, 47, 8, 15, 2, 9, 888, 1. Replay makes it appear Ingall and Premat had some form of contact to set it all off. Race neutralised.

Lap 5 - Still under Safety Car. Reynolds leading an FPR 1-2-3. Call is that we'll go back to green flag racing at the end of this lap.

Lap 6 - Restart - order is 55, 5, 6, 47, 8, 15, 2, 9, 888, 1.
van Gisbergen rounds up Tander for seventh around the outside of turn 4 heading into Siberia at turn 5.

Lap 7 - Winterbottom stalking Reynolds into turn 4 - Murphy pits after reporting earlier he thought he may have a flat tyre.

Lap 8 - Reynolds by 0.49s, remember he's never had a win or podium in V8 Supercars. He's got his nose in front so far ...

Lap 9 - Premat reports on his TV interview he thinks he got hit by Johnson. He's back in the garage and spectating as teammate Caruso sits 21st.

Lap 10 - Lowndes lunges Tander at turn 4 for eighth spot. Now Whincup is all over his former GRM teammate but runs out of road on the outside at the exit of Siberia and goes through the grass, losing a spot to Holdsworth. Jamie's back to 11th.

Lap 11 - Rick Kelly has jumped out of the field to take his stop. Ingall and Caruso also pit.
End of the lap Reynolds and Winterbottom pit, handing the lead to FPR teammate Davison. Bright and Lowndes also pit.

Lap 12 - Drama for Reynolds! Fuel rig drama! The hose leaked fuel as he arrived - he's lost heaps of ground and looks like he hasn't taken on any fuel - rejoins way behind Winterbottom. And then loses a spot to Rick Kelly at tunr 2.

Lap 13 - Davison pits from the lead, Slade, Whincup, Webb and Owen all follow him. The Tradingpost Falcon rejoins in front of Winterbottom to become the effective leader.
Actual race leader now is van Gisbergen from Holdsworth. Eight cars yet to pit.

Lap 14 - Patrizi and Fiore pit, with just six cars left to stop. Lowndes just set a new lap record - 1m33.2700s to eclipse his own mark from 1999.
Holdsworth pits end of the lap from second spot.

Lap 15 - Order is 9, 2, 3, 14, 6, 5, 47, 15, 55, 8, 888, 1.

Lap 16 - van Gisbergen rejoins from stop and weaves all over the road into turn 1 to defend his spot! It's very very high speed stuff. Scary! Then a few corners later, Lowndes biffs Bright from behind and send the BOC Commodore off the road and drops a pile of spots.

Lap 17 - Only Coulthard and D'Alberto yet to pit .. Davison third from teammate Winterbottom.
Lowndes is getting a pit lane penalty for the contact on Bright.
That will take Lowndes from ninth (which is effectively seventh with top two yet to pit).

Lap 18 - Order 14, 3, 6, 5, 47, 55, 15, 9, 1, 2 as Lowndes pits to take his penalty and rejoins 25th.
Coulthard and D'Alberto pit so now the whole field has pitted - Reynolds does need to pit again to get fuel as the team works on repairing his fuel tower.

Lap 19 - Winterbottom gets the run at turn two on Davison and gets nose in front but Will hangs on at turn four. Now Frosty gets another run off Siberia and they go side-by-side through the Hayshed, Winterbottom to the lead!

Lap 20 - Order 5, 6, 47, 55, 9, 15, 1, 2, 4, 19.
Officials are permitting The Bottle-O Falcon team to use one of the FPR fuel hoses to refuel when he pits. Either way, he's a goner and a promising result will go begging.

Lap 21 - Winterbottom by 0.63s from Davison, Slade, a charging van Gisbergen, Whincup, R.Kelly, Tander, Holdsworth, Webb and Bright as Reynolds makes his stop for fuel.



Lap 23 - van Gisbergen gets by Slade for third - the final podium spot. Whincup is pretty speedy too and could improve on fifth.

Lap 24 - If Davison finishes second and Whincup is fifth, then Will closes the championship margin back down to two points.

Lap 25 - Safety Car is out - geese on the circuit! True! Just like last year's L&H 500.
Order is 5, 6, 9, 47, 1, 15, 2, 4, 19, 8.

Lap 26 - Still rolling around under Safety Car - can van Gisbergen on his newer tyres get by the FPR boys and snag a win from 11th on the grid?

