Lowndes wins race 24

Jamie Whincup has all but sealed a second successive V8 Supercar Championship Series to join the greats of the sport.

Whincup will almost certainly be confirmed as the series winner after the opening 250km leg of the Sydney Telstra 500 after a clinically precise performance at a track which has proved a bogey for TeamVodafone in the past.

As Whincup managed the best of those who were confined to the control tyre in finishing a fine fourth, nearest rival Will Davison’s race took the worst possible turn mid-race.

When the safety car scrambled for Todd Kelly’s broadside crash leading into the main straight, Davison was called to pit and unknowingly drove over the debris and fluid left by the accident.

As he entered the twisty pit entry, Davison lost steering and smacked a tyre bundle with his left front, damaging the steering.

Cruelly it was game over for Davo and all hopes of taking the Championship down to the wire in Sydney in two weeks went south.

A downtrodden Davo said: “It’s devastating and I’m just numb inside.”

“There was a massive amount of fluid on the pit entry, which I had no idea about until I got there.

“I hit the first amount of braking for the 40km/h line and managed to pull it up in time and I breathed a sigh of relief but then in the kink into pitlane there was more fluid and I just under-steered straight into the wall.

“It was not how you expect to end your race and championship with a crash in pit lane.”

The race was won by Craig Lowndes as TeamVodafone played their full deck of cards to cover all the bases.

Lowndes took the opportunity after his 74th career win to take a shot at the criticism leveled at him by HRT boss Craig Wilson that he will not be a factor in the series in three years.

“I’m probably as old as they think I am but I’m probably not as slow as they think I am,” Lowndes grinned.

With Whincup using his Sprint tyre option up to win on Saturday, Lowndes was left with plenty of soft rubber ammunition as he squeezed 44 of the 84 laps on the faster but more vulnerable rubber.

TeamVodafone has also perfected the art of maximising the mileage of the Sprint Maxx tyres by caressing them in a fine balancing act.

Lowndes said the key to squeezing the most life out of the quicker tyres was to maintain a 0.5sec per lap advantage over drivers on the control tyres instead of pushing for the maximum lap pace of up to two seconds over the standard Dunlops.

Whincup’s fourth place versus Davo’s DNF means he now holds a 281-point advantage going into Sydney where a maximum of 300-points are available.

It seems, as he did last year at Oran Park, Whincup will be officially crowned series king on Saturday afternoon in Sydney.

Only the sport’s genuine legends have bagged back-to-back triumphs and it is a feat which has not been done since NASCAR convert Marcos Ambrose pulled off titles in 2003-2004.

Garth Tander held sway soon after the start after pouncing on polesitter Whincup to grab the lead on the opening lap.

Tander, who eventually finished third behind Steve Johnson’s richly-deserved second for Jim Beam Racing, led the field until he pitted on lap 23 with HRT electing to leave him on the soft rubber.

Teammate Davison was hauled in five laps earlier to be issued with control rubber.

Tander maintained his lead until he had to switch compounds during the pit stop which came out for the Kelly incident.

GT also had to deal with the news that his wife Leanne, who took part in this year’s enduros, had a nasty accident in the Mini Challenge race and was taken to hospital but later cleared of any serious injury and released.

Lowndes and others made the most of the yellow period by switching to softs and the complexion became much clearer.

Lowndes began slicing his way through the pack and had gone from ninth after the lap 46 restart to the lead on lap 54, a position he maintained to the finish.

Russell Ingall, fifth for Supercheap Auto, began chasing Lowndes hard but he had nabbed too much of a break.

As all of the soft compound runners were shining at the end, Whincup remained amongst the quicker runners on the control rubber.

“We smashed ‘em this weekend with two poles and two wins at a place where we have struggled,” Whincup said.

“As I said earlier in the week you set your grand final up at the semi final but this weekend was massively important championship-wise and the way it panned out I’m going into the grand final with only 20 points to get.

“It’s not over yet but it’s pretty good. I’m that close it’s ridiculous.

“Points really are irrelevant. Unless I write the car off, even if something does go wrong we can come in and make a change and be three laps down and still circulate and still probably get the points needed.

“It’s not about points now, it’s about going out with a bang.”

He just has to finish the first 250km leg in Sydney to collect the Championship trophy.

Race 24 top 10

Craig Lowndes Falcon
Steven Johnson Falcon
Garth Tander Commodore
Jamie Whincup Falcon
Russell Ingall Commodore
Jason Bright Falcon
Jason Bargwanna Commodore
Steven Richards Falcon
Cameron McConville Commodore
James Courtney Falcon

2009 Championship points

Jamie Whincup Falcon 3175
Will Davison Commodore 2894
Garth Tander Commodore 2766
Craig Lowndes Falcon 2544
Steve Johnson Falcon 2177