» V8s Ipswich: Lowndes claims both race wins

Craig Lowndes has finally claimed his win of the V8 supercars season by wining the opening sprint race at Ipswich today, and then promptly backed this up by claiming victory in the second race as well, with a result that sees the Triple 8 Holden driver lodge his bid for a crack at this year’s championship crown.

The opening race saw Lowndes lead throughout its 22-lap distance to claim his seventh race win at the circuit, while fellow front-row starter Tim Slade shadowed Lowndes throughout the race, launching a late but unsuccessful bid for victory in the closing laps.

The podium was completed by Lowndes’ team-mate and championship leader Jamie Whincup, who carved his way up to third place after bogging it down at the start and dropping to seventh.

Rick Kelly finished fourth ahead of Steve Owen, while Greg Murphy staged a hard-charging drive from 17th on the grid to finish in sixth place. James Moffat also staged a charge up the order to finish tenth after starting from 22nd on the grid; he and Murphy sandwiched Lee Holdsworth, Steve Johnson and Karl Reindler.

Jason Bright struggled in the race conditions, and tumbled down the order to finish 21st, in stark contrast to his seventh-placed qualifying position, while Garth Tander had to pit with a puncture on the penultimate lap, finishing in last place.

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V8 Supercars Coates Hire Ipswich 300 Final Classification (Race 1 – 22 laps):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	26:21.5763
2.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.9750
3.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	+ 6.8391
4.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 17.2891
5.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 21.9048
6.	Greg Murphy	Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	+ 24.2636
7.	Lee Holdsworth	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 26.4306
8.	Steven Johnson	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 26.4578
9.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds / Brad Jones Racing	+ 27.8654
10.	James Moffat	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 28.7323
11.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 30.4685
12.	Alex Davison	Irwin / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 31.1384
13.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	+ 31.9460
14.	Paul Dumbrell	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	+ 31.9733
15.	Will Davison	Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	+ 33.0710
16.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 33.5420
17.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 34.3728
18.	David Reynolds	Stratco Racing / Kelly Racing	+ 35.1877
19.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 36.9100
20.	James Courtney	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 38.0838
21.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 38.3177
22.	Jason Bargwanna	Jana Living / Brad Jones Racing	+ 38.4910
23.	Dean Fiore	Triple F Racing	+ 38.8787
24.	Fabian Coulthard	Bundaberg / Walkinsaw Racing	+ 40.1094
25.	Tony D’Alberto	Wilson Security / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 42.7937
26.	Jonathon Webb	Mother Energy Racing Team / Tekno	+ 49.3210
27.	Warren Luff	Gulf Western Oil Racing / Lucas Dumbrell	+ 58.7018
28.	Garth Tander	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 1:23.5067

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It was “more of the same, please” in Race 2, with Lowndes making it back-to-back wins with another lights-to-flag display in the day’s second race, which started after a frantic fifteen-minute service interval that kicked off as soon as the first race was over.

This time, Lowndes led home a Team Vodafone 1-2, with Jamie Whincup getting the jump on Tim Slade on the opening lap, leaving the Stone Brothers Ford driver to complete the podium.

Lowndes’ win was enough to ensure that Holden claimed the Manufacturers’ championship title, with the General Motors owned group taking fifteen of the season’s seventeen race wins to date.

Rick Kelly managed to fend off a fast-closing Steve Owen for fourth place, with Steve Johnson, Greg Murphy, Shane van Gisbergen, James Moffat and Mark Winterbottom completing the top ten places.

There was a little more wheel-to-wheel drama in this race, with the luckless Todd Kelly and James Courtney both retiring after contact in the opening laps.

It all started when Alex Davison made contact with Karl Reindler; Davison spun and collected Kelly, while Courtney couldn’t avoid the accident and clobbered the back of Kelly’s Holden.

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V8 Supercars Coates Hire Ipswich 300 Final Classification (Race 2 – 22 laps):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	28:44.5740
2.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	+ 1.4471
3.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 2.6710
4.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 9.7887
5.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 14.2210
6.	Steven Johnson	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 15.2086
7.	Greg Murphy	Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	+ 16.2080
8.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 18.8830
9.	James Moffat	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 19.4635
10.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	+ 23.3178
11.	Lee Holdsworth	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 23.5325
12.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 23.8576
13.	Jason Bargwanna	Jana Living / Brad Jones Racing	+ 25.6306
14.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 25.7470
15.	Will Davison	Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	+ 26.4575
16.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds / Brad Jones Racing	+ 28.3091
17.	Tony D’Alberto	Wilson Security / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 29.9233
18.	Fabian Coulthard	Bundaberg / Walkinsaw Racing	+ 30.2405
19.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 32.0449
20.	Jonathon Webb	Mother Energy Racing Team / Tekno	+ 35.0292
21.	Dean Fiore	Triple F Racing	+ 35.2569
22.	Alex Davison	Irwin / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 41.2179
23.	Garth Tander	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 41.7780
24.	Warren Luff	Gulf Western Oil Racing / Lucas Dumbrell	+ 46.1480
25.	Paul Dumbrell	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	1 lap behind
26.	David Reynolds	Stratco Racing / Kelly Racing	4 laps behind

	NOT CLASSIFIED
DNF.	James Courtney	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	1 lap
DNF.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	1 lap