W
Wido Rossen
-
Wido Rossen
Whincup wins Hamilton
Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup has well and truly beat the New Zealand curse for himself and Ford, winning Race Two of the Hamilton 400. The 2008 Champ had already won Race 3 of the Championship yesterday (Saturday) at the New Zealand Street Circuit and continues his perfect points haul in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship.
He was awarded the Mark Porter Trophy for winning the second and main race of the event.
On a day where many saw the opportunity to beat Whincup after the new single session qualifying session shock up the starting line, Whincup was and his team were flawless, using pit strategy to overcome their second row starting position.
James Courtney came back from an incident in Race 2 to finish second after qualifying second, despite losing a few positions on the start.
Courtney’s Jim Beam Racing teammate, Steven Johnson, finished third after scoring his first pole in the series since 2001 at the National Capital 400 in Canberra.
Impressive Holden driver, Lee Holdsworth finished fourth, with Fabian Coulthard being the first Kiwi across the stripe in fifth.
This was the first race of the year to feature new Sunday qualifying session, after a number of complaints were made about the single weekend session. The 25 minute session shook up the order when the red flag was displayed, for Tim Slade’s stricken Holden, just before a number of high profile drivers could out in their quick times.
The main casualties of the session were HRT, placing 19th and 20th on the grid. However both cars recovered for top ten finishes.
The race also claimed its fair share of casualties.
Championship hopeful, Mark Winterbottom’s, race came to an end on the first lap after contact with the outside wall at turn one damaged his steering.
Winterbottom’s FPR teammate didn’t fair much better after he wrongly detected what he thought was a flat tyre and brought the number 6 to pit road early in the race, leaving him deep in the field.
Russel Ingall had an engine expire with two laps remaining whilst running tenth.
Whincup’s teammate Craig Lowndes continued a run of bad luck over the weekend, breaking his steering after hitting a tyre bundle in the chicane on lap 49.
Whincup is the man of the moment and now has 600 points to his name after only four Championship races in the 2009 season.
“Considering last year that I didn’t even start both races, to win both is amazing,” He said.
“The only real worry in the race was James on new tyres. He stopped a lot later than I did; if we had have got a Safety Car at the wrong time I would have been very vulnerable.”
The three day crowd attendance over the three days of the Hamilton 400 was 123,000.
The series will back to Australia for the first road course event of the year at Winton Motor Raceway, where the new super-soft tyres will be introduced for the first time.
I saw the airtime from Van Gisbergen and Lowndes in the chicane....awsome and unfortenatly for Graig.
( source www.touringcartimes.com )
Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup has well and truly beat the New Zealand curse for himself and Ford, winning Race Two of the Hamilton 400. The 2008 Champ had already won Race 3 of the Championship yesterday (Saturday) at the New Zealand Street Circuit and continues his perfect points haul in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship.
He was awarded the Mark Porter Trophy for winning the second and main race of the event.
On a day where many saw the opportunity to beat Whincup after the new single session qualifying session shock up the starting line, Whincup was and his team were flawless, using pit strategy to overcome their second row starting position.
James Courtney came back from an incident in Race 2 to finish second after qualifying second, despite losing a few positions on the start.
Courtney’s Jim Beam Racing teammate, Steven Johnson, finished third after scoring his first pole in the series since 2001 at the National Capital 400 in Canberra.
Impressive Holden driver, Lee Holdsworth finished fourth, with Fabian Coulthard being the first Kiwi across the stripe in fifth.
This was the first race of the year to feature new Sunday qualifying session, after a number of complaints were made about the single weekend session. The 25 minute session shook up the order when the red flag was displayed, for Tim Slade’s stricken Holden, just before a number of high profile drivers could out in their quick times.
The main casualties of the session were HRT, placing 19th and 20th on the grid. However both cars recovered for top ten finishes.
The race also claimed its fair share of casualties.
Championship hopeful, Mark Winterbottom’s, race came to an end on the first lap after contact with the outside wall at turn one damaged his steering.
Winterbottom’s FPR teammate didn’t fair much better after he wrongly detected what he thought was a flat tyre and brought the number 6 to pit road early in the race, leaving him deep in the field.
Russel Ingall had an engine expire with two laps remaining whilst running tenth.
Whincup’s teammate Craig Lowndes continued a run of bad luck over the weekend, breaking his steering after hitting a tyre bundle in the chicane on lap 49.
Whincup is the man of the moment and now has 600 points to his name after only four Championship races in the 2009 season.
“Considering last year that I didn’t even start both races, to win both is amazing,” He said.
“The only real worry in the race was James on new tyres. He stopped a lot later than I did; if we had have got a Safety Car at the wrong time I would have been very vulnerable.”
The three day crowd attendance over the three days of the Hamilton 400 was 123,000.
The series will back to Australia for the first road course event of the year at Winton Motor Raceway, where the new super-soft tyres will be introduced for the first time.
I saw the airtime from Van Gisbergen and Lowndes in the chicane....awsome and unfortenatly for Graig.
( source www.touringcartimes.com )
![Luca [OT]](/data/avatars/s/3235/3235113.jpg?1697196734){kind=avatar}
