Whincup leads team 1-2 in race one

Whincup led virtually from start-to-finish to win ahead of teammate Craig Lowndes, with Lee Holdsworth taking third after the second safety car period shook up the order as drivers were making their compulsory pitstops.

But Whincup's closest championship rivals, Garth Tander and Mark Winterbottom, struck trouble literally, after Winterbottom spun Tander in the middle of the race, hurting both drivers' championship ambitions, as well as their results this weekend.

At the start, Tander jumped up to second behind Whincup into turn one from fifth after making a perfect start. Lap two saw Tander, Todd Kelly, Craig Lowndes and Steven Johnson battling hard with each other, with Tander the big loser, dropping to fifth behind Kelly, Johnson and Lowndes.

Tander's teammate Mark Skaife was in even more trouble, light contact between him and Michael Patrizi immediately followed by hard contact in the side and rear from Jason Richards. Skaife and Richards returned to the pits to retire, while Andrew Jones was already out and parked just off the circuit, bringing out the safety car.

The race restarted on lap 5, Lowndes taking third from Johnson a lap later. The leaders made their compulsory pit stops on laps 8 and 9, Lowndes jumping ahead of Kelly while Will Davison retired after fumes came in to his cockpit.

The safety car came out a couple of laps later after Jason Bright slammed into the rear of Fabian Coulthard in a misjudged overtaking manouevre, bunkering Coulthard in the gravel.

However, the officials were not as quick in deploying the safety car as some people might have expected, which caused it to initially miss picking up the leader as well as a close call with Todd Kelly as both cars rounded the first turn.

There was also a big shuffling of the order, with Lee Holdsworth and Paul Morris big gainers, fourth and sixth having been tenth and nineteenth before the pitstops began.

The race restarted on lap 16 with Whincup leading from Lowndes and Kelly, with Tander down to seventh. Bright soon received a drivethrough penalty for his contact with Coulthard.

Lap seventeen saw a crucial moment for two drivers, as Mark Winterbottom turned Garth Tander around at turn one. Both drivers lost ground, Tander falling to eighteenth, with Winterbottom's day getting worse as he received a drivethrough penalty for his part in the incident and fell to 23rd.

From there, it was relatively smooth sailing, except for Todd Kelly, who was penalised for 'overtaking the safety car' in what appeared to be a harsh call, with a drivethrough penalty dropping him from third to 20th also appearing to ne overly harsh, with team boss Larry Perkins venting his fury at the officials.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     50:29.8677
 2.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     +  10.4630
 3.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +  13.5865
 4.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +  14.2955
 5.  James Courtney        Ford     +  15.8815
 6.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +  17.9168
 7.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +  22.3773
 8.  Steven Richards       Ford     +  23.2456
 9.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +  26.8502
10.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +  27.6673
11.  Paul Morris           Holden   +  28.2449
12.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +  28.8593
13.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +  31.2452
14.  Garth Tander          Holden   +  33.4139
15.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +  33.8922
16.  Marcus Marshall       Ford     +  37.3779
17.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +  40.4627
18.  Andrew Thompson       Holden   +  43.5964
19.  Jack Perkins          Holden   +  45.3866
20.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +  57.1466
21.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +1:02.3365
22.  Jason Bright          Ford     +1:18.9822
23.  Fahad Al Musalam      Ford     +   1 lap
24.  Michael Patrizi       Ford     +   2 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make     Laps
     Fabian Coulthard      Ford      15
     Will Davison          Ford       9
     Jason Richards        Holden     2
     Mark Skaife           Holden     2
     Andrew Jones          Holden     1