Lap 28 - Restart! It's a five lap dash to the line with Winterbottom heading the queue from teammate Davison, van Gisbergen third.
Frosty gets a massive jump on the restart from his teammate! He's bought himself a decent gap!
Tander jumpsby R Kelly for sixth at turn 1.
van Gisbergen lunges Davison at Siberia to get side-by-side, can't hang on through Hayshed and the Kiwi slots back in.
It's wild between Slade, Tander, Whincup all behind them! They are ripping into it!

Lap 29 - Order 5, 6, 9, 1 - van Gisbergen massive lose through turn 1 but blocks Davison coming back onto the road and lets Whincup dive into second! Davison has a rubbing right rear.
He goes firing off at turn 4, wipes out Whincup! Will's car is smashed after making contact with Slade through the turn three sweeper and firing into Whincup.

Lap 30 - Order is 5, 9, 47, 2, 4, 15, 19, 8, 91, 49. Amazing last few laps! Whincup is out and walked away from his car but Davison is limping around back to the pits.

Lap 31 - 2 full laps to go, Frosty is 4.6s clear and on his way to really closing the margin in the title chase. Slade and Tander at war for the final podium spot!
Davison back in the pits and out of the car - he's out of the race.

Lap 32 - Winterbottom wins - and launches to second in the title! van Gisbergen second from Slade, Tander fourth from Holdsworth, R.Kelly, Webb, Bright, Patrizi and Owen. Hell of a race ...

[twomanymontes]

Davison Claims Race 11 And Retakes Title Lead



WILL Davison has bounced back today at Phillip Island, claiming Race 11 of the V8 Supercars Championship after a high speed crash left his Ford Performance Racing crew with a late night repair job yesterday.

The Tradingpost Falcon driver decided to opt for a two-stop strategy in the 45-lap race, holding off a fast-finishing Craig Lowndes to claim his sixth win of the season - and FPR's ninth from 11 races.

"Long stints around here aren't easy and the tyres go away with lots of sliding," said Davison, who now moves back into the championship lead by 10 points over Jamie Whincup.

"When I saw Lowndes get by Bright I was pretty nervous. I was down last night, I didn't enjoy yesterday. I'm stoked with this one today."

Poleman Lowndes stalled on the grid and had to stack behind teammate Jamie Whincup in the pits when virtually all of the field elected to pit at the same time - though second was one heck of a fight back.

"I have to stop doing those Mark Skaife starts!" said Lowndes.

"It was a hell of a day for us. We had such a disappointing race yesterday but had to bounce back after my bad start. If I had another 10 laps I would have had a chance with Will but he kept the gap constant.

"When you try and put pressure on, you hope they trip up. FPR all credit, they are a strong team this year."

Jason Bright opted for a one stop strategy in the Team BOC Commodore and led for quite a while, eventually finishing third, his best race result at Phillip Island since 2003.

Shane van Gisbergen passed Jamie Whincup late to take fourth with the reigning Champion fifth from yesterday's winner Mark Winterbottom.

Jonathon Webb was seventh from David Reynolds, Lee Holdsworth and Garth Tander.

Todd Kelly was 11th and best of the four Kelly Racing cars, followed by Tim Slade, James Courtney (who started from pit lane and passed half of the field), Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall (who, like Walkinshaw Racing stablemate Courtney started from the pits).

A total of 21 cars finished on the lead lap with the V8 Supercars Championship now to head to Hidden Valley in Darwin for the next event.

Here's how Race 11 unfolded in our lap-by-lap coverage:

Hi everyone and welcome to Race 11 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Phillip Island 300.

This race is over 45 laps (200-kilometres) with a time certain finish of 5.15pm AEST if required.

Craig Lowndes will start from pole in the #888 TeamVodafone Commodore, clear of David Reynolds (on the front row for the second day in a row), Will Davison, Mark Winterbottom and Team BOC's Jason Bright.

The big question of this race is who will do it on two stops and push like hell and who will do it on one and save fuel as much as they can.

James Courtney (23rd) and Russell Ingall (24th) have opted to come back in to the pits from the roll-around lap to the grid and top up on fuel. They'll start from the pit lane.

The grid is cleared and the warm up lap commences.

Grid: 888, 55, 6, 5, 8, 1, 91, 9, 14, 19, 7, 4, 2, 17, 47, 15, 49, 34, 30, 51, 21, 11, 22, 66, 18, 3, 12, 33 - 22 and 66 starting from the pit lane.

Tony D'Alberto also now heading into the pit lane at the end of the warm up lap to top up on fuel.

