AFTER 14 TRACKS, 28 RACES, 78 DRIVERS, 348 DAYS AND 16,000 CUSTOM-BUILT DUNLOP TYRES, THE CHEQUERED FLAG CAME DOWN ON THE 2011 V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FOLLOWING SOME DRAMATIC RACING AT THE TELSTRA SYDNEY 500.

Heading into the final round of the season, Jamie Whincup from TeamVodafone held a commanding lead over his team mate Craig Lowndes after taking out the final race at the penultimate series round at Sandown.

After two tense days of racing in Sydney, Whincup sealed the title for his third crown in four years. While Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom claimed the final race win in front of Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen, the day belonged to Whincup as he became the first driver in the modern era of the V8 Supercars to take the Championship in both a Ford and a Holden.

“It’s been a long week to be honest. Everyone was telling me I was going to do this but it’s never done until it’s done,” Whincup said.

Norton 360 Sandown Challenge

Telstra Sydney 500

Whincup’s Sunday race win also handed Holden its 400th ATCC/V8 Supercars championship race win, and crucially extends his series lead over teammate Craig Lowndes.

“What an incredible weekend for us,” said Whincup.

“Every race is unbelievably important and we just need to keep our head down and keep the focus.

“Once again, I had a fantastic car and a big thanks to the crew. Roll on Sandown.”

Ford Performance Racing (FPR) claimed a double podium finish and a pole position to end the Tasmania Challenge on a high with Will Davison leading home Mark Winterbottom and Paul Dumbrell.

Tasmania Challenge
Race 23
V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 TeamVodafone – Jamie Whincup
2 TeamVodafone -  Craig Lowndes
3 Toll Holden Racing Team
– Garth Tander

Race 24
V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 TeamVodafone – Jamie Whincup
2 Trading Post FPR Falcon
– Will Davison
3 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon
– Mark Winterbottom

TeamVodafone pair Skaife and Craig Lowndes dominated for the second year running and later predicted they were in a better position than leading into last year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, which they won.

With a small slice of luck going their way, the veteran pair first warded off a fast-finishing Shane Van Gisbergen in his SP Tools Falcon, stopped only by a late car issue, then held out team-mates Jamie Whincup/Andrew Thompson, and Trading Post Racing’s FPR pair of Will Davison/Luke Youlden.

“Last year was a fairytale finish and today was just extraordinary,” Skaife said after the event. “Any time in this series to have a 1-2 finish in such a competitive environment shows the team is working at a very high level. I have definitely pulled up better than last year and its great match fitness. This is the sort of hit-out that I need before Bathurst. (And) I’ll be better at Bathurst because of it.”

Van Gisbergen was absolutely flying and there was little doubt he would catch Lowndes until seven laps to go when he reported a problem back to his team. It was a shame for the young SP Tools Kiwi who was on target for a grandstand finish.

Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison set the early pace in qualifying, taking pole position in combination with his experienced co-driver Luke Youlden. Their combination and strategy led to the front of the grid position ahead of his former HRT team-mate Garth Tander, who he won with at Phillip Island in 2009, and his co-driver Nick Percat with SP Tools Kiwi pair Shane Van Gisbergen and John McIntyre third.

Youlden became the 50th driver in Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship history to record a pole position, while it was Davison’s fourth career pole and second this season for Ford Performance Racing.

L&H 500 Phillip Island
Race 19 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes /Mark Skaife
2 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup /Andrew Thompson
3 Trading Post FPR Falcon Will Davison /Luke Youlden

GARTH TANDER BECAME THE THIRD MOST-DECORATED DRIVER IN AUSTRALIAN TOURING CAR HISTORY BY TAKING OUT SATURDAY’S (JULY 9) RACE AT THE SUCROGEN TOWNSVILLE 400.

Tander won the 49th race of his career to surpass the great Peter Brock, labelling it a better victory than his last Bathurst 1000 title and then said it’s only the start. He now sits behind contemporaries Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes on the all-time winners list.

He beat home TeamVodafone’s ever present Jamie Whincup and resurgent Trading Post Racing’s Will Davison in his Ford Performance Racing Falcon. Davison held of a rampant Lowndes in the last five laps.

“The car was amazingly good in that middle stint, that’s what won us the race,” Tander said.

“This is every bit as important as our Bathurst win in 2009. We have got a lot of work to do and understand that but the gain we have made has been the biggest in my time at Walkinshaw.”

In Sunday’s (July 10) race, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes put on a one-team show for the fans. A Sunday crowd of more than 50,000 people, culminating in 150,000 spectators across the three days including 56,000 on Saturday, watched the sport’s best team fight out on the track with a 1-2 finish from Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom.

A mix of strategy, race pace at different times and soft Dunlop tyres resulted in the 1-2 finish for the TeamVodafone Commodores.

“It’s always going to happen in a good team when you have two very good cars that you are going to go head to head somewhere along the line,” Lowndes said.

“It’s going to be one of those years we are going to have more battles as we go along. Roland has always said he wants us to race to the chequered flag as no doubt the fans do. The one thing we won’t do is put ourselves in the gravel trap.”

