Davison/Webb win Bathurst 1000 after event's closest ever finish
Will Davison and Jonathon Webb have taken an emotional win in the 2016 Bathurst 1000 after on-the-road winner Jamie Whincup was penalised
The eventual victors, sharing the single entry from the small Tekno Autosports Holden team, started the day 17th after a troubled build-up, but stayed out of trouble to win the closest finish in the history of the event.
They also became the first winners of the 1000 without leading a single lap.
Whincup was the first driver to cross the line but was penalised 15 seconds for his role in an incident that put Garth Tander out of the race and sent Scott McLaughlin's Volvo into the pits and out of contention.
"It's amazing," said Webb. "We had the heartache in '14, but we won it."
Webb looked like winning the race two years ago until his co-driver Shane van Gisbergen stalled after the final pit stop of the race.
Earlier this year Tekno won the Bathurst 12 Hour, Webb and van Gisbergen sharing with Alvaro Parente.
It was a controversial race from the beginning. Whincup clearly had the speed, but after half a race with no safety cars, the last 70 laps were interrupted by regular yellow flags, which brought the leaders back to the pack, and put many of the cars on a fuel saving strategy.
Second in the race was, amazingly enough, van Gisbergen and co-driver Alex Premat in their Red Bull Holden, while Nick Percat/Cameron McConville overcame a lowly 22nd grid spot to take third for the single-car Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport team.
It was a hard day for defending winner Craig Lowndes/Steven Richards, who lost time with a broken gear linkage, and for Mark Winterbottom/Dean Canto.
They were well placed for a late-race challenge until a brake disc broke approaching the 180mph Chase corner, pitching Winterbottom off the road.
Young stars Cam Waters/Jack Le Brocq were fourth ahead of Scott Pye/Tony D'Alberto and Fabian Coulthard/Luke Youlden, no doubt impressing team owner Roger Penske, who was present to witness Bathurst for the first time.
One of the drives of the race came from Tim Slade/Ash Walsh.
The pair were well in contention, but after losing two laps with a pit fire, came surging back to seventh place after some swift driving and clever strategy.
BATHURST 1000 RESULT
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | W.Davison, J.Webb | Tekno | Holden | 161 | 6h19m25.3237s |
2 | S.Gisbergen, A.Premat | Triple Eight | Holden | 161 | 0.1434s |
3 | N.Percat, C.McConville | Dumbrell | Holden | 161 | 2.8554s |
4 | C.Waters, J.Le Brocq | Prodrive | Ford | 161 | 3.2351s |
5 | S.Pye, T.D'Alberto | DJR Penske | Ford | 161 | 3.8215s |
6 | F.Coulthard, L.Youlden | DJR Penske | Ford | 161 | 4.0336s |
7 | T.Slade, A.Walsh | Brad Jones | Holden | 161 | 4.1968s |
8 | M.Caruso, D.Fiore | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan | 161 | 6.0884s |
9 | D.Wood, D.Russell | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan | 161 | 8.3833s |
10 | T.Blanchard, M.Jones | Britek/BJR | Holden | 161 | 8.8587s |
11 | J.Whincup, P.Dumbrell | Triple Eight | Holden | 161 | 9.7216s |
12 | C.Pither, R.Stanaway | Super Black/PRA | Ford | 161 | 16.4443s |
13 | J.Courtney, J.Perkins | HRT | Holden | 161 | 19.2488s |
14 | S.de Silvestro, R.Gracie | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan | 159 | 2 Laps |
15 | S.McLaughlin, D.Wall | GRM | Volvo | 159 | 2 Laps |
16 | C.Lowndes, S.Richards | Triple Eight | Holden | 156 | 5 Laps |
17 | C.van der Drift, S.Davies | Erebus | Holden | 156 | 5 Laps |
18 | D.Reynolds, C.Baird | Erebus | Holden | 148 | 13 Laps |
19 | C.Mostert, S.Owen | Rod Nash/PRA | Ford | 147 | 14 Laps |
- | T.Kelly, M.Campbell | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan | 157 | Retirement |
- | R.Kelly, R.Ingall | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan | 156 | Retirement |
- | G.Tander, W.Luff | HRT | Holden | 150 | Retirement |
- | M.Winterbottom, D.Canto | Prodrive | Ford | 132 | Retirement |
- | A.Heimgartner, A.Russell | Dumbrell | Holden | 114 | Retirement |
- | J.Moffat, J.Golding | GRM | Volvo | 108 | Retirement |
- | J.Bright, A.Jones | Brad Jones | Holden | 89 | Retirement |
- | L.Holdsworth, K.Reindler | Schwerkolt | Holden | 2 | Retirement |
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