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Craig Lowndes' Sydney wins keeps V8 Supercars title fight open

Craig Lowndes took a crucial victory in the penultimate round of the V8 Supercars championship in Sydney as his title rival Jamie Whincup finished only 20th after having to pit for repairs

Lowndes had looked unlikely to make any inroads into his Triple Eight Holden team-mate's points lead when he spun in the top 10 shoot-out qualifying session this morning and left himself only 10th on the grid.

But in a race shaped by incidents and fuel strategy amid several safety car periods, Lowndes carefully worked his way to the front, taking the lead from Garry Rogers Holden driver Michael Caruso on lap 61 of 74, and then nursing his car to the flag on its last drops of fuel - the timing of the final safety car and pitstops having forced most of the field to conserve fuel through the last 28 laps.

Lowndes held off Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander by just under a second, with Shane van Gisbergen making it back to third in his Stone Brothers Ford despite a clash with Rick Kelly (Kelly Holden) and final corner contact with a slowing Caruso, whose car had run dry.

Whincup was part of the lead pack initially before sustaining suspension damage which required a four-lap pitstop to repair, leaving him back in 20th at the flag, and meaning his lead over Lowndes in the championship has come down from 188 to 83 points going into Sunday's season finale.

Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom recovered from a penalty for colliding with Greg Murphy to take fifth, while his polesitting team-mate Will Davison led the early laps before damaging his steering and eventually crashing.

Rick Kelly fell from third to 10th when he had to make a final-lap fuel stop. Lee Holdsworth (Garry Rogers Holden) was another victory contender but dropped back when he made his final pitstop just before a safety car period, leaving him 14th in the end.

Results - 74 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Craig Lowndes        Triple 8 Holden      1h59m35.1252s
 2.  Garth Tander         HRT Holden               + 0.8814s
 3.  Shane van Gisbergen  Stone Brothers Ford      + 6.8218s
 4.  Michael Caruso       Garry Rogers Holden      + 8.2266s
 5.  Mark Winterbottom    FPR Ford                + 10.7098s
 6.  Tim Slade            Rosenberg/SBR Ford      + 19.8408s
 7.  James Courtney       HRT Holden              + 20.2948s
 8.  James Moffat         Dick Johnson Ford       + 27.9926s
 9.  Todd Kelly           Kelly Holden            + 30.1826s
10.  Rick Kelly           Kelly Holden            + 33.6546s
11.  Fabian Coulthard     Walkinshaw Holden       + 39.5600s
12.  Alex Davison         Stone Brothers Ford     + 41.4724s
13.  David Reynolds       Kelly Holden            + 41.6777s
14.  Lee Holdsworth       Garry Rogers Holden     + 44.6574s
15.  Warren Luff          Dumbrell Holden         + 46.7945s
16.  Greg Murphy          Kelly Holden            + 50.4360s
17.  Russell Ingall       Paul Morris Holden      + 54.2444s
18.  Steven Johnson       Dick Johnson Ford     + 1m01.2062s
19.  Karl Reindler        Britek Holden         + 1m11.0822s
20.  Jamie Whincup        Triple 8 Holden           + 6 laps

Retirements:

     Dean Fiore           Triple F Ford              73 laps
     Paul Dumbrell        Rod Nash/FPR Ford          50 laps
     Jason Bright         Brad Jones Holden          45 laps
     Steve Owen           Paul Morris Holden         42 laps
     Tony D'Alberto       D'Alberto Ford             36 laps
     Jonathon Webb        Tekno Ford                 34 laps
     Jason Bargwanna      Brad Jones Holden          29 laps
     Will Davison         FPR Ford                   11 laps

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