Craig Lowndes continued his amazing winning streak, taking his fifth race win in a row at Queensland Raceway this afternoon.
Mark Winterbottom made a great start off the line to lead into turn one while pole sitter Davison found himself under pressure from Lowndes.
Lowndes took the race lead when Winterbottom out braked himself at turn three, and cruised to his 85th career victory.
“This weekend couldn’t have gone any better,” said Lowndes.
“I was a little disappointed in qualifying, we only had one bite of the cherry, and saved rubber which payed dividends in the race.”
Contact with David Wall forced Formula One champion Jaques Villeneuve into a spin on the front straight.
By the third lap pole sitter Will Davison found himself being passed by a charging Russell Ingall and dropped back to fifth.
Ingall, the local hero, took chunks of time from Fabian Coulthard but couldn’t pass for a top five result.
While unlikely to make any difference to the results, Winterbottom was held up by Todd Kelly, who was in his own battle with James Courtney.
“The flag marshals were clapping when we were passing people because they thought it was a move for the lead,” he said.
”I’m Happy with second, that was a hard race,” he said.
Holden Racing Team drivers James Courtney and Garth Tander had improved their starting positions but still struggled home in 14th and 15th respectively.
Team Vodafone principle Roland Dane said the other teams have some work to do to stop Team Vodafone’s dominance.
“They’ve probably got to work harder,” he said.
Dane also said the lack of safety car showed the gap between the top teams.
“That just emphasised the gap between Triple Eight FPR and the rest of the grid.”
A jamming throttle on Lee Holdsworths car ended his race just seven laps from the finish.
“I wasn’t worried about me until I pulled up and saw the smoke,” he said.
Jonathon Webb was the only other retirement of the race. He parked the car on lap 57.
It’s the 6th win in a row for Team Vodafone and gave Lowndes his 85th career victory, closing in on Mark Skaife’s record of 90.
The V8 Supercars will now head to un-certain territory at the resurfaced and renovated Sydney Motorsport Park.
Top Ten V8 Supercar Championship Series Race 17 Results - Coates Hire Ipswich 300
1: Craig Lowndes
2: Mark Winterbottom
3: Jamie Whincup
4: Will Davison
5: Fabian Coulthard
6: Russell Ingall
7: Shane Van Gisbergen
8: Tim Slade
9: Michael Caruso
10: Steve Owen
Top Ten V8 Supercar Championship Points Standings
1: Jamie Whincup, 2052 pts.
2: Mark Winterbottom, 1970 pts.
3: Will Davison, 1876 pts.
4: Craig Lowndes, 1796 pts.
5: Shane Van Gisbergen, 1472 pts.
6: Tim Slade, 1344 pts.
7: Garth Tander, 1323 pts.
8: Fabian Coulthard, 1261 pts.
9: Lee Holdsworth, 1217 pts.
10: David Reynolds, 1017 pts.
