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

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