Mark Winterbottom has won a race at Winton Motor Raceway for the second consecutive year, becoming the sixth different driver to win this year and scoring the first victory for Ford in 2014.
It was an emphatic 9.49 second victory over James Courtney, and has catapulted the Ford Pepsi Max Crew driver to second in the Championship points, behind Craig Lowndes.
“That’s awesome, to obviously have a pretty good weekend and cap it off with that,” Frosty – who drove incredibly from 23rd to third yesterday, said.
“I have to thank the team, they’ve done a pretty good job. Tyre life was not as strong as yesterday… (It’s been a) bit of a hard start, but hopefully it’s the start of many (wins).”
He promised to continue hunting down Lowndes and was pleased with the weekend’s strong points haul.
Meanwhile, Holden Racing Team’s Courtney has come back from qualifying 17th twice yesterday, to second place. He also tasted victory at this circuit last season.
“This is fantastic – the guys did a good job to turn the car around and good clean stops and car strategies,” he said.
Walkinshaw Racing stablemate Tim Slade followed home in third, despite his team losing a wheel during a pit stop. They were penalised 300 team points and fined, Slade and his Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore left out on-track to complete the race.
Meanwhile a number of penalties punctuated the race with two top contenders – and three others – pinged for pit lane speeding.
Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard, as well as the second Volvo of Robert Dahlgren, Rick Kelly and Russell Ingall all completed pit lane drive through penalties despite their protests over the radio.
Making up the final top 10 were Jason Bright, David Reynolds, Chaz Mostert, Lowndes, Michael Caruso, James Moffat and Jamie Whincup.
Coulthard came home 11, Shane van Gisbergen 12 after a “performance issue” early in the race, yesterday’s winner Lee Holdsworth 15, McLaughlin 16, and second the second HRT Commodore of Garth Tander 23.
This afternoon’s run shakes up the Championship, with Winterbottom just 28 points shy of Lowndes, Coulthard dropping to third, Courtney back into fourth and Whincup completing the top five.
Click here for Championship points.
The V8 Supercars will next be on-track over the ANZAC Day weekend for the ITM 500 Auckland, from April 24-27.
