What a weekend for Craig Lowndes at the Coates Hill Ipswich 300!
The Team Vodafone driver took his fifth consecutive win at Queensland Raceway this afternoon, in a definitive and honestly one could say, annihilating performance (other suitable adjectives include conclusive, dominating…you get the picture). Check out my initial post at Richard’s F1 here!
Race 17 began with FPR on pole and Winterbottom lead for the first few laps, however Lowndes quickly took the lead late during turn six in a deep braking manoeuvre and led comfortably for the rest of the 65 laps. In fac
t, the biggest issue Lowndes had towards the end of the race was traffic! Life is good for a race driver when all you have to deal with is traffic…of the cars you are lapping!
Winterbottom held onto the second spot though and cruised in 2 seconds after Lowndes, while Whincup was a little further back, 14 seconds behind. Will Davison, Fabian Coulthard, Russell Ingall, Shane van Gisbergen, Tim Slade, Michael Caruso and Steve Owen made up the rest of the top 10.
Jacques Villeneuve again found the 24th position, after contact with David Wall on the opening lap sent him seeing daisies, spinning more than a few hundred degrees on the grass. It was unfortunate for the former F1 driver, who was looking to improve a little more significantly on his Townsville appearance.
The top two teams ran a similar strategy, both pitting in laps 9 and 38.
Reynolds also struggled early on with a puncture which set him back to finish with the wooden spoon, while Rick Kelly also ended up at the wrong end of the grid table after he had to pit a third time towards the end of the race.
There were only two cars that didn’t finish the race; Webb and Holdsworth both struggled with mechanical issues and in fact led to a fire in the IRWIN car.
It was an interesting race with a great crowd, a few snags to see and some decent overtaking at the beginning, and what it does mean is that TeamVodafone now has won six races, after FPR’s seven race streak at the beginning of the year. Didn’t hurt to see a few burnouts either, now that TeamVoda didn’t have to worry about conserving the engine…
What will Sydney hold? Do you think TeamVodafone will keep dominating? Do any of the other teams have it in them to challenge the mighty top two? The Championship moves to NSW and Sydney Motorsport Park later this month. Stay tuned!
2012 V8 Supercars Coates Hire Ipswich 300 – Race 2 Result (65 laps):
| Driver | Entry / Team | Laps | Result | ||
| 1. | Craig Lowndes |  |
Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing | 65 | 1:18:23.0855 |
| 2. | Mark Winterbottom |  |
Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing | 65 | + 0:01.9759 |
| 3. | Jamie Whincup | |
Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing | 65 | + 0:16.1453 |
| 4. | Will Davison | |
Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing | 65 | + 0:23.7223 |
| 5. | Fabian Coulthard | |
Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing | 65 | + 0:32.5279 |
| 6. | Russell Ingall | |
Supercheap Auto / Walkinshaw Racing | 65 | + 0:33.3190 |
| 7. | Shane van Gisbergen | |
SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing | 65 | + 0:34.6744 |
| 8. | Tim Slade | |
Lucky 7 Racing / Stone Brothers Racing | 65 | + 0:36.1075 |
| 9. | Michael Caruso | |
Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport | 65 | + 0:41.4618 |
| 10. | Steve Owen | |
VIP Petfoods / Dick Johnson Racing | 65 | + 0:55.2013 |
| 11. | Steven Johnson | |
Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing | 65 | + 0:57.2685 |
| 12. | Michael Patrizi | |
Tekno Autosports | 65 | + 0:57.7027 |
| 13. | Tony D’Alberto | |
HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing | 65 | + 1:06.2307 |
| 14. | James Courtney | |
TOLL / Holden Racing Team | 65 | + 1:07.7522 |
| 15. | Garth Tander | |
TOLL / Holden Racing Team | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 16. | Todd Kelly | |
Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 17. | Jason Bright | |
Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 18. | Dean Fiore | |
Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 19. | David Wall | |
Wilson Security / Brad Jones Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 20. | James Moffat | |
Team Norton / Dick Johnson Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 21. | Karl Reindler | |
Fair Dinkum Sheds / Kelly Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 22. | Taz Douglas | |
Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 23. | Alexandre Prémat | |
Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 24. | Jacques Villeneuve | |
Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 25. | Rick Kelly | |
Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing | 64 | + 1 lap |
| 26. | David Reynolds | |
The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash | 62 | + 3 laps |
| Not Classified | |||||
| DNF. | Lee Holdsworth | |
Irwin Racing / Stone Brothers Racing | 55 | |
| DNF. | Jonathon Webb | |
Tekno Autosports | 54 |
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