Craig Lowndes has hung on for a stunning victory in Race 27 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Sydney Telstra 500.
While team-mate and title rival could manage just 20th after a midrace damper failure put the #88 Commodore in the Turn 5 wall, Lowndes beat Garth Tander to the win by 0.8s as the majority of the field ran low on fuel in the final laps.
Whincup now leads Lowndes by 83 points with just one race and 150 points left available.
Tander passed Michael Caruso on the last lap to take second, while Shane van Gisbergen demoted the stuttering Fujitsu Commodore to fourth in a spectacular last-corner pass that saw the SP Tools Falcon ride over Caruso's left-rear wheel – shooting the Ford momentarily into the air.
Mark Winterbottom recovered from a drive-through penalty to take fifth, while Tim Slade, James Courtney, James Moffat, Todd Kelly and Rick Kelly rounded out the top 10. Rick Kelly had looked set for third before pitting for fuel on the penultimate lap.
The thrilling finish had been set up by a Safety Car appearing for Jason Bright's stranded Team BOC Commodore on Lap 46 – just outside the normal fuel range of the field.
Caruso led at the final restart and initially appeared to have the measure of Lowndes, but was forced to yield the top spot when his rival began upping the pace with little over 10 laps remaining.
It was a tough day for Ford Performance Racing, with Will Davison leading the early laps before damaging his steering – which eventually broke and sent the pole-sitter into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 12.
Front-end failures also accounted for the FPR-built Falcons of Paul Dumbrell and Tony D'Alberto, in addition to the Triple Eight-designed cars of Jonathon Webb and Whincup.
A late change to the kerbing regulations appeared to be to blame for the high attrition rate, with the drivers told last night that the electronic kerb-hopping sensors around the circuit would be turned off for the remainder of the weekend following a day of inconsistent operation on Friday.
Winterbottom's Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon survived however and looked to be in the box seat as half distance approached, but a penalty for turning an off-sequence Greg Murphy around at Turn 1 on Lap 32 ruined his chances.
Holdsworth had been an effective second behind Winterbottom when the incident occured, but later fell out of contention himself on pit strategy.
See below for the full Race 27 result
1 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 01:59:35.1252 |
2 | Toll Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 01:59:36.0066 |
3 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 74 | 01:59:41.9470 |
4 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 01:59:43.3518 |
5 | Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 74 | 01:59:45.8350 |
6 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 74 | 01:59:54.9660 |
7 | Toll Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 01:59:55.4200 |
8 | Jim Beam Racing | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 74 | 02:00:03.1178 |
9 | Jack Daniel's Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:05.3078 |
10 | Jack Daniel's Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:08.7798 |
11 | Bundaberg Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:14.6852 |
12 | Irwin Racing | Alex Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 74 | 02:00:16.5976 |
13 | Stratco Racing | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:16.8029 |
14 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:19.7826 |
15 | Gulf Western Oil Racing | Warren Luff | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:21.9197 |
16 | Pepsi Max Crew | Greg Murphy | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:25.5612 |
17 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:29.3696 |
18 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 74 | 02:00:36.3314 |
19 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 74 | 02:00:46.2074 |
20 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 68 | 02:00:19.9843 |
DNF | Triple F Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 73 | 01:58:41.3026 |
DNF | The Bottle-O Racing Team | Paul Dumbrell | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 01:30:24.0432 |
DNF | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 45 | 01:13:22.3226 |
DNF | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Holden Commodore VE2 | 42 | 01:14:15.8672 |
DNF | Wilson Security Team McGrath | Tony D'Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 36 | 01:57:06.2883 |
DNF | Mother Energy Racing Team | Jonathon Webb | Ford Falcon FG | 34 | 01:25:39.4992 |
DNF | Jana Living Racing | Jason Bargwanna | Holden Commodore VE2 | 29 | 50:51.4467 |
DNF | Trading Post FPR Falcon | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 11 | 16:26.4711 |
See below for the points standings after Race 27
Pos | Driver Name | Total |
1 | Jamie Whincup | 3078 |
2 | Craig Lowndes | 2995 |
3 | Mark Winterbottom | 2560 |
4 | Shane van Gisbergen | 2543 |
5 | Garth Tander | 2526 |
6 | Will Davison | 2345 |
7 | Rick Kelly | 2289 |
8 | Lee Holdsworth | 1920 |
9 | Alex Davison | 1850 |
10 | Fabian Coulthard | 1839 |
11 | Tim Slade | 1826 |
12 | James Courtney | 1773 |
13 | Greg Murphy | 1678 |
14 | Steven Johnson | 1645 |
15 | Michael Caruso | 1627 |
16 | Jason Bright | 1549 |
17 | Steve Owen | 1501 |
18 | Todd Kelly | 1493 |
19 | David Reynolds | 1453 |
20 | Russell Ingall | 1403 |
21 | Jonathon Webb | 1373 |
22 | James Moffat | 1306 |
23 | Jason Bargwanna | 1298 |
24 | Paul Dumbrell | 1242 |
25 | Karl Reindler | 1093 |
26 | Tony D'Alberto | 1045 |
27 | Dean Fiore | 992 |
28 | Warren Luff | 809 |
29 | Mark Skaife | 532 |
30 | Nick Percat | 527 |
31 | Richard Lyons | 511 |
32 | Allan Simonsen | 509 |
33 | Andrew Jones | 460 |
34 | Cameron McConville | 406 |
35 | John McIntyre | 393 |
36 | Steve Richards | 366 |
37 | Luke Youlden | 344 |
38 | Andrew Thompson | 334 |
39 | Sebastian Bourdais | 288 |
40 | Tim Blanchard | 288 |
41 | Paul Morris | 268 |
42 | Jack Perkins | 255 |
43 | Greg Ritter | 243 |
44 | Dale Wood | 236 |
45 | Marcus Marshall | 229 |
46 | Oliver Gavin | 222 |
47 | Owen Kelly | 220 |
48 | Daniel Gaunt | 219 |
49 | Jorg Bergmeister | 207 |
50 | Simon Pagenaud | 207 |
51 | David Russell | 202 |
52 | Shane Price | 197 |
53 | Nathan Pretty | 192 |
54 | Michael Patrizi | 187 |
55 | David Wall | 185 |
56 | Darren Turner | 165 |
57 | Richard Westbrook | 150 |
58 | Gil de Ferran | 150 |
59 | Craig Baird | 148 |
60 | Boris Said | 147 |
61 | Matthew Halliday | 137 |
62 | Augusto Farfus Jr | 132 |
63 | Jan Magnussen | 129 |
64 | Joey Hand | 120 |
65 | Alex Tagliani | 120 |
66 | Emanuele Pirro | 114 |
67 | Dean Canto | 109 |
68 | Taz Douglas | 93 |
69 | Marc Lieb | 87 |
70 | Dirk Muller | 69 |
71 | David Besnard | 66 |
72 | Christian Klein | 60 |
73 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 48 |
74 | Sarrazin Stephane | 42 |
75 | Fabrizio Giovanardi | 39 |
76 | Marino Franchitti | 0 |
77 | Cameron Waters | 0 |
78 | Grant Denyer | 0 |