A bittersweet end to Race 15 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series. Jamie Whincup placed 1st from pole position, whilst team-mate Craig Lowndes suffered a lap 1 incident that robbed him 10 laps & any chance of a solid championship point's accumulation.
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To add insult to injury he was forced to do a drive through penalty for a pit-lane tool infringement that cost him more time.
Both drivers battled it out in Townsville's moderate heat, with Whincup enjoying good race pace throughout the 72 laps, finishing eight seconds ahead of second place Garth Tander.
"It was probably the best win of the year for me and I couldn't be happier with the results," Whincup stated.
"We nailed the car's set-up and I was working hard. At the end of the day, we had pace and I just wanted to show the crowd what TeamVodafone is all about.
"It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. We have a few more changes to do to the car, so it could be a totally different story," he continued.
After using four sets of his green tyres in today's qualifier, Lowndes was forced to run shootout on used tyres.
The #888 driver suffered a delay after an untimely lock-up at Turn 11, leaving him in tenth spot.
Although Lowndes was thwarted by today's race, he is confident his car's set-up will give him a turn-around result for tomorrow.
"It was a disappointing day. We had a really good car for qualifying and in shootout we got three-quarters of the lap together but I made a mistake at Turn 11," Lowndes admitted.
"I got a reasonable start to the race but then I hit the wall in the first lap, which damaged the front and rear-end of the car.
"We didn't have the best speed but we gained enough to finish 26th and get some points. Despite that, I'm feeling confident for tomorrow." he said.
Tomorrow's on-track V8 Supercar action starts with qualifying at 11:00am followed by Race 16 at 1:35pm.
Top Ten V8 Supercar Championship Series Race 16 Results - Sucrogen Townsville 400
1. Jamie Whincup, 150pts
2. Garth Tander, 138pts
3. Mark Winterbottom, 129pts
4. Lee Holdsworth, 120pts
5. James Courtney, 111pts
6. Russell Ingall, 102pts
7. Jason Richards, 96pts
8. Shane Van Gisbergen, 90pts
9. Steve Richards, 84pts
10.Paul Dumbrell, 78pts
Top Ten V8 Supercar Championship Standings After Race 15 of 26
1. James Courtney, 1809pts
2. Jamie Whincup, 1791pts
3. Shane Van Gisbergen, 1502pts
4. Craig Lowndes, 1479pts
5. Mark Winterbottom, 1473pts
6. Garth Tander, 1380pts
7. Lee Holdsworth, 1338pts
8. Rick Kelly, 1286pts
9. Michael Caruso, 1187pts
10.Steven Johnson, 1112pts