SUPERCARS RACE 8 TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT

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Craig Lowndes scored his first pole position in Supercars in almost 3 years from Shane van Gisbergen, Jamie Winchup and Scott McLaughlin. Jack LeBrocq qualified the Tekno Commodore in an impressive 6th place.

The field remained largely unchanged through the first four corners. Richie Stanaway was in the wars once again and limped back to the pits with a damaged hub after contact on the run to the turn 4 hairpin.

Lowndes came under pressure from van Gisbergen throughout the 2nd lap as Andre Heimgartner spun at the hairpin. Will Davison was the next to spin at turn 4 after contact from Michael Caruso one lap later.

Lowndes had a slow entry to the pitlane for his stop on lap 23 as he came up on Chaz Mostert, who had just returned to the circuit after his stop. Lowndes emerged between Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen. Jamie Whincup pitted from the lead on lap 27, with Jack Le Brocq and Fabian Coulthard immediately behind. Whincup emerged in 7th place, behind Mclaughlin, Lowndes, van Gisbergen and Courtney.

Rookie Le Brocq came under intense pressure from Coulthard as the pair brought their tyres up to temperature.

Scott Pye was the last of the leaders to complete his pitstop, handing the lead back to Craig Lowndes, who moved under the number 17 Shell V Power Falcon at the hairpin. Shane van Gisbergen spun at the hairpin on lap 38 and radioed a problem back to the garage. He ignored an instruction to pit and said that he had driven too hard for the issue with the car. The car ran wide at turn 4 again on the following lap as the team looked towards the sky and the possibility of rain. The problem was diagnosed as an engine management issue with the car ‘running on‘ under brakes.

At the half way mark, the top 5 were Lowndes, McLaughlin, Courtney, Whincup and LeBrocq. Chaz Mostert was enjoying a much improved performance as the car ran in 7th. Fabian Coulthard had a near miss at the turn 3 wall, when the left rear wheel nut appeared to fall from the car. Smoke poured from the rear wheel as Coulthard made his way around then circuit, surprisingly the wheel appeared to settle back onto the hub as he move towards the pit entry lane.

Lowndes and Whincup both stopped on lap 50, with the pair side by side as they left the pit bay. Lowndes took the lead as the cars moved into single line for the pit exit road. The pair then hounded by Scott McLaughlin, who had stopped earlier. McLaughlin accounted for Whincup on the run to the hairpin. Scott Pye, David Reynolds and Rick Kelly went long again to hold the race lead before making their final pit stops.

Shane vanGisbergen continued to drop back through the field with the over run problem. which was eventually linked to a component failure in the pedal box.

Despite the threat of rain on the local radar, the circuit remained dry, with just the odd drop of rain falling around the circuit.

Craig Lowndes regained the lead after the final runners, which included Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom, whilst they made their final stops. Lowndes remained in first place throughout the latter stages of the race, though he had to survive a few tense moments as he made his way back through some heavy traffic. He went on to win from Scott McLaughlin, Jamie Whincup, James Courtney, Jack LeBrocq, Scott Pye, Garth Tander, David Reynolds, Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert.

For Lowndes it was his first Supercars victory in almost 2 years and capped a breakthrough weekend for the Autobahn entry.

“More relieved,” was Lowndes response when asked to describe his feelings. “We’ve been talking about how hard we’ve been working as a team. We’ve been pushing hard and I’ve had no secrets that last year was hard. We want to be more consistent, we want to be on podiums. I said that at the start that this car suits me and hopefully we’ve proved that this weekend.”

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