Start/Lap 1 - Lowndes makes a shocker! He stalled and got it going but Reynolds leads into turn 1 with Davison and Winterbottom going with him. Lowndes is way back - ninth.
Johnson and Murphy hit at turn 4, Caruso shoved off the road on the outside of them.
Tander spears off into MG Corner - out in the grass and rejoins down the back.

Lap 2 - Davison lunges Reynolds into turn 1 to take the lead. Is Dave going for a one-stopper and Will for two? BJR have confirmed Coulthard will do two and sprint, Bright to save and go for one.

Order - Now its 6, 5, 55, 1, 91, 9, 14, 7, 888, 19.

Lap 3 - Davison by 1.16s over Winterbottom, it's an FPR 1-2-3. Patrizi off the road at turn 2 - was fifth ... rejoins miles back now. A shame.
Davison new fastest lap, 1m33.9079s, 1.55s over Winterbottom. No doubt Will is going for two stops.

Lap 4 - Order 6, 5, 55, 1, 9, 14, 888, 7, 19, 47. Pit lane starters are headed by Courtney, who's got up to 22nd.
D'Alberto though has slipped off the road near the Hayshed and is bogged in the grass.
Safety Car is called on leader's lap five.

Lap 5 - Safety Car out - pit lane is busy! They are all going to fire in here! Stacking to come!
Bright, Holdsworth, Premat, Wall, Tander and Caruso stay out.
Reindler and Coulthard collide in pit lane, Fabian rides up and over the #11 Commodore's wheel in the fast lane.

Lap 6 - Race order 8, 4, 33, 21, 2, 34, 6, 55, 1, 7. The top six cars have not pitted under this Safety Car.

Lap 7 - Coulthard comes back into the pits after the contact with Reindler in the pit lane last lap during the stops.

Lap 8 - Restart with Bright leading us back to the control line.
The cars that pitted under Safety Car are starting to slice their way through the guys who didn't pit and are trying to save fuel.
Order 8, 4, 33, 21, 2, 6, 55, 1, 9, 34, 7, 5, 49, 19, 47.

Lap 9 - Rick Kelly reporting dramas and heads to garage - Reindler and Patrizi off the road at turn 1. Karl is bogged and Safety Car is coming out. Patrizi is also stranded.

Lap 10 - Caruso has pitted for repairs after contact. He drops to rear of the field.

Lap 11 - Restart with Bright leading Holdsworth, Premat, Wall, Tander with Davison next the first guy who has already pitted and committed to the two stop strategy.
Whincup gets by Reynolds for seventh spot.

Lap 12 - Davison lunges Tander at turn 4 - that's for fifth spot.

Lap 13 - Bright by 1.42s over Holdsworth from Premat, Davison, Wall, Tander fighting off Whincup, van Gisbergen. Reynolds, T.Kelly and Lowndes. Winterbottom 12th.

Lap 14 - Whincup gets by Tander for sixth - they've been going at it for a few laps!
Race Control advises that Winterbottom holding up the field in pit lane under Safety Car will be looked at post-race.

Lap 15 - Order 8, 4, 6, 33, 21, 1, 2, 9, 888, 7, 55, 5, 47, 19, 18. That's the top 15. 24 cars left on the lead lap.

Lap 17 - Caruso will receive a Pit Lane Penalty for a pit infringement earlier - a mechanic worked under the car without jack stands being used. He's 23rd and last car on the lead lap.

Lap 18 - Bright by 3.92s over Davison and going very nicely! Holdsworth next from Whincup and van Gisbergen.

Lap 19 - Brad Jones, team boss of Bright's #8 car reckons the BOC car can go to lap 23 on fuel.

Lap 20 - Order 8, 6, 4, 1, 888, 9, 2, 7, 5, 33.

Lap 21 - Whincup gets by Holdsworth for third spot - Lowndes closing in to pounce too. The IRWIN Ford is on a run to do the race on one stop - the Vodafone boys are running and gunning after their earlier stop and will also need to pit but can run full rich on fuel settings.
Now Lowndes and van Gisbergen both get past Lee.

Lap 22 - Bright hanging tough! Leads Davison by 2.8s, the margin has come down but not massively.
End of the lap and Holdsworth pits, as does Premat. They're out of fuel and need to come in - their pace had faded so they will now try and run to the end.
Lee's IRWIN Ford is delayed leaving after it sounded like the engine turned itself off.

Lap 23 - Bright pits end of the lap - he locks it up coming into the pits! Hopefully he didn't break 40km/h at the start of the pits!

