Jamie Whincup has the upper hand again in his battle with teammate Craig Lowndes for the V8 Supercar title, while Ford's factory team has finally got to grips with soft tyres and made it to the winner's circle
Internationals in favour but confusion about future
The Gold Coast 600 may prove to have been the defining round of the V8 Supercar season.
Jamie Whincup went into it trailing Triple Eight teammate Craig Lowndes by 100 points but came out of it 143 points ahead.
Ford Performance Racing broke through for its first win in this year's championship – in the 22nd race, and having finally got to grips with the soft-compound Dunlop tyres.
Mark Winterbottom is up to fourth in the championship after Sunday's victory, but – barring catastrophes – it is still a battle between Whincup and Lowndes.
The international co-driver element worked well again, with versatile Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais the pick of the visitors, driving two fine opening stints as Whincup's partner and collecting the new Dan Wheldon Trophy created in honour of the IndyCar driver killed a week earlier in Las Vegas.
Date clashes with overseas championships next year will create problems for some of the 28 internationals returning next year, and acting V8 Supercars chief executive Shane Howard says the 2012 Gold Coast event can't be moved from October 19-21.
However, longer term V8 Supercars supremo Tony Cochrane is talking of a move to December in the hope of enticing NASCAR stars.
We highlighted here last week that the Gold Coast traditionally was a better venue for Ford and, despite Whincup and Bourdais taking Saturday's first 300km race for Holden, both FPR Falcons were podium finishers that day, with Will Davison and Finn Mika Salo ahead of Winterbottom and Irishman Richard Lyons – the late substitute for Aussie Will Power.
Then on Sunday it was Winterbottom who delivered the goods so overdue for the Blue Oval's factory team, effortlessly overtaking Whincup with eight laps to go and going on to take the chequered flag first after the other FPR Falcon had been cruelled by a puncture while Salo was at the wheel.
The breakthrough win was as much relief as joy for Winterbottom, but he said that "winning on the soft tyre makes it just that much sweeter".
"The team has been working incredibly hard … this is the result of a lot of hours' work," he said.
"It is probably one of the most special wins we've had. We have bounced back strongly, so it is very sweet."
Another highlight of the weekend was youngster James Moffat's scintillating pace late in Saturday's race, which might have produced his first V8 Supercar podium had there been a couple more laps.
The lowlight was the chaos in the wake of the new electronic sensors intended to catch driving cutting kerbs being turned off midway through Sunday's race.
"It was very, very disappointing that we started off the race with a system in place and then it was switched off after about a third of the race and we didn't know where we stood," Triple Eight team owner Roland Dane said.
Dane said teams had not been properly informed of what had happened with the sensors and he was "very unimpressed", even "ashamed" for the category.
"We had absolutely no idea what was going on … that made it very difficult," he said.
At the end of it all Dane still has his two stars fighting out the championship, despite Lowndes' weekend of woe.
After Whincup's Bathurst misfortune with an alternator the pendulum quickly swung back his way on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon he was not going to jeopardise his regained championship lead by getting involved in anything too heavy with Winterbottom so he offered no resistance when the Ford man made his big move.
With six races to go – in Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney – over the remaining three rounds the 2008 and '09 champion is back in the box seat for his third title in four years.
V8 Supercar Championship after 22 of 28 races
1. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 2517, 2. Craig Lowndes (H) 2374, 3. Shane Van Gisbergen (Ford) 2009, 4. Mark Winterbottom (F) 1966, 5. Garth Tander (H) 1956, 6. Will Davison (F) 1847, 7. Rick Kelly (H) 1845, 8. Lee Holdsworth 0H) 1590, 9. Alex Davison (F) 1535, 10. Jason Bright (H) 1519
Saturday race results
1. Jamie Whincup-Sebastien Bourdais (Holden), 2. Will Davison-Mika Salo (Ford) , 3. Mark Winterbottom-Richards Lyons (F), 4. James Moffat-Joey Hand (US), 5. Fabian Coulthard-Patrick Long (H), 6. Greg Murphy-Oliver Gavin (H), 7. Rick Kelly-Jorg Bergmeister (H), 8. Michael Caruso-Augusto Farfus, 9. Jonathan Webb-Gil de Ferran (F), 10. Garth Tander-Ryan Ryan Briscoe (H).
Sunday race results
1. Mark Winterbottom-Richard Lyons (Ford), 2. Jamie Whincup-Sebastien Bourdais (Holden), 3. Lee Holdsworth-Simon Pagenaud (H), 4. Greg Murphy-Oliver Gavin (H), 5. Rick Kelly-Jorg Bergmeister (H), 6. James Courtney-Darren Turner (H), 7. Steve Owen-Boris Said (H), 8. Russell Ingall-Jan Magnussen (H), 9. Todd Kelly-Richard Westbrook (H), 10. Tim Slade-Helio Castroneves (F).
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