Photo: V8 Supercars

FPR end Triple Eight’s winning streak

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Ford Performance Racing’s Sunday race win at the Gold Coast 600 brought Triple Eight Race Engineering’s 11 race winning streak, which started at Hidden Valley in June, to an end.

Will Davison had to fight for it but was pleased to take the win: “It is fantastic to get another win as it feels like so long since my last one. I actually had to fight much harder than I thought as Tim (Slade) came out in front of me after the last stop which I hadn’t thought of. Once I got past him I had to press on but also try and conserve my tyres which thankfully I had the car to do it with really easily. We were under a lot of pressure and Mika did such an amazing job so I am really happy for him that we finally got our win here.”

His international co-driver Mika Salo, the 65th different race winner in Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship history, was equally pleased: “I had a really good race and it is great to win but when I flat-spotted my tyre at the start I had so much vibration. We waited to get into the fuel window and then our strategy changed so I ended up driving more laps than Will. We had a good pit stop and he got to the lead quickly and we ended up with the win after Will held off Jamie and Mark. It is very satisfying to win here as we blew it last year and we blew it yesterday so at least now both my kids get a surfboard to play with in the snow back in Finland.”

It was Davison’s first win since the Phillip Island 300 in May, bringing his 2012 race win total to seven. Triple Eight’s Jamie Whincup, who won on Saturday, is the only driver to have taken more wins this season with eight to his name

Triple Eight’s and FPR’s Gold Coast 600 race wins mean that they have now won 26 races between them since November last year. Triple Eight’s lead over FPR in the 2012 team’s championship stands at 555 points.

The Gold Coast 600 saw defending champion Jamie Whincup’s lead in the driver’s championship increase to 218 points. His team mate Craig Lowndes has dropped back to third in the standings with FPR’s Mark Winterbottom in second. Davison remains in fourth and is still in contention, though his 557 point deficit is the almost the points equivalent of two weekend’s racing.

For the second year in a row Triple Eight’s international co-driver Sébastien Bourdais claimed the Dan Wheldon International Trophy at the Gold Coast 600.