Jamie Whincup wins Race 14 on Townsville streets
TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup has won Race 14 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Sucrogen Townsville 400
Jamie Whincup has scored his fourth win of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship by taking out Race 14 in Townsville.
Whincup led home pole-sitter Mark Winterbottom by 1.2s in a fuel-economy run to the chequered flag.
Whincup made the decisive move on Winterbottom when the Orrcon Falcon touched the Turn 10 exit wall on a Safety Car restart with 28 laps remaining.
Garth Tander, Fabian Coulthard and Craig Lowndes made three-stop strategies work to fill third through fifth, while David Reynolds, Steve Owen, Rick Kelly, Lee Holdsworth and James Courtney rounded out the top 10.
Owen caused controversy by using just one hard tyre during the race – the VIP Petfoods team taking the unusual step of running a combination of three softs and one hard during the second stint.
The strategy looked set to help Owen towards a podium finish before the former Development Series winner fell back through the top 10 in the final stint with a damaged shock absorber.
By contrast, Craig Lowndes charged in the closing stages. The TeamVodafone driver dropped outside the top 20 while being forced to stack behind team-mate Whincup at the second stops. Lowndes subsequently completed an extra stop to ensure he had enough fuel to run flat-out until the end.
Will Davison finished 12th after also losing places stacking behind his team-mate under the third and final Safety Car.
Kelly Racing guest driver Jacques Villeneuve joined Owen, Tander, Russell Ingall, Jonathon Webb and Courtney in starting on the soft tyres, but completed just 18 laps before retiring with engine problems.
Alex Premat and Jason Bright were also on the retirements list after enduring separate incidents at Turn 2, both of which required the Safety Car to remove their stricken vehicles.
Premat was unable to continue after contact with Shane van Gisbergen, while Bright later found himself colliding with Michael Caruso after locking his front brakes into the same hairpin.
Tony D’Alberto, who ran as high as third during the opening lap, was also spun in the Bright/Caruso incident.
The first Safety Car of the race had been called on the very opening lap after a concertina incident at Turn 3 involving Taz Douglas, Karl Reindler and Dean Fiore.
See below for the full Race 14 result
| 1 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:36:36.6067 |
| 2 | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:36:37.7571 |
| 3 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:36:45.6850 |
| 4 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:36:50.5419 |
| 5 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:36:52.5898 |
| 6 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:37:00.7011 |
| 7 | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:37:01.9393 |
| 8 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:37:02.8219 |
| 9 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:37:04.1669 |
| 10 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:37:10.5776 |
| 11 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:37:11.3247 |
| 12 | Trading Post FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:37:14.3597 |
| 13 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:37:16.3238 |
| 14 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:37:16.5011 |
| 15 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:37:27.9001 |
| 16 | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi | Holden Commodore VE2 | 72 | 01:37:35.5151 |
| 17 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:37:35.9022 |
| 18 | Team Hiflex | Tony D’Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 72 | 01:37:46.1336 |
| 19 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VE2 | 71 | 01:36:48.5001 |
| 20 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 71 | 01:36:55.1614 |
| 21 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 71 | 01:37:23.5781 |
| 22 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 71 | 01:37:34.0519 |
| 23 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas | Holden Commodore VE2 | 69 | 01:37:08.2469 |
| 24 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 66 | 01:37:09.8551 |
| 25 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 60 | 01:37:33.1148 |
| DNF | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 38 | 51:50.0806 |
| DNF | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 30 | 39:17.9872 |
| DNF | Pepsi Max Crew | Jaques Villeneuve | Holden Commodore VE2 | 18 | 23:47.0775 |
See below for the updated points standings
| 1 | Jamie Whincup | 1644 |
| 2 | Mark Winterbottom | 1583 |
| 3 | Will Davison | 1525 |
| 4 | Craig Lowndes | 1358 |
| 5 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 1184 |
| 6 | Lee Holdsworth | 1163 |
| 7 | Garth Tander | 1119 |
| 8 | Tim Slade | 1101 |
| 9 | Fabian Coulthard | 1030 |
| 10 | David Reynolds | 849 |
| 11 | Todd Kelly | 843 |
| 12 | James Courtney | 806 |
| 13 | Jason Bright | 804 |
| 14 | Rick Kelly | 799 |
| 15 | Michael Caruso | 780 |
| 16 | Steven Johnson | 749 |
| 17 | Jonathon Webb | 718 |
| 18 | Russell Ingall | 704 |
| 19 | Steve Owen | 670 |
| 20 | Michael Patrizi | 643 |
| 21 | Dean Fiore | 633 |
| 22 | Tony D’Alberto | 578 |
| 23 | Taz Douglas | 489 |
| 24 | Karl Reindler | 440 |
| 25 | Alexandre Premat | 428 |
| 26 | James Moffat | 410 |
| 27 | David Wall | 406 |
| 28 | Greg Murphy | 315 |
| 29 | David Russell | 42 |