Whincup also equalled Peter Brocks’ race win record of 48. The series takes an extended break until the next championship event, the Ipswich 300 from August 19-21.

Sucrogen Townsville 400 Event Results

Race 14 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1st: Jamie Whincup, Triple 8 Racing
2nd: Will Davison, Holden Racing Team
3rd: Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team

Race 15 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1st: TeamVodafone ,Jamie Whincup
2nd: TeamVodafone, Craig Lowndes
3rd: Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon, Mark Winterbottom

The win for Whincup is his fifth for the season and moves him to 47 career championship race wins, one short of Garth Tander and the late, great Peter Brock for equal third on the all-time winner’s list.

On Sunday, Jason Bright took his Team BOC’s second V8 Supercars Championship race win for the year with a superior tyre strategy paying off. Bright pitted later than others in the 67-lap race leaving his Dunlop’s in better condition later in race as he hunted down Jamie Whincup to seal victory.

At Darwin’s SKYCITY Triple Crown on June 17-19, Jack Daniel’s Racing’s Rick Kelly snatched an unlikely race victory in Saturday’s race. The Holden ace started from 12th on the grid and had worked his way into the top 10 but took advantage of a restart accident between leaders Mark Winterbottom, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen that saw all three drop off the road. Kelly slipped on by and held on to take his second race win of the season to add to his win in Hamilton.

Sunday’s race at the SKYCITY Triple Crown saw Shane van Gisbergen claim Ford’s second race win of the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship.

The 22-year-old pounced on Craig Lowndes with three laps to go, with his soft option Dunlop tyres having enough grip left to help take the young gun’s second win of the season.

Van Gisbergen started from 12th to take the win – the same position that Rick Kelly won from the previous day.

The 21-year-old bounced back in Sunday’s race in his SP Tools Falcon after crashing in pit lane during Saturday’s race, crossing the line 0.78s clear of Lee Holdsworth with Garth Tander rounding out the
podium from 19th on the grid.

The local fans went crazy as the young Ford driver brought home his maiden V8 win, the first for his Stone Brothers Racing team on home soil in New Zealand in 10 years of trying.

“I can’t believe it, I could hear the fans cheering and I was trying to keep concentrating,” said van Gisbergen.

“It was pretty tough those last few laps. It was déjà vu like Sydney last year but I knew we had plenty of fuel this time – I’m stoked!

“When you have a whole nation behind you, it’s hard not to get excited. I owe the boys some beers tonight!”

The result moves van Gisbergen up to sixth in the championship on a day where the championship front-runners hit problems – and two of them hit dramas in unison. Both Mark Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup got involved in a multi-car pile-up after Michael Caruso spun at turn three and Jason Bargwanna also became involved.

Winterbottom’s Ford was too badly damaged to continue, while Whincup’s team patched up his Commodore and he finished 18th, two laps down.

The Orrcon Steel driver now slips back to fourth in the title chase. Whincup retains the title lead by 81 points over Hamilton’s Saturday race winner Rick Kelly.

ITM400 HAMILTON

Race 5 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 Jack Daniel’s Racing – Rick Kelly
2 TeamVodafone – Craig Lowndes
3 Jack Daniel’s Racing  – Todd Kelly

Race 6 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 SP Tools Racing – Shane van Gisbergen
2 Fujitsu Racing GRM – Lee Holdsworth
3 Toll Holden Racing Team – Garth Tander

TEAMVODAFONE’S JAMIE WHINCUP ROCKETED TO A SOLID CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS LEAD IN THE V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP FOLLOWING HIS FOURTH WIN AT THE CLIPSAL 500 IN ADELAIDE.

Whincup etched himself into the record books to move past Marcos Ambrose for the most race wins at the event, and finds himself with a 144 point championship lead.

This win has been made all the sweeter as, for the first time in the history of the Clipsal 500, the race started in wet conditions which meant the field were battling during the early stages of the race.“This is a huge win for us,” said Whincup.

“Yesterday things didn’t quite go our way but today we fought deep. Today’s conditions don’t get any tougher than that.”

A crowd of 81,500 watched on as Jack Daniel’s Racing’s Rick Kelly finished just 1.3 seconds behind Whincup to take second place.

“The team did a great job, I felt I could have driven it a bit better but I was trying to save fuel.” said Kelly.

“It’s a lot of fun in the wet here! The Clipsal event is awesome and to finish second here after where we were in Abu Dhabi is fantastic.”

Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon’s Mark Winterbottom closely followed Whincup and Kelly to take 3rd place in Sunday’s race.

“I made it hard on myself by going off the track twice at turn four,” said Winterbottom.

“We had a good run but it wasn’t enough to get Rick in the end.”

Winterbottom now has second place in the Championship series on 423 points followed by Toll Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander who is third on 363 points.

