Will Davison has held off a fast finishing Mark Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup to win Race 9 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Trading Post Perth Challenge.
Whincup and Winterbottom started on the soft tyres and led the way until a Safety Car on Lap 15 of 50 turned the race on its head.
Having opted for the more traditional hard-soft strategy, Davison quickly made his way to the front on the faster tyres after the restart.
Stretching his softs to their limit over the remaining 30 laps, Davison survived several bouts of minor contact from Whincup on the final tour to take a thrilling victory.
Winterbottom was able to pass Whincup on the last corner of the race – beating the TeamVodafone driver to the line by just 0.06s.
Jason Bright, Michael Patrizi, Craig Lowndes, Fabian Coulthard, Tim Slade, Michael Caruso and Steven Johnson rounded out the top 10.
Patrizi ran second for much of the second stint, but fell behind Whincup, Winterbottom and Bright over the final six laps as his soft tyres faded
Lowndes’ sixth place finish came despite being shuffled from fourth to 15th during the Safety Car induced rush of pitstops.
A tangle between Tony D’Alberto and Taz Douglas triggered the full-course yellow, which saw Lowndes head a train of drivers including Shane van Gisbergen, Greg Murphy, James Courtney, Tim Slade, Garth Tander and Lee Holdsworth to the pits.
With the Safety Car holding Lowndes behind it for the majority of the outlap, the remaining drivers who had not pitted were then able to do so and rejoin ahead of the train led by the TeamVodafone Commodore.
Lowndes, who had been one of 24 drivers to start on the hard tyres, intially struggled to regain ground after the restart before making up six places in the final 17 laps.
D’Alberto eventually failed to finish following damage from the incident with Douglas. David Wall was the only other retirement, having clashed with Rick Kelly while battling for 14th during the closing laps.
David Reynolds arguably had the worst day of all – The Bottle-O Falcon losing several laps in the pits following a starter motor failure on the grid.
Whincup now leads the championship standings by just 29 points from Davison after nine races, with Winterbottom 131 points further adrift in third.
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s Race 8 report.
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See below for the full Race 9 result
| 1 | Trading Post FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 50:38.3093 |
| 2 | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 50:38.8040 |
| 3 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 50:38.8627 |
| 4 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 50:40.2557 |
| 5 | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 50:43.8013 |
| 6 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 50:52.7364 |
| 7 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 50:55.6089 |
| 8 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 50:55.7468 |
| 9 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 50:59.3298 |
| 10 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 50:59.7576 |
| 11 | Pepsi Max Crew | Greg Murphy | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:01.0063 |
| 12 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:04.2329 |
| 13 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:05.0462 |
| 14 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:09.5901 |
| 15 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 51:09.9880 |
| 16 | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 51:14.2754 |
| 17 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:14.5239 |
| 18 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 51:19.3497 |
| 19 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:19.6702 |
| 20 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:21.4624 |
| 21 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 51:24.2777 |
| 22 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 50 | 51:27.4775 |
| 23 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 50 | 51:37.5535 |
| 24 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 49 | 51:16.4101 |
| 25 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas | Holden Commodore VE2 | 47 | 51:30.5478 |
| 26 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 45 | 51:23.6945 |
| DNF | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 46 | 47:06.9512 |
| DNF | Tony D’Alberto Racing | Tony D’Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 14 | 14:13.7290 |
See below for the updated points standings
| 1 | Jamie Whincup | 1095 |
| 2 | Will Davison | 1066 |
| 3 | Mark Winterbottom | 935 |
| 4 | Craig Lowndes | 779 |
| 5 | Lee Holdsworth | 737 |
| 6 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 695 |
| 7 | Fabian Coulthard | 694 |
| 8 | Tim Slade | 681 |
| 9 | Garth Tander | 618 |
| 10 | Rick Kelly | 571 |
| 11 | Michael Caruso | 516 |
| 12 | Todd Kelly | 507 |
| 13 | Steven Johnson | 494 |
| 14 | James Courtney | 470 |
| 15 | Russell Ingall | 464 |
| 16 | Jason Bright | 453 |
| 17 | Michael Patrizi | 426 |
| 18 | Dean Fiore | 421 |
| 19 | David Reynolds | 414 |
| 20 | Steve Owen | 402 |
| 21 | Tony D’Alberto | 384 |
| 22 | Jonathon Webb | 334 |
| 23 | Alexandre Premat | 330 |
| 24 | Taz Douglas | 300 |
| 25 | Karl Reindler | 288 |
| 26 | James Moffat | 270 |
| 27 | David Wall | 253 |
| 28 | Greg Murphy | 219 |
| 29 | David Russell | 42 |
See below for video highlights of Race 9
