Jamie Whincup thanked the great Dick Johnson for motivation, saying the Bathurst great's comments that he lacked the mental strength to better Craig Lowndes at the Mountain were what spurred him to a fourth victory.

Whincup and co-driver Paul Dumbrell claimed victory in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 from the quick David Reynolds (Dean Canto), and Lowndes and his partner Warren Luff in the second TeamVodafone car.

It was Whincup's fourth Bathurst title in the 50th year of the iconic event which recorded the highest crowd in history with a staggering 207,205 people on track over the four days.

It is the first time the crowd has exceeded 200,000 in the regional city of Bathurst and eclipses the previous record of 193,647 that attended the 2006 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 following the death of the great Peter Brock.

In what was always billed as a classic Ford versus Holden battle before Nissan and AMG appear on next year's grid, that's exactly what happened apart from the fact it was Reynolds in the Bottle-O Falcon from the FPR stable but not Armor All pole sitter Will Davison or Mark Winterbottom.

Reynolds pushed Whincup to the finish line in another epic finish to this classic race in an enthralling battle of tyre and fuel conservation, mental strength, wit, ability, courage and team work - all at speeds of up to 295km/h.

Whincup had roughly 100ml of fuel left in his tank as he crossed the line.

"What came into my head with 10 laps to go was Dick's (Johnson) comments during the week that I didn't have the mental capacity to win the race (over Lowndes). I thought of that and it did help me the last 10 laps for sure," said Whincup.

"Everyone who has won in the last 10 years has had a fast car and we had that today. We conserved tyres and fuel in that last stint. I can't thank the team enough. I can't thank PD (Paul Dumbrell) enough.

"This could be up there with the highlight of my career no doubt about it. This is a massive event. And to stand on the top of the podium for the 50th year is unbelievably special."

It was the first Bathurst win for Dumbrell, who retired at the end of last year from fulltime racing to concentrate on his job as CEO of giant franchise Autobarn.

"I can't describe how I feel. I can't really put my finger on it," said Dumbrell. "The day was phenomenal. On lap three when the window blew out I heard the noise and straightway thought the worst. We were struggling with straight line for a while but the team got to grips with that."

Reynolds has been often known for his great pace and unusual wit, plenty of which he has shown in the last 12 months. But this elevated him to a genuine front-runner, particularly the way he handled the intense pressure at the end.

"This could be life-changing this race. If we had won it would have been life-changing. It was close but I was not brave enough on the last lap," Reynolds said.

"It is not just me for Dean as well.  I said if i was going to get on the podium it would be a good one, so second at Bathurst was not too bad."

Lowndes praised Whincup after being unable to hunt down the lead pair.

"There's no doubt Team Vodafone have the right car and driver and team behind them. This was what Jamie said that it is all about a team effort," Lowndes said.

"We had some problems with both cars and the team managed to get to grips with them quickly. When you have that combination, when you have a teammate like Jamie - he is very talented, there's no doubt about it."

It was a miraculous day also for fourth placed James Courtney who was in the hunt right to the end. His HRT Commodore was swamped by Lowndes in the run home, as was Michael Caruso, but the former Champion, like Reynolds, was there at the end and not Garth Tander as expected.

Reigning Champions Tander and partner Nick Percat were out of the race earlier when the youngster clipped a wall through the esses, the Holden suffering some sort of damage which put them laps down.

Davison, who started the race from pole position and was the race leader in the opening laps, suffered a brake failure going into the fastest part of the iconic 6.2km circuit.

Coming into the kink in Conrod Straight, Davison was a passenger at nearly 300km/h as his Falcon flew through sand traps, narrowly missed another car as it crossed the track and kissed the wall as it came to rest near the final turn.

"I don't know, someone's got it in for me today," Davison told the Seven Network.

"I heard a big bang at the start of Conrod Straight and I thought it might have been the tyre but it was the rollbar breaking and cutting the brakeline in half. It's your worst nightmare, is that happening at that corner."

The V8 Supercar Championship now heads to the Armor All Gold Coast 600 when it welcomes international co-drivers for the third and final endurance leg of the season.