JAMIE WHINCUP WINS AT LAST
Jamie Whincup earned his first win of 2017 in Townsville – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde
JAMIE WHINCUP has ended a seven month drought with a win in Race 14 of the Supercars Championship in Townsville.
After shadowing polesitter Scott McLaughlin early in the race Whincup attacked immediately after the first pitstops, seizing the lead. McLaughlin followed him for the rest of the race but, just when it looked like he might challenge, a cool suit failure limited what he could do in the final laps.
“It took a while, what a relief!” Whincup smiled after the 105th win of his career. “Trying to get a win today has been tough. We dug deep today and we gave it everything that we had.”
McLaughlin offered no excuses, and the two drivers are now separated by only six points in the championship.
Shane van Gisbergen was in third place, taking his time to pick his way through the field after an overnight engine change.
Another solid result for Prodrive – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde
Prodrive Racing Australia continued its strong weekend, with Mark Winterbottom taking fourth place, ahead of his teammate Chaz Mostert.
A quintet of Commodores followed. Garth Tander made the most of the top 10 Qualifying appearance and was backed up by his GRM teammate James Moffat, while Will Davison out in a great drive to take eighth, in spite of qualifying badly and breaking a front roll-bar early in the race.
Fabian Coulthard had another terrible race, clashing with Craig Lowndes early and copping a 15-second penalty for contact with Tim Slade. Coulthard, who led the championship coming to North Queensland, finished a lowly 21st.
Points: McLaughlin 1608, Whincup 1602, Coulthard 1450, van Gisbergen 1377, Mostert 1257, Winterbottom 1173, Lowndes 1104, Tander 1080, Waters 1063, Reynolds 1059.
Make sure you follow pick up the next issue of Auto Action on sale Thursday for an in depth analysis of the weekends Supercars action in Townsville. In the mean time follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates between issues.
