Townsville Supercars: Whincup survives late caution to win

The Triple Eight driver had just enough pace to make it, for the most part at least, a fairly comfortable afternoon. He went with a straightforward strategy, making his two stops on Lap 16 and Lap 40 and ending up with a nine-second lead as it all shook out.

But just when it looked like Whincup was on for an easy win, Nick Percat brought out the Safety Car with four laps to go when he went into the wall. Suddenly, Whincup went from having a five-plus second lead to having the likes of Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom within striking distance.

However, thanks to an impressive restart, Whincup was good enough to hold off his team-mate van Gisbergen to take a well-earned win.

“The car was fantastic,” said Whincup. “Obviously we’re rapt with the result, [there has been] plenty of frustration going on behind the scenes. But there’s no need to worry about that now.”

The battle for second was the highlight of the race. Van Gisbergen sat second for the first two stints, but found himself locked in an intense three-car battle with Prodrive Racing pair Chaz Mostert and Mark Winterbottom in the closing stages.

Van Gisbergen and Mostert in particular staged a thrilling 10-lap battle for the spot up until Lap 60, when Winterbottom – the last of the leading group to have made his second stop – started to make the most of his fresher rubber and barged past Mostert for third.

The late Safety Car ultimately settled things in favour of van Gisbergen, the Kiwi clearing the lapped traffic significantly quicker than Winterbottom at the restart to ensure he would hang on to second. Winterbottom came home third, with Mostert fourth.

James Courtney spent much of the race in the mix for a podium as well, before falling back from the scrap for second as the final stint played out. He then lost fifth spot to Will Davison right at the end, the Safety Car allowing the Tekno driver to pip Courtney at the post by one-hundredth of a second.

Still, sixth was a good result for Courtney and the embattled Holden Racing Team squad, particularly with Garth Tander capping off HRT’s decent afternoon out by going from 20th on the grid to seventh at the finish. The key to Tander’s race was an impeccable first stint which saw him climb onto the back of the Top 10, before he popped up in seventh as the second round of stops shook out.

Fabian Coulthard and Michael Caruso finished eighth and ninth, the Penske driver grabbing P8 from the Nissan just six laps from the end, while Todd Kelly rounded out the Top 10.

Scott McLaughlin, meanwhile, had an absolute shocker. The Penske-bound Kiwi’s title hopes took a serious beating thanks to a 24th place finish, which was largely down to a flat tyre sustained after Lap 1 contact with Dale Wood.

Form man Tim Slade had a tough day too, chances of another decent haul of points ruined on Lap 3 when he was collected by Rick Kelly at Turn 11. Slade battled back to finish 13th, just one spot behind an uncharacteristically quite Craig Lowndes, while Kelly was slapped with a drive-through and ultimately came home 21st.