Podium Adelaide

TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup has capped off a brilliant start to the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series winning the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide today and cementing his place as Championship leader.

Whincup started from pole but was overtaken on the line by Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom before sliding back into the lead on lap 19.  He took the honours ahead of Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Lee Holdsworth, whose pace at the season-opener saw him the surprise flag flier for Holden of the weekend.

It was an amazing drive by Team WOW’s Cameron McConville, sitting as high as second at one point before finishing third after starting from last place on the grid.

The 78-lap race left numerous cars battered and bruised including Whincup’s teammate Craig Lowndes who had a spectacular altercation with Jeld-Wen Motorsport’s James Courtney on lap 59.  With only 19 of the 28 cars crossing the finish line the race was concluded with a two-lap sprint to the end after the seventh restart of the day.

Whincup held off the pressure through six restarts in what could only be described as a perfect race weekend, fastest in practice, topping the time sheets in qualifying and leading home the field in the two 250km races.

“It was another tough race today, we made some changes overnight, it’s always a risk and we came out today with a better car than yesterday and were able to dominate from the front,” said Whincup. “The guys have done an amazing job over the break to improve the car mechanically and bring us out with a bit of a rocket.

“It’s been an amazing weekend, it’s sort of one of those weekends you dream of as a kid to come and dominate at such a huge event as this.”

While both drivers thoroughly deserved to be there at the end, neither Holdsworth nor McConville were tipped to be on the podium before the start of the race.

Holdsworth was unable to capitalise on his improved track position off the restart this morning dropping back through the field on numerous occasions, however his pace kept building throughout the afternoon.

“We’ve had the pace since we got here and worked really hard to get into the top ten in qualifying,” said Holdsworth.  “We were so close in race one and had to climb our way back up today but the car was just brilliant.”

It has been a long time between drinks for McConville who last grace the podium as the round winner at Winton in 2004. 

“It’s unbelievable to think we started 28th on the grid today,” said McConville. “We had really good pace until about ten [laps] to go and unfortunately I lost second to Lee when I had a bit of a moment around turn seven. But who would have thought, my aim today was to finish in the top 15 from last.”

Whincup now leads the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series followed by Holdsworth and HSV Dealer Team’s Rick Kelly.