Lap 24 - Order is now 6, 1, 888, 9, 7, 19, 47, 18, 22, 49. Pits busy with Winterbottom, Tander, Reynolds, Murphy and Wall also coming in.

Lap 25 - Davison by 3.79s, Whincup comes into the pits. Order on road now 6, 888, 9. Todd Kelly and Webb also come in.
We're now in the window for everyone to pit and fill up to make it to the end of the race. If drivers stay out for a few more laps now, that means they'll be on better tyres in the final laps.
Bright rejoins just in front of Whincup!
Davison pitting at the end of the lap, Lowndes follows him in as does van Gisbergen.

Lap 26 - Davison rejoins in front of Bright and Whincup. Lowndes rejoins behind his teammate.
So Will has slightly younger tyres than Whincup and Bright - hmm this sets up a great second half of the race.

Lap 27 - Safety Car is called. Fabian Coulthard's car had a punctured right front tyre and has left debris over the circuit at the Hayshed.

Lap 28 - Order at a reduced pace is 6, 8, 1, 888, 4, 9, 5, 19, 7, 55.

Lap 29 - Race restarts. Davison gets a great jump on Bright and has a margin as they flash across the control line.
van Gisbergen gets by Holdsworth for fifth spot at Siberia.
Tander lunges Reynolds for 10th spot at MG Corner near the end of the lap.

Lap 30 - Lowndes all over Whincup. Rick Kelly is out of the race too after his earlier dramas.
Mechanical Black Flag for Coulthard for a loose front guard - not his day, he's 24th.

Lap 31 - Order 6, 8, 1, 888, 9, 4, 5, 19, 7, 2.
Safety Car is called again for debris on the circuit approaching turn 1. It's off Coulthard's car again.

Lap 34 - Restart with Davison leading.
van Gisbergen rounds up Lowndes on the exit of turn 4 on the outside! He gets through to fourth.

Lap 35 - Davison has skipped away a little on the first lap by the restart. Now van Gisbergen zeroes in on Whincup for third spot.
But Lowndes gets the Kiwi back at Siberia! Great race between these two!

Lap 36 - Davison by 0.5s over Bright, Whincup, Lowndes, van Gisbergen, Holdsworth, Winterbottom, Webb, T.Kelly, Tander.
Premat spins exit of turn 4 after contact with Wall - who has a small fire underneath his car and stops at Siberia. Fire is out but he's done for the day.
Owen tapped Premat into a spin and Wall had nowhere to go - ripping the oil coolers off the car - a shame for the former Australian GT Champ.

Lap 37 - No Safety Car with Wall's car off at the exit of Siberia.
Davison by 0.8s. If he wins, Whincup is third and Winterbottom stays seventh, Jamie will lead the title by 8 points over Will with Frosty third.

Lap 38 - Plenty of oil left on the exit of turn four from Wall's drama. Drivers have to stay away from it!

Lap 39 - Premat off the road at turn two. He's way back in 22nd.

Lap 40 - Lowndes gets by Whincup for third down the Gardner Straight.

Lap 41 - Davison by 1.16s, with Whincup fourth and if he can win, he'll be back in the title lead by one point!
Lowndes all over Bright for second spot! The poleman slips by at MG Corner and gets through.

Lap 42 - Order 6, 888, 8, 1, 9, 5, 19, 4, 55, 2.
van Gisbergen all over Whincup! Side-by-side exit of Siberia! The Kiwi holds his ground on the outside and gets by to fourth spot! Winterbottom now right on Whincup.

Lap 43 - Davison to Lowndes is 1.34s. CL is coming!

Lap 44 - Two laps to go - margin at the line is 1.22s.
Bright is hanging on in third for a podium result.

Lap 45 - One to go. What a fightback from Lowndes - remember he stalled on the grid - and had to queue in the pits under Safety Car!
Margin at the line with one to go was 0.75s.
This is going down to the wire! Craig is closing! Will needs not to make even the slightest of errors.
Davison is home - he's back in the title lead and wins his sixth race win of the season - a nice drive. He beats home Lowndes and Bright.

van Gisbergen fourth from Whincup, Winterbottom, Webb, Reynolds, Holdsworth and Tander.

[85t5mcss]

Her's an idea. Bring the Aussies/Kiwis over and run an exhibition race at IMS along with Grand Am/NASCAR in 2013. Non-points race similar to what NASCAR did in Japan.

I'm all for that. Oh, and put a chicane in the front stretch, too.

[twomanymontes]

That would be cool! I'd have to figure out a way to make it to that race! But it still looks like they will be in Austin Texas next year.