» V8s Winton: Bright wins Race 2

Jason Bright has taken his second race win in as many rounds after claiming victory in his Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore in today’s second race at the V8 Supercars Championship round at Winton Raceway.

The former V8s champion used a late pit-stop strategy to great effect, taking advantage of much more superior tyre grip to charge through the field to take the win in today’s 67-lap race.

After his second pit stop for fresh rubber, Bright was down in eighth place, by he scythed up the order. Wth five laps to go, he took third from Michael Caruso, and then passed Garth Tander on the next lap to find himself in second place.

And Jamie Whincup was now Bright’s next target, and the Team Vodafone driver would find his long-standing race lead demolished in the space of two laps as Bright closed up the 2.5 seconds onto the leading Commodore.

Heading into Turn 1, Bright made his move and a popular race win was assured. Just a few seconds after crossing the finish line, the dark clouds that had hung overhead after qualifying finally released their contents, soaking the circuit.

Fittingly, Bright was joined on the podium by Jason Richards, the team’s long-standing driver who has been sidelined by adrenal cancer. Bright dedicated his Race 2 win at Barbagallo Raceway to Richards – who was in the United States at the time receiving treatment – and the thrill at sharing the celebrations together was clear for all to see.

Watch all of the highlights from today’s Race 2 action at Winton Raceway here

But before Bright’s charge in the final stages, there had actually still been a very enjoyable race up and down the field.

Whincup and Tander were the main contenders for the race win, and both passed pole-sitter Mark Winterbottom – suffering from horrible rear tyre wear – before the first round of pit stops. Winterbottom would eventually finish a disconsolate 19th.

After the first series of pit stops, Tander managed to close the gap to Whincup and took the lead just before half-distance – only to find their positions would swap when the pair pitted for the second stops nose-to-tail and Tander found himself unable to get going from hit pit bay.

But when Bright worked his magic, this left Whincup and Tander to squabble over second and third place – Tander himself just managed to fend off Shane van Gisbergen’s efforts to relieve him of third place.

Like Bright, Fabian Coulthard used a late pit strategy to great effect to finish fifth after a problem-ridden qualifying session that saw him start from a lowly 14th. The top ten was completed by Michael Caruso, Craig Lowndes, Steven Johnson, James Moffat and Steve Owen.

Reigning champion James Courtney’s poor qualifying result put him a tight squeeze when the inevitable wheel-banging reared its head in the opening laps, and he lost plenty of time pitting for repairs to his Holden.

With the next round in late June at Darwin, Whincup’s win and second place sees him extend his championship lead over team-mate Craig Lowndes to almost 300 points, while Tander and Bright follow closely behind to complete the top-four. Van Gisbergen is a further seven points behind in fifth and is the highest-placed Ford driver.

V8 Supercars Winton 300 Final Classification (Race 2 – 67 laps):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	1:40:15.5814
2.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	+ 1.5986
3.	Garth Tander	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 2.9638
4.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 3.2623
5.	Fabian Coulthard	Bundaberg / Walkinsaw Racing	+ 11.5587
6.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 11.5792
7.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	+ 16.2877
8.	Steven Johnson	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 17.3278
9.	James Moffat	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 17.5564
10.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 27.5821
11.	Greg Murphy*	Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	+ 32.5007
12.	Jonathon Webb	Mother Energy Racing Team / Tekno	+ 36.5075
13.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 38.4275
14.	Jason Bargwanna	Jana Living / Brad Jones Racing	+ 39.5989
15.	Lee Holdsworth	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 39.9719
16.	Alex Davison	Irwin / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 40.7405
17.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 40.7720
18.	Paul Dumbrell	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	+ 41.2003
19.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	+ 43.2948
20.	David Reynolds	Stratco Racing / Kelly Racing	+ 50.4328
21.	Tony D’Alberto	Wilson Security / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 1:00.3536
22.	Warren Luff	Gulf Western Oil Racing / Lucas Dumbrell	+ 1:13.6330
23.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds / Brad Jones Racing	+ 1:15.8861
24.	Will Davison	Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	+ 6 laps
25.	James Courtney	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 7 laps

	NOT CLASSIFIED
DNF.	Dean Fiore	Triple F Racing	15 laps
DNF.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	2 laps
DNF.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto / Paul Morris Motorsport	2 laps