Whincup wins again in race two

It was a tougher victory than his race one win, despite making a much better start, as Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander took the lead from him at turn seven on the opening lap, Tander leading the race until Whincup took the lead back in a late-braking move at the turn nine hairpin on lap 14.

From there, Whincup opened up a small gap but a couple of safety cars meant that with 14 laps remianing, the field was bunched up once more. Whincup resisted the pressure from behind to take a well-earned win.

Second place was taken by Tander's team-mate Will Davison, who lost a few places at the start but made his way back up the order to be on Tander's tail as they made their mid-race pitstops.

Davison pitted first, and when Tander resumed after his pitstop, Davison on warmer tyres was able to squeeze past him and begin to chase down Whincup. Tander regained some pace to finish third, but spent the closing laps fending off Whincup's teammate Craig Lowndes who just didn't quite manage to find a way past.

Just behind him at the finish was Garry Rogers' Lee Holdsworth consolidating his first race result, as did Jim Beam Racing's Steven Johnson in sixth, both able to move ahead of Team BOC's Jason Richards who ran in the top-five for most of the race but battled with a shift-cut problem in the second half of the race.

Eighth was a remarkable result for Sprint Gas's Greg Murphy, who was sent to the rear of the grid after admitting to careless driving in the race one incident that saw Michael Caruso's car heavily damaged.

What looked like being a good day for Paul Dumbrell, Shane van Gisbergen and Cameron McConville turned sour in the closing laps, van Gisbergen finishing 13th, Dumbrell 17th and McConville 21st after each looked set for strong top-ten results.

After his disappointment in race one, Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom was set for a good result in race two before broken steering early in the race ended his hopes of a good finish.

Jim Beam's James Courtney also had a disappointing day, crashing in the morning warm-up and only just making the grid, before continuing niggles saw him finish well down the order.

With two wins from two races, Whincup leads the championship on 300 points, ahead of Will Davison on 267 and Lee Holdsworth with 249. Lowndes is sixth with 168 points, Tander 12th with 129 while last year's runner-up Mark Winterbottom is 18th with just 90 points.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     2:00:39.5887
 2.  Will Davison          Holden   +     0.7479
 3.  Garth Tander          Holden   +     4.3957
 4.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     +     4.8562
 5.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +     6.8764
 6.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +     8.6610
 7.  Jason Richards        Holden   +    14.7840
 8.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +    15.6098
 9.  Steven Richards       Ford     +    16.1637
10.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +    21.2147
11.  Jason Bright          Ford     +    21.8336
12.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +    22.3131
13.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +    24.3483
14.  Marcus Marshall       Ford     +    24.9401
15.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +    26.5346
16.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +    27.9641
17.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +    43.8880
18.  Dean Fiore            Holden   +    53.4667
19.  Michael Patrizi       Ford     +  1:05.9503
20.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden   +     2 laps
21.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +     2 laps
22.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +    10 laps
23.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +    11 laps
24.  James Courtney        Ford     +    15 laps
25.  Alex Davison          Ford     +    16 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make     Laps
     Todd Kelly            Holden    69
     David Reynolds        Holden    68
     Dale Wood             Holden    57
     Tim Slade             Holden    22
     Jack Perkins          Holden     0