Jamie Whincup has defeated a trio of Ford Performance Racing Falcons to take victory in Race 24 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Falken Tasmania Challenge.
Having run behind front-row starters Paul Dumbrell and Mark Winterbottom throughout the opening stint, Whincup took the lead at the first round of pitstops and was not headed for the duration.
The win is the 51st of Whincup's career, moving the 28-year-old into a clear third place on the all-time winners list, and is the 400th win for a Holden driver.
Will Davison made it past his FPR stablemates to record second place – 1.72s adrift of Whincup at the conclusion of a Safety Car-free 84 laps.
Winterbottom, Dumbrell, Craig Lowndes, Garth Tander, Shane van Gisbergen, Todd Kelly, Jonathon Webb and Fabian Coulthard rounded out the top 10.
Cameron McConville, a last-minute replacement for an Jason Bright in the Team BOC Commodore, finished an impressive 19th, having briefly led the race by completing a long first sint.
The battle between Dumbrell and Winterbottom raged for the entire first stint, before the pair made nose-to-tail contact as they pitted together on Lap 21.
While Dumbrell kept his position in the pitstop itself, the 30-year-old overshot the pit exit – narrowly avoiding more contact with Winterbottom as he returned to the track.
Whincup and Davison, who had both made their first stops a lap earlier, swept to the front of the pack as the drama unfolded.
Dumbrell briefly re-passed Winterbottom a lap later with a drive-bomb move at the hairpin, but lost time on the exit and could not challenge the Orrcon Falcon for the remainder of the race.
Whincup slowly built his lead over Davison during the second stint, with the advantage over 4.0s when the Trading Post Falcon returned to the lane on Lap 49.
Whincup made his final stop three laps later – rejoining less than a second ahead of his rival after losing time in traffic and surviving a major sideways moment heading onto the pitstraight.
The two-time champion controlled the gap in the closing stages to win by less than 2.0s.
All 28 cars finished the race, with Warren Luff classified in last place having lost multiple laps in the pits with brake fluid issues.
Whincup now leads team-mate Lowndes by 194 points with just four races remaining.
See below for the full race result
1 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:14:59.5652 |
2 | Trading Post FPR Falcon | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 84 | 01:15:01.2893 |
3 | Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 84 | 01:15:04.1572 |
4 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | Paul Dumbrell | Ford Falcon FG | 84 | 01:15:06.9827 |
5 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:14.4666 |
6 | Toll Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:17.2840 |
7 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 84 | 01:15:24.6976 |
8 | Jack Daniel's Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:33.8147 |
9 | Mother Energy Racing Team | Jonathon Webb | Ford Falcon FG | 84 | 01:15:35.4978 |
10 | Bundaberg Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:42.7924 |
11 | Toll Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:45.3043 |
12 | Jack Daniel's Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:45.7293 |
13 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:45.7323 |
14 | Pepsi Max Crew | Greg Murphy | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:45.9962 |
15 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 84 | 01:15:53.3543 |
16 | Wilson Security Racing | Tony D'Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 83 | 01:15:02.3578 |
17 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 83 | 01:15:09.4914 |
18 | Jim Beam Racing | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 83 | 01:15:10.5168 |
19 | Team BOC | Cameron McConville | Holden Commodore VE2 | 83 | 01:15:12.6983 |
20 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 83 | 01:15:15.2596 |
21 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 83 | 01:15:18.1703 |
22 | Stratco Racing | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore VE2 | 83 | 01:15:21.0333 |
23 | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Holden Commodore VE2 | 83 | 01:15:25.1637 |
24 | Triple F Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 83 | 01:15:25.4352 |
25 | Jana Living Racing | Jason Bargwanna | Holden Commodore VE2 | 83 | 01:15:30.3992 |
26 | Irwin Racing | Alex Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 82 | 01:15:05.9216 |
27 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 82 | 01:15:19.2001 |
28 | Gulf Western Oil Racing | Warren Luff | Holden Commodore VE2 | 79 | 01:15:30.8807 |
See below for the updated championship points
Pos |
Driver Name |
Total |
1 | Jamie Whincup | 2817 |
2 | Craig Lowndes | 2623 |
3 | Mark Winterbottom | 2215 |
4 | Shane van Gisbergen | 2201 |
5 | Garth Tander | 2187 |
6 | Will Davison | 2096 |
7 | Rick Kelly | 1977 |
8 | Lee Holdsworth | 1713 |
9 | Alex Davison | 1664 |
10 | Fabian Coulthard | 1614 |
11 | Greg Murphy | 1579 |
12 | Tim Slade | 1568 |
13 | Steven Johnson | 1558 |
14 | Jason Bright | 1549 |
15 | James Courtney | 1467 |
16 | Michael Caruso | 1426 |
17 | Steve Owen | 1370 |
18 | David Reynolds | 1270 |
19 | Russell Ingall | 1250 |
20 | Jonathon Webb | 1244 |
21 | Jason Bargwanna | 1235 |
22 | Todd Kelly | 1235 |
23 | James Moffat | 1211 |
24 | Paul Dumbrell | 1198 |
25 | Tony D'Alberto | 994 |
26 | Karl Reindler | 946 |
27 | Dean Fiore | 944 |
28 | Warren Luff | 702 |
29 | Mark Skaife | 532 |
30 | Nick Percat | 527 |
31 | Richard Lyons | 511 |
32 | Allan Simonsen | 509 |
33 | Cameron McConville | 406 |
34 | John McIntyre | 393 |
35 | Andrew Jones | 385 |
36 | Steve Richards | 366 |
37 | Luke Youlden | 344 |
38 | Andrew Thompson | 334 |
39 | Sebastian Bourdais | 288 |
40 | Tim Blanchard | 288 |
41 | Paul Morris | 268 |
42 | Jack Perkins | 255 |
43 | Greg Ritter | 243 |
44 | Dale Wood | 236 |
45 | Marcus Marshall | 229 |
46 | Oliver Gavin | 222 |
47 | Owen Kelly | 220 |
48 | Daniel Gaunt | 219 |
49 | Jorg Bergmeister | 207 |
50 | Simon Pagenaud | 207 |
51 | David Russell | 202 |
52 | Shane Price | 197 |
53 | Nathan Pretty | 192 |
54 | Michael Patrizi | 187 |
55 | David Wall | 185 |
56 | Darren Turner | 165 |
57 | Richard Westbrook | 150 |
58 | Gil de Ferran | 150 |
59 | Craig Baird | 148 |
60 | Boris Said | 147 |
61 | Matthew Halliday | 137 |
62 | Augusto Farfus Jr | 132 |
63 | Jan Magnussen | 129 |
64 | Joey Hand | 120 |
65 | Alex Tagliani | 120 |
66 | Emanuele Pirro | 114 |
67 | Dean Canto | 109 |
68 | Taz Douglas | 93 |
69 | Marc Lieb | 87 |
70 | Dirk Muller | 69 |
71 | David Besnard | 66 |
72 | Christian Klein | 60 |
73 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 48 |
74 | Sarrazin Stephane | 42 |
75 | Fabrizio Giovanardi | 39 |
76 | Marino Franchitti | 0 |
77 | Cameron Waters | 0 |
78 | Grant Denyer | 0 |