Whincup records 100th Supercars win

After a string of second place finishes, Jamie Whincup finally chalked up his 100th career Supercars victory in Race 19 at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Whincup led home team-mate Craig Lowndes by 2.7s at the end of the weekend’s 200km feature race.

Triple Eight’s strategy of making early first stops with all three of its cars paid dividends as the team stormed to its seventh straight victory.

Lowndes and Whincup made their second pitstops together just over 20 laps from the end, swapping places as the Red Bull entry narrowly emerged ahead.

Whincup’s success denied Lowndes, who became the category’s first centurion last June, victory in his 600th start.

“It’s an honour to join Lowndesy on the ton,” said Whincup.

“It’s been just over 10 years since my first win and I’ve had every one with the same crew, so a massive thank you to everyone at Triple Eight.

“Today was fitting, it’s exactly what my career has been all about. It was a massive team effort jumping Lowndesy in the pits.

“To finally get that win after being the bridesmaid three races in a row is an awesome feeling.”

Lowndes had led the early stages thanks to a blistering start from the second row, blazing around the outside of pole-sitter Chaz Mostert at Turn 1.

Mostert, now a full 12 months without a win, finished eight seconds adrift of the leader in third.

Fabian Coulthard rose from 10th on the grid to finish fourth, gaining two late places when James Moffat tagged Shane van Gisbergen into a spin at Turn 8.

Van Gisbergen rejoined to bank solid points in fifth, while Moffat was handed a drive-through penalty and dropped to 18th.

Moffat had been enjoying his most competitive run of the season before the incident, which saw the out-of-control Volvo tag the right-rear corner of Van Gisbergen’s Holden.

Scott McLaughlin finished sixth in his Volvo ahead of Garth Tander, James Courtney, Todd Kelly and Michael Caruso.

Mark Winterbottom endured a dismal run to 14th that included an early first pitstop due to a tyre issue.

Will Davison’s points tally also took a major hit as he finished 26th after a miscalculation saw the Tekno Holden run out of fuel before its first pitstop.

Limping to pitlane, Tekno mechanics were able to push Davison’s Holden up pitlane before adding fuel and sending it back into battle.

The results see Whincup extend his championship lead to 137 points over Van Gisbergen ahead of the Pirtek Enduro Cup.

Result: Virgin Australian Supercars Championship Red Rooster Sydney Super Sprint Race 19

Championship Standings