Photo: TeamVodafone

Jamie Whincup wins race 1 at Winton

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Jamie Whincup has won the first race of the weekend at Winton in Victoria from GRM’s Lee Holdsworth and DJR driver Steven Johnson.

Triple Eigth Race Engineering driver Craig Lowndes had pole position but had a poor start allowed Steven Johnson in the Dick Johnson Racing Ford Falcon into the lead.

Lee Holdsworth followed into second place in his GRM Holden Commodore with championship leader Jamie Whincup up to third place whilst Lowndes slotted in to fourth.

The race’s only safety car was called on lap one to recover Jason Bargwanna’s stranded Brad Jones Racing Commodore.

The race resumed with the top three holding station until lap 13, when Whincup turned up the pace and moved pass Holdsworth for second place.

The Triple Eight driver then closed right up on to Johnson before pitting for tyres at the end of lap 14. Johnson would pit a lap later, and would find himself behind Whincup after his stop. The Brisbane-driver found himself having to settle for third place after Holdsworth would also jump the Dick Johnson Racing driver in the pit sequence.

“I’m so happy to come back in the race. Our guys did an awesome pit stop and that’s what got us out in front,” said Whincup after the race.

Pole-sitter Craig Lowndes was losing ground, falling back to seventh place in the latter stages before going off track at Turn 11 which dropped him even further back to 11th place.

Reigning champion James Courtney stayed out as late as he could to ensure he had fresh tyres for a run at the end, pitting on lap 23. The strategy would recover a good result for the Holden Racing Team driver after he could only qualify 19th. Courtney was able to move through the field on his fresher Dunlop tyres to eventually finish in eighth place.

Rick Kelly was also on a charge, moving from 12th on the grid to finish fourth, which moves him up to third position in the championship standings behind the two Triple Eight drivers.

In the points standins, third (Rick Kelly) to tenth (Mark Winterbottom) are all within a range of just 84 points, whilst Jamie Whincup has now built-up a 220 point lead on his team-mate going into the second race of the weekend tomorrow at Winton.