Mark Winterbottom has held off Jamie Whincup in a thrilling finish to win the final ITM400 Hamilton.
Whincup closed a 3s margin over the final 10 laps to challenge the Orrcon Ford – the two cars making contact on the first two corners of the last lap before Winterbottom edged away to win by 0.7s.
The victory is Winterbottom’s first of the season and comes in his 250th V8 Supercars Championship race start.
Will Davison came home 14s further adrift in third while Craig Lowndes, Fabian Coulthard, Lee Holdsworth, David Reynolds, Tony D’Alberto, Todd Kelly and Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the top 10.
Davison now leads Whincup by 21 points after six races with Winterbottom a further 161 points adrift in third.
Starting second on the grid, Winterbottom led pole-sitter Davison away at the start and was not headed outside of the pitstop cycles.
Davison ran second for the first half of the race before losing the place to a charging Whincup.
Repaired following its qualifying crash, the TeamVodafone Commodore dropped to seventh with a bad start before steadily moving back up through the field.
The race’s one and only Safety Car was called on Lap 18 due to debris from Garth Tander’s Holden Racing Team Commodore.
Tander clipped the Turn 6 apex tyre bundle while diving to the inside of D’Alberto as the pair battled for sixth place. Yesterday’s podium finisher eventually came home 26th after a lengthy stop for repairs.
Michael Caruso fared little better, with the Fujitsu Racing GRM Commodore finishing 25th after losing eight laps repairing damage incurred after receiving a tap from James Moffat.
Caruso’s team-mate Alexandre Premat was also in the wars – the Frenchman’s day including 23 kerb hopping infringements for a total of three drive-through penalties.
The Turn 4 chicane was also the downfall of Steve Owen, with a promising weekend for the VIP Petfoods Falcon ending with heavy contact against the exit wall on Lap 14.
The 2012 V8 Supercars Championship will continue in two weeks time with the Trading Post Perth Challenge at Barbagallo.
See below for the full Race 6 result
| 1 | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:26:13.9903 |
| 2 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:26:14.7150 |
| 3 | Trading Post FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:26:27.9419 |
| 4 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:26:37.2485 |
| 5 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:26:38.3436 |
| 6 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:26:40.9840 |
| 7 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:26:51.4202 |
| 8 | Tony D’Alberto Racing | Tony D’Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:26:56.1418 |
| 9 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:00.1009 |
| 10 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:27:04.7151 |
| 11 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:27:05.6219 |
| 12 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:07.3240 |
| 13 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:07.4173 |
| 14 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:13.1042 |
| 15 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:27:13.3620 |
| 16 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:27:13.5177 |
| 17 | Pepsi Max Crew | Greg Murphy | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:13.6894 |
| 18 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 59 | 01:27:25.1527 |
| 19 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:30.5758 |
| 20 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:34.7478 |
| 21 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:41.1996 |
| 22 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 59 | 01:27:46.8229 |
| 23 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 58 | 01:26:30.2979 |
| 24 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 58 | 01:28:03.7386 |
| 25 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 51 | 01:27:19.3473 |
| 26 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 47 | 01:26:31.6680 |
| DNF | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi | Holden Commodore VE2 | 48 | 01:11:50.1444 |
| DNF | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Ford Falcon FG | 13 | 19:40.2938 |
See below for the updated points standings
| 1 | Will Davison | 846 |
| 2 | Jamie Whincup | 825 |
| 3 | Mark Winterbottom | 657 |
| 4 | Craig Lowndes | 557 |
| 5 | Lee Holdsworth | 555 |
| 6 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 549 |
| 7 | Garth Tander | 524 |
| 8 | Fabian Coulthard | 510 |
| 9 | Tim Slade | 489 |
| 10 | Rick Kelly | 453 |
| 11 | Todd Kelly | 429 |
| 12 | Steven Johnson | 378 |
| 13 | Michael Caruso | 354 |
| 14 | Steve Owen | 348 |
| 15 | Russell Ingall | 336 |
| 16 | Tony D’Alberto | 314 |
| 17 | Dean Fiore | 309 |
| 18 | James Courtney | 306 |
| 19 | David Reynolds | 296 |
| 20 | Michael Patrizi | 276 |
| 21 | Jason Bright | 261 |
| 22 | Alexandre Premat | 258 |
| 23 | Taz Douglas | 240 |
| 24 | Jonathon Webb | 234 |
| 25 | James Moffat | 222 |
| 26 | David Wall | 207 |
| 27 | Karl Reindler | 204 |
| 28 | Greg Murphy | 87 |
| 29 | David Russell | 42 |
