Jamie Whincup triumphant in first Townsville V8 Supercars race

Poleman Mark Winterbottom had looked like the man to beat for the first half of the race. With the leading qualifiers all getting their hard tyres out of the way in the opening stint, those starting on softs were able to hack their way through the field. While this resulted in Dick Johnson Racing's Steve Owen and Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander reaching the front, amid the battles Winterbottom (Ford Performance Racing) was able to make a break from the rest of the FPR/Triple Eight powerhouse group.

But Whincup was back on his tail by the middle of the race, and got past at the restart from the third safety car period of the day. With the yellows prompting a variety of strategies, it was a while before out-of-sequence cars pitted and allowed Whincup and Winterbottom back to the front, and once there, they had to nurse dwindling fuel loads to the flag, but Whincup did so successfully to claim victory by a second.

Great strategy and a charging drive took Tander to an eventual third place, ahead of Brad Jones Racing's Fabian Coulthard, as making an additional pitstop under the second safety car paid off for both men.

Whincup's team-mate Craig Lowndes lost a lot of places queuing in the pits behind the #1 car as they stopped under yellow, but he surged back up to fifth. Winterbottom's title-chasing team-mate Will Davison was delayed in the same manner and could only recover to 12th.

Front row starter David Reynolds (Rod Nash/FPR) lost ground at the first stops and was sixth, fending off Owen, Rick Kelly (Kelly Racing) and Lee Holdsworth (Stone Brothers).

Tander's team-mate James Courtney used a similar strategy to come through from 23rd to 10th, just ahead of Walkinshaw's Russell Ingall, whose pit tactics allowed him to lead for a while.

Jacques Villeneuve's tough weekend continued. The 1997 Formula 1 world champion made it as high as 12th as strategies played out, before having to retire his Kelly Holden in the pits. The Canadian, whose previous V8 experience comes from the Surfers Paradise international guest race, is standing in for Greg Murphy this weekend as the latter continues to recover from a back injury.

Results - 72 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Jamie Whincup        Triple 8 Holden      1h36m36.6067s
 2.  Mark Winterbottom    FPR Ford                 + 1.1504s
 3.  Garth Tander         HRT Holden               + 9.0783s
 4.  Fabian Coulthard     Brad Jones Holden       + 13.9352s
 5.  Craig Lowndes        Triple 8 Holden         + 15.9831s
 6.  David Reynolds       Rod Nash/FPR Ford       + 24.0944s
 7.  Steve Owen           Dick Johnson Ford       + 25.3326s
 8.  Rick Kelly           Kelly Holden            + 26.2152s
 9.  Lee Holdsworth       Stone Brothers Ford     + 27.5602s
10.  James Courtney       HRT Holden              + 33.9709s
11.  Russell Ingall       Walkinshaw Holden       + 34.7180s
12.  Will Davison         FPR Ford                + 37.7530s
13.  James Moffat         Dick Johnson Ford       + 39.7171s
14.  Michael Caruso       Garry Rogers Holden     + 39.8944s
15.  Todd Kelly           Kelly Holden            + 51.2934s
16.  Michael Patrizi      Tekno Holden            + 58.9084s
17.  Steven Johnson       Dick Johnson Ford       + 59.2955s
18.  Tony D'Alberto       D'Alberto Ford        + 1m09.5269s
19.  Jonathon Webb        Tekno Holden               + 1 lap
20.  David Wall           Britek/BJR Holden          + 1 lap
21.  Tim Slade            Rosenberg/SBR Ford         + 1 lap
22.  Shane van Gisbergen  Stone Brothers Ford        + 1 lap
23.  Taz Douglas          Dumbrell Holden           + 3 laps
24.  Dean Fiore           Triple F Ford             + 6 laps
25.  Karl Reindler        Kelly Holden             + 12 laps

Retirements:

     Jason Bright         Brad Jones Holden          38 laps
     Alexandre Premat     Garry Rogers Holden        30 laps
     Jacques Villeneuve   Kelly Holden               18 laps