Whincup takes Townsville race one

The contact came as Whincup passed Tim Slade at the final hairpin at the end of lap 34, the first lap of the restart after the first safety car of the race.

The nose of Whincup's car clipped the rear of the lapped car of Jack Perkins, sending Perkins into a spin. However, stewards took no action over the incident

Whincup held on the rest of the way despite a late safety car period and a chequered flag falling on lap 72 but the results taken a lap earlier as the time limit had already expired.

Second and third were the Holden Racing Team duo of Will Davison and Garth Tander, with Whincup's team-mate Craig Lowndes fourth, Lowndes one of several drivers to make big gains when the first safety car came onto the track, Lowndes having struggled to move up the order in the early going.

Not far behind Lowndes was Michael Caruso in his Garry Rogers Holden, with Supercheap's Russell Ingall right on his tail. Rick Kelly and Mark Winterbottom moved up well from 19th and 16th on the grid to finish in seventh and eighth, with Cameron McConville and Todd Kelly completing the top ten.

While Whincup had some good luck, there were also two big hard luck stories to be told. Jim Beam Racing's James Courtney took the lead at the start having shown great pace throughout the weekend.

But before the first lap was complete he was reporting engine problems, and on lap six he lost the lead as the problem got significantly worse, coming into the pits and retiring at the end of the lap, a great chance for a race win gone.

This moved Lee Holdsworth into the lead, a position he held until making his first pitstop on lap 20, resuming a couple of seconds behind Whincup who had moved up to second in the early laps after his less than stellar shootout performance.

With four new tyres versus two for Whincup, Holdsworth reeled in Whincup only to suffer terminal engine problems just as he caught Whincup, bringing out the first safety car as his chance to score a win disappeared as well.

Pos  Driver                Make                  Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Ford Falcon FG        1:35:37.4475
 2.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   +     1.4494
 3.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   +     1.7464
 4.  Craig Lowndes         Ford Falcon FG        +     3.0426
 5.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   +     4.4222
 6.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   +     4.8311
 7.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +     9.5374
 8.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        +     9.7846
 9.  Cameron McConville    Holden Commodore VE   +    10.0476
10.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +    10.2367
11.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden Commodore VE   +    10.7288
12.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        +    11.0229
13.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        +    11.3119
14.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   +    12.9040
15.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford Falcon FG        +     1 lap
16.  Jason Bright          Ford Falcon FG        +     1 lap
17.  Dean Fiore            Holden Commodore VE   +     1 lap
18.  Jack Perkins          Holden Commodore VE   +     1 lap
19.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   +     2 laps
20.  Michael Patrizi       Ford Falcon BF        +     2 laps
21.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        +     3 laps
22.  David Reynolds        Holden Commodore VE   +     5 laps
23.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   +    11 laps
24.  Mark McNally          Holden Commodore VE   +    11 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make                  Laps
     Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE    67
     Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG         60
     Tim Slade             Holden Commodore VE    42
     Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE    28
     James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG          5