He started from ARMOR All Pole Position, and James Courtney has become the first man since 2008-09 to claim back to back Sunday victories at the Clipsal 500.
Courtney was pushed all the way to the end by Shane van Gisbergen, whose team boss Jonathon Webb said late in the race his charge would not give a win away – but the Holden Racing Team driver held on to come home 0.76sec ahead of the Darrell Lea TEKNO Commodore after a tense battle in the closing stages.
“How good is that!” Courtney exclaimed, jumping out of his Commodore and doing his renowned ‘Frank the Tank’ celebration.
“That was epic! The strategy, the way it played out we dropped in the field and had to charge through.
“Shane had a younger set of tyres and I had to do everything to keep him behind me.
Thank god I pulled it off!”
The two were locked in battle throughout the race but with varying strategies playing out, it was impossible to call.
There was a little tap from van Gisbergen on the final turn of the penultimate lap – but Courtney deemed it a clean battle.
Van Gisbergen was just pleased to be part of such an exciting finish.
“Awesome – makes up for yesterday’s second race – hope you all enjoyed that, it was pretty cool,” the kiwi said.
It was a great finish for HRT with teammate Garth Tander also on the podium – Courtney and Tander sit first and third in the points, with yesterday’s race two winner Fabian Coulthard splitting the pair.
Click here for Championship points.
While all eyes were on the front of the field in the closing lap, Jamie Whincup tapped Chaz Mostert pushing for fourth. The Pepsi Max driver had James Moffat plough into his Falcon, with big damage on both the Falcon FG X and Altima. His teammate Mark Winterbottom managed fifth, with Coulthard sixth on the road.
Whincup and Red Bull teammate Craig Lowndes were uncharacteristically fighting in the pack, with Whincup finishing fourth and Lowndes ninth, declaring a lack of pace.
Scott McLaughlin had more alternator dramas with his Volvo S60, with both Erebus cars also in and out of the garage throughout the 78 lap mini-marathon.
Returning star Marcos Ambrose finished 12th after his top 10 qualifying effort.
