Hidden Valley V8 Supercars: Lowndes fends off Winterbottom for victory

Lowndes jumped poleman and early race leader Dave Reynolds in the pits and fought off the late charge from race two winner Winterbottom to win a race shortened by a full restart and then punctuated by a safety car.

The first attempt at the race start barely lasted beyond Turn 1. Reynolds led Lowndes away as Garth Tander flew from 11th on the grid, diving past Will Davison for sixth. But as the pack tried to filter into Turns 2 and 3, it turned to chaos.

Scott McLaughlin found himself sandwiched between Tim Slade and Jason Bright, spearing the former into the barriers and sending the latter slewing across the grass.

As the rest tried to take avoiding action, Dean Fiore slammed into the tyre barrier on the outside and nearly rolled, while David Wall, Alexandre Premat and James Moffat were also caught up in the mayhem.

It meant the grid was seven cars light at the restart, which was much more measured. As Reynolds continued at the end of the first lap, Lowndes headed a dash to the pits, with teams eager to ditch the hard tyre and take advantage of the shorter, timed race distance to run the soft tyre to the end.

The following lap, Tander, Jamie Whincup, Davison and Shane van Gisbergen pitted and it was Whincup who jumped Tander - but the championship leader was then hit with a drive-through penalty for spinning the wheels before the car was lowered.

Reynolds lost track position to Lowndes when he made his stop on lap three, which would prove crucial as moments later James Courtney's stranded car at the Turn 6 hairpin caused a safety car.

Lowndes eked out a one second advantage after the restart, comfortably controlling the race until the final couple of laps, when it came alive again.

Winterbottom passed Reynolds at Turn 1 and by the penultimate tour had closed Lowndes' lead from 1.5s to absolutely nothing. He harried him into Turns 1 and 5, and closed right up into the Turn 6 hairpin, but Lowndes defended firmly to claim the win.

Reynolds held off the impressive Jonathon Webb for third with Tander fifth. Whincup eventually finished 19th, inheriting a place late on after Todd Kelly spun at Turn 14 after contact with Moffat.

Results - 24 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time/Gap
 1.  Craig Lowndes       Triple 8 Holden           31m.39.694s
 2.  Mark Winterbottom   FPR Ford                     + 0.116s
 3.  David Reynolds      Rod Nash/FPR Ford            + 1.779s
 4.  Jonathon Webb       Tekno Holden                 + 2.463s
 5.  Garth Tander        HRT Holden                   + 4.635s
 6.  Shane van Gisbergen Tekno                        + 5.150s
 7.  Will Davison        FPR Ford                     + 7.747s
 8.  Scott McLaughlin    GRM Holden                   + 8.929s
 9.  Maro Engel          Erebus Mercedes             + 9.2086s
10.  Jason Bright        Brad Jones Holden           + 11.253s
11.  Michael Caruso      Nissan                      + 15.760s
12.  Rick Kelly          Nissan                      + 17.650s
13.  Fabian Coulthard    Brad Jones Holden           + 19.858s
14.  Tony D'Alberto      D'Alberto Holden            + 20.767s
15.  Tim Blanchard       Dick Johnson Ford           + 21.559s
16.  Russell Ingall      Walkinshaw/HRT Holden       + 21.994s
17.  Chaz Mostert        Dick Johnson Ford           + 25.521s
18.  Scott Pye           Dumbrell Holden             + 26.750s
19.  Jamie Whincup       Triple 8 Holden               + 1 lap 
20.  Todd Kelly          Nissan                       + 2 laps

Retirements:     
     James Courtney      HRT Holden                     3 laps
     Tim Slade           Rosenberg/Erebus Mercedes      0 laps
     David Wall          Britek/BJR Holden              0 laps
     Alex Davison        Schwerkolt/FPR Ford            0 laps
     Lee Holdsworth      Erebus Mercedes                0 laps
     James Moffat        Nissan                         0 laps
     Dean Fiore          Dumbrell Holden                0 laps
     Alexandre Premat    GRM Holden                     0 laps