Will Davison wins final race of the year at Homebush

Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison finished off the 2012 season with a win for FPR, whilst Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes secured second place in the Championship standings with second place in the race.

The race started with a replacement in the field, as V8 Supercars Development Series champion Scott McLaughlin replaced the unwell Alexandre Prémat in the #33 Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden. McLaughlin missed qualifying and had to start from the back of the field.

Garth Tander had claimed pole position in his Holden Racing Team Commodore ahead of Will Davison’s FPR Falcon, whilst champion Jamie Whincup qualified down in 24th place for Triple Eight after being excluded from the session after causing a red flag when knocking a tyre bundle onto the circuit.

After a clean start, Davison was able to slide past Tander for the lead on lap two at Turn 4, before the safety car was called after Shane van Gisbergen stopped on the circuit and retired from his final race in the Championship with a clutch problem.

The race restarted on lap five, but just one lap later it was out again as Kelly Racing’s Greg Murphy crashed out after contact with Tekno Autosport’s Michael Patrizi at Turn 10.

At the restart, Davison began to pull away whilst team-mate Mark Winterbottom was working his way up the order after being spun out at the start by Dick Johnson Racing driver James Moffat.

James Courtney moved ahead of team-mate Garth Tander in the first sequence of pit stops, but it wasn’t long until Tander was in again with a punctured tyre, soon followed by Winterbottom with exactly the same issue. Winterbottom’s race went from bad to worse as he picked up a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement which dropped him further down the order, whilst Lowndes was now running in third behind Davison and Courtney.

The second set of stops took place for the leaders on lap 50, and Triple Eight were able to get Craig Lowndes out ahead of James Courtney with a sensational pit stop.

Davison held on to take his eighth win of the season, and with Lowndes finishing second the Triple Eight driver made sure both Triple Eight drivers finished first and second in the drivers’ standings with Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison third and fourth for FPR.

James Courtney took his second podium of the weekend with third, whilst Tim Slade finished fourth for Stone Brothers Racing and Jamie Whincup worked his way forward to fifth for Triple Eight.

After their earlier problems, HRT’s Garth Tander finished 16th and Mark Winterbottom 18th in the final race for the ‘Project Blueprint’ era V8 Supercars, before the Car Of The Future rules come into play in 2013, with Nissan and Mercedes-Benz joining the fold.