Mark Winterbottom continued his domination of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at the Nikon Super GP, winning the first race (Race 19, Part A) of the weekend.
The Orrcon Ford Performance Racing driver led from start to finish and left the carnage that unfolded behind him in his wake.
“To get out there and do it the way we did was fantastic,” he said after the race.
Garth Tander finished second the Safety Car interrupted race. His only ‘moment’ came with just a handful of laps remaining when he locked a brake and looked like he was about to throw away his second place …
Tander held it together to finish ahead of his team-mate Will Davison, and in doing so, reduced the gap to V8 Championship leader Jamie Whincup.
Whincup was hampered when he clashed with Jason Bright after the first (of many) Safety Car restarts.
Whincup had a flat tyre due to the clash. A pit stop to replace it, dropping him to last. The constant stream of Safety Cars helped him, though, eventually finishing 13th.
It was a bad race for the Garry Rogers Motorsport team. Lee Holdsworth got loose at turn one and buried his #33 car in the fence. Moments later, team-mate Michael Caruso slammed the wall behind him, hitting Holdsworth’s car on the way through. Both cars failed to finish.
The GRM incident was one of a number of incidents during the 34 lap race. The carnage started on the first lap when Todd Kelly hit the wall at turn four in his Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore. While the pack slowed fractionally to avoid the stricken black Commodore, Tony D’Alberto crunched into the back of Cameron McConville.
Others to taste tyre walls and concrete included Jason Richards, Dean Fiore, Fabian Coulthard, Michael Patrizi and James Courtney, who hit the wall at the turn one wall at the final restart and was narrowly avoided by no less than five cars.
Race 19, Part B will start at 3.15pm
V8 SUPERCARS – Race 19 – Part A
1. #5 Mark Winterbottom
2. #2 Garth Tander
3. #22 Will Davison
4. #888 Craig Lowndes
5. #9 Shane van Gisbergen
6. #51 Greg Murphy
7. #6 Steven Richards
8. #10 Paul Dumbrell
9. #39 Russell Ingall
10. #17 Steven Johnson
11. #3 Jason Bargwanna
12. #15 Rick Kelly
13. #1 Jamie Whincup
14. #11 Jack Perkins
15. # David Reynolds
16. #4 Alex Davison
17. # #67 Tim Slade
18. #14 Cameron McConville
19. #7 Todd Kelly
20. #55 Tony D’Alberto
21. #16 Mark McNally
22. #333 Michael Patrizi
DNF #18 James Courtney
DNF #33 Lee Holdsworth
DNF #34 Michael Caruso
DNF #111 Fabian Coulthard
DNF #12 Dean Fiore
DNF #25 Jason Bright
DNF #8 Jason Richards
