Touring CarsV8 Supercars

Whincup Completes Weekend Double In Tasmania Challenge

2 Mins read
Jamie Whincup (Photo Credit: Team Vodafone)

Jamie Whincup (Photo Credit: Team Vodafone)

TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup has edged closer to the V8 Supercars title with victory in the second race of the Falken Tasmania Challenge at Symmons Plains today.

The win also hands Holden its 400th championship race victory, and increases Whincup's series lead advantage over second-placed Craig Lowndes to 194 points with just two events remaining.

Starting from third on the grid, Whincup remained behind the battling front-runners, Bottle-O Racing Team's Paul Dumbrell and Orrcon Steel FPR's Mark
Winterbottom
, throughout the opening stint. Whincup then pitted on lap 20, a lap earlier than the FPR pair, getting the jump on both of them as they narrowly avoided
each other when Dumbrell overshot the pit exit.

Trading Post FPR's Will Davison also benefitted from the first round of pit-stops climbing up to second from fifth. Having pitted at the same time as Whincup, he then mounted a challenge on the TeamVodafone driver. But Whincup held steady, fending off the pressure as well as surviving a major sideways moment heading onto the pit-straight to cross the finish line by 1.7 seconds over the FPR driver, with Winterbottom back in third.

“What an incredible weekend for us,” said Whincup.

“Every race is unbelievably important and we just need to keep our head down and keep the focus.

“Once again, I had a fantastic car and a big thanks to the crew. Roll on Sandown.”

Lowndes, who had started from 15th place on the grid after a poor qualifying session, made up ground and was another to profit from the early pit stop strategy, moving up to sixth in the first half of the race. Making a late pass on Toll Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander on lap 71, he went on to finish in fifth place, just behind Dumbrell.

Despite the strong finish, Lowndes has given away valuable points to Whincup. They remain the only two in the hunt for the championship crown but there are a total of 600 points on offer in the closing two rounds, at Sandown next week and at the Sydney finale.

Rounding out the top 10 were Garth Tander, SP Tools Racing's Shane van Gisbergen, Jack Daniels Racing's Todd Kelly, Mother Energy Racing's Jonathan Webb and Bundaberg Racing's Fabian Coulthard.

Race 24 results:

Pos Entrant Driver Vehicle Fastest Lap Fastest Lap Time Race Time Laps

Points

1 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup Commodore VE2 3 00:52:1275 01:14:59:5652 84 150
2 Trading Post FPR Falcon Will Davison Falcon FG 24 00:52:1756 01:15:01:2893 84 138
3 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon Mark Winterbottom Falcon FG 55 00:51:9915 01:15:04:1572 84 129
4 The Bottle-O Racing Team Paul Dumbrell Falcon FG 26 00:52:0836 01:15:06:9827 84 120
5 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes Commodore VE2 22 00:52:1618 01:15:14:4666 84 111
6 Toll Holden Racing Team Garth Tander Commodore VE2 22 00:52:1020 01:15:17:2840 84 102
7 SP Tools Racing Shane van Gisbergen Falcon FG 6 00:52:3520 01:15:24:6976 84 96
8 Jack Daniel’s Racing Todd Kelly Commodore VE2 23 00:52:4076 01:15:33:8147 84 90
9 Mother Energy Racing Team Jonathon Webb Falcon FG 66 00:52:3947 01:15:35:4978 84 84
10 Bundaberg Racing Fabian Coulthard Commodore VE2 29 00:52:3979 01:15:42:7924 84 78
11 Toll Holden Racing Team James Courtney Commodore VE2 62 00:52:2714 01:15:45:3043 84 72
12 Jack Daniel’s Racing Rick Kelly Commodore VE2 23 00:52:1995 01:15:45:7293 84 69
13 Fujitsu Racing GRM Lee Holdsworth Commodore VE2 24 00:52:2220 01:15:45:7323 84 66
14 Pepsi Max Crew Greg Murphy Commodore VE2 32 00:52:4785 01:15:45:9962 84 63
15 Fujitsu Racing GRM Michael Caruso Commodore VE2 54 00:52:0887 01:15:53:3543 84 60
16 Wilson Security Racing Tony D’Alberto Falcon FG 54 00:52:2636 01:15:02:3578 83 57
17 Supercheap Auto Racing Russell Ingall Commodore VE2 56 00:52:6043 01:15:09:4914 83 54
18 Jim Beam Racing James Moffat Falcon FG 56 00:52:4099 01:15:10:5168 83 51
19 Team BOC Cameron McConville Commodore VE2 63 00:52:5017 01:15:12:6983 83 48
20 Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing Karl Reindler Commodore VE2 52 00:52:4883 01:15:15:2596 83 45
21 Jim Beam Racing Steven Johnson Falcon FG 63 00:52:5903 01:15:18:1703 83 42
22 Stratco Racing David Reynolds Commodore VE2 59 00:52:4713 01:15:21:0333 83 39
23 VIP Petfoods Steve Owen Commodore VE2 23 00:52:6585 01:15:25:1637 83 36
24 Triple F Racing Dean Fiore Falcon FG 69 00:52:7173 01:15:25:4352 83 33
25 Jana Living Racing Jason Bargwanna Commodore VE2 19 00:52:6095 01:15:30:3992 83 30
26 Irwin Racing Alex Davison Falcon FG 8 00:52:4373 01:15:05:9216 82 27
27 Lucky 7 Racing Tim Slade Falcon FG 57 00:52:4512 01:15:19:2001 82 24
28 Gulf Western Oil Racing Warren Luff Commodore VE2 57 00:52:3138 01:15:30:8807 79 21

 

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About author
Andy is our resident V8 Supercars reporter. He also runs the V8 Supercars fan site www.v8scglobal.com and works as a freelance motorsport writer (with experience in both the World and British Touring Car Championships). You can find him on Twitter at @andychampness or contact him via his website www.andychampness.co.uk
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