» V8s Ipswich: Lowndes takes a clean sweep

Craig Lowndes has capped off a perfect weekend at the Coates Hire Ipswich 300, after claiming a clean sweep of pole positions and race wins at Queensland Raceway today.

The Triple 8 Holden driver won both of yesterday’s sprint races, and then cleaned up in today’s longer race to make a significant dent in the championship lead of team-mate Jamie Whincup, who had a difficult race.

Starting from the front row alongside Lowndes, Whincup appeared to stall as the field left the grid for the warm-up lap. He pitted his faltering Holden at the end of the parade lap, to find that one of his mechanics had accidentally left an air intake cover on the car. To add to his troubles of starting last and well down on the field, he then had to serve a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

To his credit, Whincup drove a sterling race to finish an impressive tenth, despite a final-lap collision with Rick Kelly.

Up at the front, Lowndes had the start all to himself and took an early lead en route to his 80th career victory, although he was shadowed race long by the ever-improving Tim Slade, who continued his red hot form to claim a hat-trick of podiums in his Stone Brothers Racing Ford.

Team-mate Shane van Gisbergen finished a distant third, fending off a late race charge from V8 Supercars rookie James Moffat, who in turn claimed his career-best finish with an outstanding run to fourth place.

David Reynolds backed his impressive qualifying form to finish in fifth place, although he could have been a contender for the final podium spot but for being knocked into a spin after his first pit stop.

Sixth place went to a hard-charging Garth Tander, who overcame more qualifying woes in his factory Holden to surge through the field from a lowly 19th on the grid.

Fabian Coulthard, Alex Davison, Steven Johnson and Whincup completed the top ten.

With Lowndes claiming the maximum 300 championship points available this weekend, Whincup’s championship lead has been trimmed to 98 points over his team-mate.

The V8 Supercar Championship Series heads into a sequence of endurance races, with the L&H 500 Phillip Island next month.

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V8 Supercars Coates Hire Ipswich 300 Final Classification (Race 3 – 65 laps):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	1:19:06.166
2.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 1.074
3.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 33.955
4.	James Moffat	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 35.437
5.	David Reynolds	Stratco Racing / Kelly Racing	+ 42.717
6.	Garth Tander	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 46.397
7.	Fabian Coulthard	Bundaberg / Walkinsaw Racing	+ 46.895
8.	Alex Davison	Irwin / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 48.053
9.	Steven Johnson	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 51.395
10.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	+ 56.678
11.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 57.011
12.	James Courtney	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 57.627
13.	Greg Murphy	Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	+ 59.768
14.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 59.856
15.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 1:00.056
16.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds / Brad Jones Racing	+ 1:03.857
17.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 1:07.289
18.	Lee Holdsworth	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 1:08.663
19.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	+ 1:12.144
20.	Tony D’Alberto	Wilson Security / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 1:12.807
21.	Will Davison	Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	1 lap behind
22.	Jonathon Webb	Mother Energy Racing Team / Tekno	1 lap behind
23.	Warren Luff	Gulf Western Oil Racing / Lucas Dumbrell	1 lap behind
24.	Paul Dumbrell	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	1 lap behind
25.	Dean Fiore	Triple F Racing	1 lap behind
26.	Jason Bargwanna	Jana Living / Brad Jones Racing	1 lap behind
27.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods / Paul Morris Motorsport	2 laps behind
28.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	12 laps behind