CLIPSAL 500 RESULTS

Race 1 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 Toll Holden Racing Team Garth Tander
2 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup
3 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes

Race 2 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup
2 Jack Daniel’s Racing Rick Kelly
3 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon Mark Winterbottom

THE 2011 V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES GOT UNDER AWAY WITH THE FIRST EVENT TAKING PLACE AT ABU DHABI’S YAS MARINA CIRCUIT ON FEBRUARY 10-12.

With the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx ‘Sprint’ soft tyre in play as the only option for teams at the event – compared with the hard compound last year – drivers had to re-think their strategies to extract the best performance and results.

TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup was on the pace with the ‘Sprint’ tyre from first practice where he smashed the circuit’s V8 lap record, clocking a 1m57.0160s. He then continued his overseas winning streak by scoring an emphatic win in Race 1 of the Yas V8 400.

In his 100th championship event start, Whincup crossed the finish line 13.2 seconds ahead of Alex Davison (Irwin Racing) and Mark Winterbottom (Ford Performance Racing).

It was a tough day for reigning champion James Courtney, who was forced to pit to repair the damaged steering on his #1 Commodore after contact with Jason Bargwanna on the opening laps.

Courtney bounced back in style though to win Race 2 – his first race win with his new Toll Holden Racing Team.

The last 10 laps saw a nail-biting duel between Courtney and Team BOC’s Jason Bright as they diced for track position, while also trying to save fuel to make it to the finish. Bright finished just 6 tenths behind Courtney, with pole sitter Jamie Whincup in third.

YAS V8 400 RESULTS
Race 1 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 TeamVodafone – Jamie Whincup
2 Irwin Racing – Alex Davison
3 Orrcon Steel – FPR Falcon Mark Winterbottom

Race 2 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1 Toll Holden – Racing Team James Courtney
2 Team BOC – Jason Bright
3 TeamVodafone – Jamie Whincup

While his two key rivals, TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup and Jim Beam Racing’s James Courtney, dropped off with mechanical dramas to their cars, Tander’s #2 Commodore slogged through to finish the final 13 lap race.

SP Tools Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen finished the race in second and scored the second highest number of points over the weekend and Whincup’s teammate Craig Lowndes finished the last race in fourth but racked up the third highest amount of points for the weekend.

“We hope we can continue the form that we are showing over the last two races because we certainly have a long battle ahead of us as far as the Championship goes, but I couldn’t be happier for the guys and the team and all of our supporters and sponsors,” Tander said.

The reigning champion was virtually unchallenged over the second 43 lap race and went on to take the chequered flag four seconds ahead of Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom who started from pole position.

TeamVodafone’s Commodores enjoyed the perfect debut and Whincup acknowledged his team had given him a rocketship.

“The car was bullet-proof, and we were sort of in control from the start,” Whincup said.

“I am almost in shock from what has panned out this weekend. Having a brand-new car, a brand-new circuit and to almost have a perfect weekend, well that’s good enough. It is just an amazing feeling.”

MIDDLE EAST REPEAT AT BAHRAIN
TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup continued his perfect record and perfect points haul in the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series, winning races three and four at the Gulf Air Desert 400.

Whincup held off the Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom in the final race in the Middle East, who got the jump on Whincup at the start but finished second at Bahrain International Circuit.

The top three finishing positions replicated the Yas V8 400 results in Abu Dhabi the week prior, with Stone Brothers Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen finishing in third place.

Whincup described his battle with Winterbottom throughout the race as a dogfight and he believes it will continue.

“Frosty threw it at us and we were able to come away with it,” he said.

“We predicted they (FPR) would be strong all year, they’ve made a great start and it’s going to be a dogfight right until the end.”

TANDER WINS ON EMPTY AT CLIPSAL
In what will go down in history as one of the greatest V8 Supercar races ever, Toll Holden Racing’s Garth Tander won the second leg of the Clipsal 500 Adelaide in dramatic circumstances.

The 90,000 spectators held their collective breath as Tander – with very little fuel left in his tank – hung on to finish ahead of a charging James Courtney, and Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom.

It was a race that had everything, including a brave fuel strategy, a controversial black flag, late rain and a broken kerb at the dangerous turn eight.

It all came down to the last 20 laps when a kerb at turn eight broke up causing a safety car period. The five ensuing laps under the safety car was the break Tander needed as he was unlikely to have made it to the end of the race with the fuel he had left in his tank under normal racing conditions.

When the race was re-started it created a sprint to the end with Tander tight on fuel, Whincup okay on fuel but struggling on old tyres and Courtney looking good on both fuel and tyres, while Winterbottom was also in the mix.

Light rain added spice to the action as it caused Tander to slip on a wet painted white line allowing Whincup momentarily into the lead, before the former took control again.

Then Courtney gave Whincup a nudge causing a piece of the #1 TeamVodafone Commodore to come loose. Whincup was subsequently black-flagged, but the part flew clear before he could head to the pits.

However, under racing rules once a black flag has been displayed it can’t be rescinded until the car returns to pitlane for an inspection.

Whincup (771 points) still holds the Championship lead, but Winterbottom (714 points) has closed the gap to just 57 points. The next round of the Series will be the QANTAS Australian F1GP at Melbourne from March 25-28.