» V8s: ‘Frosty’ and Lyons claim carnage-filled Race 2 win

Mark Winterbottom has claimed his first victory of the 2011 V8 Supercars season after he and co-driver staged a hard-charging drive to win today’s 300-kilometre leg of the ArmorAll 600 on the Gold Coast.

With co-driver Richard Lyons starting the #5 Ford Performance Racing entry from the second row of the grid, the Irishman kept in touch with the leaders to ensure that Winterbottom could remain in contention when he took over behind the wheel during the driver changeover.

‘Frosty’ successfully chased down race leader Jamie Whincup, passing the Triple 8 Holden driver with less than ten laps to go, securing the team’s first win of an often trying season – incredibly, it was just the third race win of the year for Ford.

A mid-race safety car proved a blessing in disguise for Winterbottom, as it allowed him to jump Craig Lowndes’ second-placed Triple 8 Holden when he was forced to queue in the pits behind team-mate Whincup. His disastrous weekend was capped off by being forced to pit again with damage; he finished a distant 20th.

The hold-up meant Lowndes dropped to twelfth place, all but consigning him to collecting what points he could, while Whincup was able to further extend the championship lead he reclaimed after winning yesterday’s first race (which Lowndes failed to finish).

Whincup and co-driver Sebastien Bourdais finished second, with the Frenchman tearfully accepting the Dan Wheldon Trophy bestowed to the best ‘international class’ driver at the event.

Third place was claimed by the Garry Rogers Holden pairing of Lee Holdsworth and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud.

The start of the race effectively set the tone for what turned out to be a panel-bending race. Christian Klien was deposited into the barriers courtesy of fellow former F1 driver Jan Magnussen, which prompted a safety car intervention while Klien’s stricken #55 Rod Nash Racing Ford was recovered.

IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe (co-driver with Garth Tander) retired the #2 HRT Holden with a broken rear axle after a dozen laps, and just two laps later, Augusto Farfus was tipped into a spin by Richard Westbrook.

A host of the ‘international class’ drivers were issued with drive-through penalties for too much kerb-hopping at the Turn 2 chicane, with all being served before it was realised that the sensor installed in the kerb was malfunctioning.

V8 Supercars 2011 ArmorAll Gold Coast 600 Race 2 Final Standings (102 laps):

	Driver	Team	Laps	Result
1.	M. Winterbottom / R. Lyons	Ford Performance Racing	102	2:14:08.1572
2.	J. Whincup / S. Bourdais	Triple 8 Race Engineering	102	+ 1.5564
3.	L. Holdsworth / S. Pagenaud	Garry Rogers Motorsport	102	+ 3.1042
4.	G. Murphy / O. Gavin	Kelly Racing	102	+ 8.6988
5.	R. Kelly / J. Bergmeister	Kelly Racing	102	+ 11.2793
6.	J. Courtney / D. Turner	Holden Racing Team	102	+ 11.9509
7.	S. Owen / B. Said	Paul Morris Motorsport	102	+ 13.4878
8.	R. Ingall / J. Magnussen	Paul Morris Motorsport	102	+ 14.9391
9.	T. Kelly / R. Westbrook	Kelly Racing	102	+ 15.3354
10.	T. Slade / H. Castroneves	Stone Brothers Racing	102	+ 15.5574
11.	D. Reynolds / A. Tagliani	Kelly Racing	102	+ 17.0818
12.	S. Johnson / D. Müller	Dick Johnson Racing	102	+ 17.5720
13.	J. Webb / G. De Ferran	Tekno Autosports	102	+ 17.6506
14.	W. Davison / M. Salo	Ford Performance Racing	102	+ 19.7038
15.	F. Coulthard / P. Long	Walkinshaw Racing	102	+ 21.7543
16.	S. van Gisbergen / E. Pirro	Stone Brothers Racing	102	+ 27.1349
17.	J. Bargwanna / A. Simonsen	Brad Jones Racing	102	+ 39.0365
18.	A. Davison / M. Lieb	Stone Brothers Racing	102	+ 43.4389
19.	T/ D’Alberto / V. Liuzzi	Tony D’Alberto Racing	102	+ 43.9577
20.	C. Lowndes / A. Priaulx	Triple 8 Race Engineering	102	+ 53.1137
21.	M. Caruso / A. Farfus	Garry Rogers Motorsport	99	3 laps behind
22.	K. Reindler / F. Giovanardi	Britek / Brad Jones Racing	98	4 laps behind
23.	G. Tander / R. Briscoe	Holden Racing Team	82	20 laps behind

	NOT CLASSIFIED
DNF.	J. Moffat / J. Hand	Dick Johnson Racing	77	Mechanical
DNF.	D. Fiore / G. Morbidelli	Triple F Racing	51	Collision
DNF.	J. Bright / S. Sarrazin	Brad Jones Racing	51	Collision
DNF.	W. Luff / M. Franchitti	Lucas Dumbrell	15	Engine
DNF.	P. Dumbrell / C. Klien	Rod Nash / FPR	0	Collision