James Courtney has held off Jamie Whincup to take a memorable victory for the Holden Racing Team in the second 125km sprint at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide.
Courtney shot from fourth on the grid to second at the first corner, trailing pole-sitter Chaz Mostert.
Mostert led the way through the compulsory stops until Courtney made a decisive move at Turn 9 on lap 21 of 39.
Whincup followed his Holden rival through on Mostert to second, applying heavy pressure to the 2010 champion for the remainder.
Courtney proved unflappable, however, eventually taking the flag 0.6s ahead to score his third Adelaide race win in three years.
“It was an amazing battle and shows why he’s such a champion,” said Courtney.
“To go wheel-to-wheel with him basically all day is fantastic.
“He probably had a better car than what we had at the end and we had to fight really hard to hold him off.”
Whincup congratulated his rival on the victory after the race.
“JC deserved that, it was a good battle,” said Whincup.
“Our race was all about the start where we bogged down and didn’t get off the line.”
Mostert and Scott McLaughlin drove solidly to third and fourth respectively in another test of endurance for the drivers in sweltering conditions.
Shane van Gisbergen started and finished fifth, recovering the place after dropping to ninth with a slow pitstop.
Michael Caruso, Scott Pye, Jason Bright, Will Davison and Craig Lowndes completed the top 10 following a race filled with robust mid-field battles.
Two Safety Cars punctuated the 125km, with the first called on just the second lap due to a heavy crash for Chris Pither at Turn 8.
Pither glanced the outside wall with his Super Black Ford before making heavy contact with the right-side, ruling the car out of the weekend.
The second followed a collision in the Senna Chicane that saw Tim Blanchard clout the back of Garth Tander, who was returning to the track following a lengthy pitstop.
Result: V8 Supercars Clipsal 500 Race 2
| 1 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 59:37.1268 |
| 2 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 59:37.7578 |
| 3 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG/X | 39 | 59:39.6522 |
| 4 | Wilson Security Racing GRM | Scott McLaughlin | Volvo S60 | 39 | 59:40.3114 |
| 5 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Shane Van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 59:43.4202 |
| 6 | Nissan Motorsport | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 39 | 59:49.8366 |
| 7 | DJR Team Penske | Scott Pye | Ford Falcon FG/X | 39 | 59:53.5718 |
| 8 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 59:54.2591 |
| 9 | Team Darrell Lea STIX | Will Davison | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 59:55.8689 |
| 10 | Team Vortex | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 59:57.6689 |
| 11 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG/X | 39 | 59:58.6575 |
| 12 | Prodrive Racing Australia | Cameron Waters | Ford Falcon FG/X | 39 | 59:59.4205 |
| 13 | Nissan Motorsport | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 39 | 01:00:01.0649 |
| 14 | DJR Team Penske | Fabian Coulthard | Ford Falcon FG/X | 39 | 01:00:02.1305 |
| 15 | Wilson Security Racing GRM | James Moffat | Volvo S60 | 39 | 01:00:03.8610 |
| 16 | carsales Racing | Todd Kelly | Nissan Altima | 39 | 01:00:04.1923 |
| 17 | Freightliner Racing | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 01:00:04.9322 |
| 18 | GB Galvanizing Racing | Dale Wood | Nissan Altima | 39 | 01:00:06.0382 |
| 19 | Erebus Motorsport Penrite | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 01:00:06.9123 |
| 20 | LD Motorsports | Andre Heimgartner | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 01:00:08.4106 |
| 21 | Preston Hire Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 01:00:09.4383 |
| 22 | Plus Fitness Racing | Aaren Russell | Holden Commodore VF | 39 | 01:00:13.9262 |
| 23 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VF | 35 | 01:00:16.7186 |
| 24 | Team Cooldrive | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore VF | 33 | 01:00:30.0601 |
| DNF | Superblack Racing | Chris Pither | Ford Falcon FG/X | 1 | 1:38.3859 |
| DNF | LD Motorsports | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore VF |
V8 Supercars Championship standings
1 |
James Courtney |
144 |
2 |
Jamie Whincup |
144 |
3 |
Scott McLaughlin |
120 |
4 |
Shane Van Gisbergen |
119 |
5 |
Chaz Mostert |
92 |
6 |
Craig Lowndes |
87 |
7 |
Michael Caruso |
84 |
8 |
Scott Pye |
82 |
9 |
Mark Winterbottom |
81 |
10 |
Todd Kelly |
79 |
11 |
Will Davison |
78 |
12 |
Rick Kelly |
75 |
13 |
Garth Tander |
73 |
14 |
Fabian Coulthard |
70 |
15 |
Jason Bright |
69 |
16 |
Cameron Waters |
64 |
17 |
James Moffat |
57 |
18 |
David Reynolds |
55 |
19 |
Dale Wood |
47 |
20 |
Andre Heimgartner |
41 |
21 |
Lee Holdsworth |
39 |
22 |
Tim Blanchard |
32 |
23 |
Tim Slade |
27 |
24 |
Chris Pither |
25 |
25 |
Nick Percat |
21 |
26 |
Aaren Russell |
9 |
Discussion about this post