James Courtney takes race win, title lead

James Courtney has taken the lead of the V8 Supercars Championship Series with victory at Winton Motor Raceway today – his fourth race win in-a-row.

The Jim Beam racing driver kept his nose clean in the time-reduced race, picking exactly the right moment to pass TeamVodafone’s Craig Lowndes for the lead at turn four with seven laps remaining.

The race was reduced by four laps due to the Seven Network’s AFL commitments.

Courtney’s win has taken away Jamie Whincup’s championship lead – the first time that Whincup has not led the V8 championship since Bathurst 2008. It’s also the first time that a Dick Johnson Racing driver has led the championship in 14 years.

Lee Holdsworth grabbed his second podium for the year – adding to his Clipsal 500 podium place in March. The Fujitsu Racing driver had a faultless race – but the only blotch was a spin on the cool down lap!

Pole-sitter Rick Kelly took fourth place in his Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE, ahead of Holdsworth’s team-mate Michael Caruso and Orrcon Steel FPR’s Mark Winterbottom.

Tim Slade, of Wilson Security Racing, stormed through at the end of the race with a great tyre strategy to grab seventh place – his best V8 Supercars result. Slade was the standout performer of the Stone Brothers Racing drivers, with Shane van Gisbergen in 12^th and Alex Davison 17^th.

Centaur Racing’s Tony D’Alberto notched together another great drive, finishing ninth – his third top 10 result in-a-row. The result was especially special, considering he was sent spinning in the opening lap biff and barge.

Rounding out the top 10 was The Bottle-O Racing’s Paul Dumbrell.