Will Davison has won Race 3 of the V8 Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains, leading home Ford Performance Racing team-mate Mark Winterbottom in Tasmania today.
The FPR Falcons raced nose-to-tail for the majority of the 59 laps, with Davison having taken the lead from his pole-sitting team-mate off the start.
The pair were a full 8.5s clear of third-placed Jamie Whincup at the chequered flag.
Shane van Gisbergen held out Craig Lowndes for fourth, while David Reynolds, Garth Tander, Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth and Todd Kelly rounded out the top 10.
The entire field, bar Dean Fiore and David Wall, started the race on the hard tyres.
Davison’s cause was helped early by a battle for second breaking out between Winterbottom and Whincup. The TeamVodafone Commodore made it passed the Orrcon Falcon on the opening after a rub between the pair on the back straight.
Winterbottom reversed the positions immediately prior to triggering the pistop cycle on Lap 23.
Davison pitted one lap later and, despite a minor delay on the left-rear corner of the Tradingpost entry, rejoined in the effective race lead.
Winterbottom was never more than a second adrift of his team-mate over the remaining laps, but could not find a way by.
Whincup and Van Gisbergen held third and fourth to the flag, while Lowndes found himself having to pass Reynolds twice during the race after being jumped by The Bottle-O Falcon in the pitstops.
Slade could count himself lucky to finish eighth after escaping from a wild ride through the Turn 1/2 sandtrap while battling with Todd Kelly in the opening laps.
Taz Douglas ran in the top 10 for the majority of the day but lost position to Lee Holdsworth, Todd Kelly and Steven Johnson in the final laps to end the race 12th.
James Courtney and Rick Kelly were 18th and 19th respectively after the pair of Holdens spun at Turn 6 on Lap 1.
Tony D’Alberto was the last of the classified runners in 26th after losing time with steering issues caused by early contact with Alex Premat. The Frenchman had fallen down the field after stalling at the start.
It was a difficult day for this morning’s practice pace-setter Jonathon Webb, who speared off three times at the Turn 4 hairpin during the opening laps before retiring with brake problems.
Webb was joined on the retirements list by David Wall. The Brad Jones Racing Commodore was running at the chequered flag, but had lost significant laps in the pits with a power steering problem.
See below for the full race result
1 | Trading Post FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 52:30.5485 |
2 | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 52:31.1880 |
3 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 52:39.6513 |
4 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 52:43.9288 |
5 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 52:44.3273 |
6 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 52:49.4116 |
7 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 52:50.7661 |
8 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 52:50.9812 |
9 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 52:57.8858 |
10 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 53:01.7111 |
11 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 53:07.0791 |
12 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 53:07.6798 |
13 | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 53:09.6346 |
14 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 53:10.1466 |
15 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 53:10.9143 |
16 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 53:19.3565 |
17 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 53:22.3911 |
18 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 58 | 52:33.5453 |
19 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 58 | 52:33.7796 |
20 | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi | Holden Commodore VE2 | 58 | 52:33.9415 |
21 | Pepsi Max Crew | David Russell | Holden Commodore VE2 | 58 | 52:45.4633 |
22 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 58 | 52:51.4591 |
23 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 58 | 53:06.3936 |
24 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 57 | 53:25.8055 |
25 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 51 | 52:53.7854 |
26 | Tony D’Alberto Racing | Tony D’Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 49 | 52:36.2309 |
DNF | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VE2 | 26 | 48:22.8355 |
DNF | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 35:58.3393 |
See below for the championship standings after Race 3
1 | Will Davison | 438 |
2 | Jamie Whincup | 399 |
3 | Mark Winterbottom | 360 |
4 | Garth Tander | 354 |
5 | Craig Lowndes | 317 |
6 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 294 |
7 | Lee Holdsworth | 285 |
8 | Fabian Coulthard | 243 |
9 | Tim Slade | 237 |
10 | Rick Kelly | 216 |
11 | Todd Kelly | 204 |
12 | Steven Johnson | 204 |
13 | David Reynolds | 198 |
14 | Steve Owen | 177 |
15 | Michael Patrizi | 168 |
16 | Russell Ingall | 165 |
17 | Alexandre Premat | 159 |
18 | Dean Fiore | 144 |
19 | Tony D’Alberto | 138 |
20 | Michael Caruso | 138 |
21 | Karl Reindler | 126 |
22 | James Moffat | 123 |
23 | Taz Douglas | 102 |
24 | David Wall | 93 |
25 | Jason Bright | 87 |
26 | James Courtney | 81 |
27 | David Russell | 42 |
28 | Jonathon Webb | 36 |
29 | Greg Murphy | 33 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Tasmania Challenge Race Guide
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