The mind games have escalated to an all-time high in the classic battle between Holden and Ford. An epic battle of strategy decided the SkyCity Triple Crown in Darwin.
After three months of playing second to Ford Performance Racing, TeamVodafone bit back. They scored a 1-2 in the second race of the weekend, extending the point buffer of V8 Supercar Championship leader Jamie Whincup.
With fast cars and the right strategy call Craig Lowndes scored victory, 15 years after he was the very first race winner at Hidden Valley. He passed Whincup with three laps to go while FPRs Mark Winterbottom was third some ways back.
The drive of the day came from Fujitsu GRM Racing’s Michael Caruso who stalled from fourth on the grid, recovered and late in the race had an eye on the podium until finishing an incredible fourth.
Whincup now leads the Championship from Will Davison, Winterbottom and Lowndes who made up just a few points on the top three with a long way to go in 2012. He said his engineer Jeromy Moore won him the race.
“They wanted me to stay out just enough to split up the next two runs and it was a credit to them. I was thankful at the end that the car looked after its tyres. At the end of the middle leg it felt like it was on the canvas but that last set was great,” Lowndes said.
“Our concerns were making sure we didn’t have a late safety car because we would not have had anything left to fight with. Vodafone have had a 1-2 and we have worked very hard to make sure that’s the case.”
TeamVodafone boss praised the quality of both the Red and Blue sides for a classic encounter,
“It was a great race because it ebbed and flowed. It was a great spectacle and certainly looked fantastic from where I was standing,” he said.
“I don’t feel like a loser. Either one of these blokes might at times but I feel great. I donlt mind which one wins as long as they don’t screw it up. A 1-2 is the only time I wake up on a Monday feeling we have done a proper job.”
Winterbottom took the early advantage on the second lap with some barge tactic against team-mate Davison, pushing him aside at the tight hairpin.
An early safety car when Drew Russell tangled with Jason Bright and slammed into the outside wall on the front straight changed the race. It allowed almost every car except for four, including Whincup and Lowndes, dive in for soft tyres.
The race from that point was going to be dictated by who took the best option. Would the soft tyres get home or would the hard tyre option with fresh news ones be the go?
Winterbottom was quick to take the lead on soft tyres from Whincup. Reynolds did likewise to Lowndes with Tander looming ominously behind the lead few.
As the field cycled through the laps and the pit stops TeamVodafone won the race of the engineers’ strategy. With 10 laps to go Lowndes moved into a clear second behind Whincup. On newer tyres he plugged away until taking the lead.
Davison backed up his pace from the day before with a second straight ARMOR ALL pole position. The Tradingpost Ford Performance Racing pilot scorched around the 2.87-kilometre circuit to lead a 1-2-3 for FPR, beating Winterbottom and Reynolds.
Davison set a 1m08.5004s, out-pointing Winterbottom by 0.16s to take his second pole in two days and the ninth pole of his V8 Supercar career. Whincup started fourth after being the best Holden driver with Commodore pilots rounding out the rest of the top 10.
2009 Darwin winner Caruso was fifth (a personal best at Hidden Valley), clear of Lowndes, Jonathon Webb, Fabian Coulthard, Bright and Michael Patrizi.
The 20-minute session was again a cracker, with pit lane filling with cars as drivers waited right until the final minutes to use their soft tyres (which are only at their prime for one fast lap) to set a hot lap.
Last year's Darwin race winners - Shane van Gisbergen and Rick Kelly - were further back than they won last year's two races at Hidden Valley (both 12th) with them qualifying 13th and 15th. Holden Racing Team ace Garth Tander languished in 21st - his worst-ever qualifying performance in Darwin.
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