Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes get first win together since 2008 in Gold Coast masterclass

Seasoned Supercars campaigners Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes have provided a blast from the past after winning their first race as a driver pairing since 2008 thanks to a dominant display in the opening Gold Coast 600 race.

Having last won a race together at the Bathurst 1000 more than a decade ago, their last of a “three-peat” in the Great Race, the pair proved their experience by taking control of today’s first 300 kilometre outing.

It was a successful day for Triple Eight with Whincup/Lowndes taking the win while the hard-charging combination of Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander were told to hold station in the closing laps, neutralising the battle for the win despite the #97 car being on fresher tyres.

Lowndes converted a front row start to the race lead into the first chicane, getting the quickest run off the start line to take the Triple Eight car to first position and leading the opening lap as Alex Premat held second after starting on pole in the #17 DJR Team Penske Mustang.

The first few laps saw Lowndes open up a gap to Premat as the second Triple Eight car, driven by Garth Tander, kept close to the Frenchman in front. Thomas Randle held down fourth place in the #5 Tickford Racing car, losing touch of the leading trio but holding team-mate Michael Caruso and fellow Super2 driver Bryce Fullwood behind him – with Fullwood sitting sixth in the Kelly Racing entry.

Premat set the fastest lap early in the race on the hunt for Lowndes, bringing the gap to the leader back to under a second as he got away from Tander behind, with the front group running three seconds ahead of Randle who was the cork in the bottle for those behind.

The battle for eighth between the DJR Team Penske entry of Tony D’Alberto and Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Jack Perkins saw the pair make contact at Turn 11 as Perkins went to the inside, not turning until past the apex which sat the #12 up high.

D’Alberto dropped to last in the order after he had to drive down the escape road and wait for the field to go past before he rejoined. Perkins only went down to tenth but was hit with a 15 second penalty for the incident, serving it at his first stop and going a lap down.

Caruso finally made his move for fourth on lap 13, going up the inside of Randle at Turn 11 and into clear air, some seven seconds behind Tander as Randle had to keep Fullwood at bay in the battle between the Super2 title protagonists.

Premat lost time towards the end of his stint while also earning himself the bad sportsmanship flag for overuse of the kerbs, meaning the #17 car had no more remaining kerb strikes for the day, even when Scott McLaughlin got into it later on.

Luke Youlden had to back out of the battle for seventh and dropped down the order thanks to a broken front splitter, the Erebus car copping a fair amount of damage after the experienced co-driver hit a tyre bundle along the back chicanes. Youlden came in on lap 31 to put on a new splitter, just three laps shy of his minimum lap requirement.

Brodie Kostecki handed over the Kostecki Brothers Racing car to cousin Jake Kostecki, getting up to 15th in his stint after starting the race in 23rd. With Jake behind the wheel, he was able to get his mandatory laps out of the way before handing the car back to Brodie for the finish.

As the first round of pit stops edged closer, Lowndes extended the #888 car’s lead to just over five seconds ahead of Premat who was keeping Tander at bay by a second as Caruso held down a healthy fourth place; Randle sitting in fifth but 25 seconds down on the leader.

Lowndes came in for his pit stop on lap 34, followed by Premat and Caruso as the three handed the cars over to the main drivers. Jamie Whincup jumped behind the wheel of the #888 in the effective race lead with Scott McLaughlin behind in the #17, followed by Cam Waters driving the #6 Tickford car.

The #5 of Randle was taken over by Lee Holdsworth who suffered a slow stop, coming out of the pits behind the #7 car of Andre Heimgartner and the #2 of Scott Pye who were behind Randle coming into the pits.

Avoiding a double stack, Tander stayed out and kept circulating in fresh air, looking to overcut the #17 when Triple Eight eventually decided to pit. He eventually came in on lap 38, with Shane van Gisbergen jumping back into his car and coming out onto the track between McLaughlin and Waters on the road.

Whincup settled into the lead with nothing but clear track in front of him, setting the fastest lap of the race while opening up a gap of nearly six seconds to McLaughlin behind. Some seven seconds down on second placed McLaughlin was van Gisbergen who had his mirrors full of the #6 being driven by Waters.

Lapped traffic came into play as the main drivers all started to battle. McLaughlin had whittled Whincup’s lead down to just over three seconds until he was hampered by the backmarkers, dropping back by another three seconds and within the sights of van Gisbergen behind.

Jack Perkins put up a valiant fight to hold sixth place as the only co-driver amongst the main drivers around him despite the earlier 15 second penalty, keeping the #7 Kelly Racing car of Andre Heimgartner as well as Holdsworth behind him until his second stop to give the #22 to James Courtney.

McLaughlin came in for his final stop on lap 62, taking on fuel to the end and coming onto the track in clear air but locking up into the Turn 4 hairpin, potentially causing a flat spot and losing time.

Whincup stopped the next lap around, emerging with an equal gap to McLaughlin compared to the space between the pair before their second stop. Both van Gisbergen and Waters stayed out on track, looking for undercuts or at least an alternative strategy compared to the leading two drivers.

Coming in for his last stop, Waters came in on lap 68 and continued to fight on without a helmet fan after it wasn’t plugged in at his first pit stop when he got into the #6 car. The Tickford driver was able to rejoin the race in fourth position, well ahead of effective fifth-placed Pye.

Handing the lead to team-mate Whincup, van Gisbergen entered the pit lane on lap 76, coming onto the track behind the #88 and the #17 but with fresher tyres, looking to make use of the two new tyres on the right hand side to range up on McLaughlin with car pace.

In his hunt for McLaughlin, van Gisbergen set the race’s fastest lap on the car’s 81st tour of the circuit, clawing the gap to just over five seconds through pace as McLaughlin was briefly held back by the Nissan of Simona De Silvestro who ran a lap down.

van Gisbergen was able to hunt down and get past McLaughlin for second just as the safety car was deployed for a displaced muffler on the racing line, neutralising the field and allowing the #97 to get right up behind Whincup for the restart.

With the field bunched back up, racing restarted on lap 93 with just ten to go until the chequered flag, Whincup fighting to keep his team-mate on fresh tyres behind him. The pair were able to extend a one second gap on McLaughlin on the first lap alone, making it a Triple Eight fight for the win.

McLaughlin had his own fight to worry about with Waters filling his mirrors, the Tickford car running on much fresher rubber than the DJR Team Penske Mustang and within touching distance of the championship leader.

A second good result in as many races for Andre Heimgartner went begging with just five laps to run as the #7 went across the nose of the #22 of Courtney out of the kink at Turn 5, turning the Kelly Racing car into the wall in front of the pack.

Copping a second penalty for the day, car #22 was hit with a pit lane penalty for the crash, totaling over 40 seconds worth of penalties throughout the 102 lap race.

Racing remained green as van Gisbergen started to back off from Whincup at the front, staying in front of McLaughlin who was holding station ahead of Waters for the final spot on the podium.

The victory for Whincup and Lowndes moves the pair on to 115 and 108 Supercars race victories respectively, sitting first and second on the all-time winners list for the category. van Gisbergen played the team game and finished second while McLaughlin held on to third ahead of Waters to stand on the podium again.

Pye finished a strong fifth while Holdsworth was a relatively distant sixth. The Tickford prepared car of Will Davison finished seventh ahead of Brad Jones Racing’s Tim Slade while a strong recovery drive saw Fabian Coulthard drag the #12 up to ninth, just in front of Rick Kelly who rounded out the top ten.