Championship favourite Craig Lowndes broke through for his first win at Winton in the heartland of Victoria here today, while at the same time Holden team-mates Rick Kelly and Garth Tander were elevated to the top of the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

Team Betta Electrical’s Lowndes has never won at Winton in a V8 Supercar but today put the past well and truly behind him by finishing off the third and final race ahead of Ford Performance Racing’s Jason Bright and Toll HSV’s Kelly.

Lowndes moved from fifth to third in the Championship behind the twin Commodores of Tander and Kelly. Caltex Racing’s Russell Ingall had led the Championship but now slips back to fifth with a 14th position overall this weekend.

For Lowndes it was the result of a strong effort right through the weekend and the fact he made up 18 spots in the reverse grid second race, moving from 27th to 9th in that race.

“It is nice to rectify the record,” Lowndes said.

“As the weekend went on we grew confidence and made changes, especially after Jason (Bright) had the consistency over us.”

Lowndes and Bright cleared away from the field after the compulsory pit stops in the deciding race. The pair remained quick but Bright had no reason to challenge Lowndes as he couldn’t catch him on points and would not risk second place for the sake of the race win.

“We were after the round win and the race win so we kept that in the back of our mind. If Jason was really pressuring us too hard I would have let go,” said Lowndes.

For Bright it was a continuation of a great weekend, but not before time according to him.

“I’ve been disappointed this year that we haven’t been up here more this year with a few mistakes but we can certainly finish the Championship strongly,” Bright said.

“It’s good to bounce back so strongly here and we can carry that through to the next round. We’ve just got to get as many points as we can. I think the enduros will work for us with Mark being so strong. We’ve just got to keep getting points and drop one of the disasters we had.”

Ingall suffered early in race three as a result of what appeared a slight push from behind. He spun and ended up in the run-off area and was forced to rejoin the field at the back.

Tasman Motorsport’s Jason Richards took race two after problems in race one gave him a start at the front of the reverse grid. Team Betta Electrical’s Jamie Whincup and Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Dean Canto also converted front of the grid starts to finish second and third.

Just as his namesake Steven Richards had one in Perth, Jason Richards extended his stay before his compulsory pit stop. He clearly had the fastest car in the first part of the race, opting for clean air to get as much of a lead as possible.

Interestingly half the field stayed out much longer than most did in Perth as teams tried out new strategies in the reverse grid format. There was still of passing in the middle of the field along the way.

Richards' Tasman Motorsport team-mate Andrew Jones and Lowndes were the big movers, each making up 18 spots in the middle, reverse grid race. Jones went from 20th to 12th while Lowndes moved from 27th to ninth.

Other big movers in the second race were Rick Kelly (19-4), Ingall (17-5), Autobarn Racing’s Steve Owen (16-8) and Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom (21-13).

The only incident of any note was a coming together between Bright and Jack Daniels Racing’s Steven Richards. Bright appeared to spin Richards who went of the track, only to return into the path of Todd Kelly.

Richards received a black flag and pit lane drive through for the unsafe return to the track. The incident ended Kelly’s race with damage to the front right hand side.

Bright pitted soon after with a flat spot on his tyre. It shunted Bright, winner of the first race yesterday, well back down the field. He finished 21st in that race.

This played right into Lowndes’ hands. With Bright suffering Lowndes went into the final race with a strong points buffer for the weekend, which he maintained.

Fujitsu Racing’s Warren Luff spoiled a good race after the fact when he was given the equivalent of a drive-through penalty for an incident with Jason Bargwanna whose race was ended by the altercation.

Bargwanna had a heated pit lane moment with Luff at the conclusion of the race, voicing his anger at Luff causing his WPS Falcon to retire from the race.


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