» V8s: Whincup continues to make history!

Championship leader Jamie Whincup continued Red Bull Racing’s winning streak by taking the opening two V8 Supercars races in the United States for the Austin 400.

Whincup, extending his Championship lead came ahead in front of his team mate Craig Lowndes. Fabian Coulthard came in third place in the day’s opening 27-lap race.

Even though he said he was in ‘holiday mode’, it is no doubt that the RBR Holden is quick, and that now both Lowndes and Whincup are comfortable that their car can lead continuously.

“Now we feel we have competitive cars we can have a crack, but like last year, like the year before, we won’t be cruising from here on in, we’ll keep our heads down and try to keep improving the cars. Finally now we’ve got a car that can challenge for wins.” Whincup said after the race.

Ford’s Will Davison came in fourth, but the real celebrations were held by Nissan who recorded their highest ever finish this season. Rick Kelly’s Altima finished in sixth place, higher than even the team expected.

Garth Tander was in fifth, in seventh place Jonathon Webb, then Mark Winterbottom, James Courtney and David Wall.

Will Davison had a tough run and Ford struggled on the American soil.

“It is a bit disappointing today as I really thought we would be strong than qualifying in the race given how well things went yesterday in Practice. The balance in the heat was poor and it was physically a very tough day with a cool suit and drink bottle failure so I cooked myself pretty badly in the first race and I am feeling pretty ordinary right now.” He said afterwards.

Jamie Whincup was second on the grid and passed Coulthard – who started poorly from pole – early on in the race. The battle between Whincup and Lowndes, Coulthard, Webb and Davison was fierce and kept the US crowds engrossed. After the first pitstop Lowndes right on his teammate’s tail but Whincup pulled away towards the end.

Lowndes car was investigated for spinning wheels during a pit stop but was cleared of any breach.

2013 V8 Supercars Austin 400 – Race 1 Final Classification (27 laps):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing AU / Triple 8 Engineering	44:20.8482
2.	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing AU / Triple 8 Engineering	+ 0.9030
3.	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing	+ 8.6280
4.	Will Davison	Pepsi Max Crew / Ford Performance Racing	+ 12.6896
5.	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team / TWR	+ 14.3523
6.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 15.5188
7.	Jonathon Webb	Tekno Autosports	+ 16.3815
8.	Mark Winterbottom	Pepsi Max Crew / Ford Performance Racing	+ 19.3333
9.	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team / TWR	+ 21.3329
10.	David Wall	Wilson Security Racing / Brad Jones Racing	+ 25.9052
11.	David Reynolds	Bottle-O Racing / Ford Performance Racing	+ 26.9481
12.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 33.6108
13.	Chaz Mostert	Wilson Security Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 34.2852
14.	Alex Davison	Jeld-Wen Racing / Ford Performance Racing	+ 39.8091
15.	Scott Pye	EKOL Racing / Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	+ 40.4631
16.	James Moffat	Norton 360 Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 40.4929
17.	Alexandre Prémat	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 41.7636
18.	Tony D’Alberto	HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 42.5892
19.	Tim Blanchard	Wilson Security Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 43.0022
20.	Michael Caruso	Norton 360 Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 43.0457
21.	Dean Fiore	Dodo Insurance / Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	+ 48.1767
22.	Tim Slade	Heavy Haulage Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 48.6056
23.	Maro Engel	SP Tools Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 50.1074
24.	Russell Ingall	SuperCheap Auto Racing / TWR	+ 1:00.0065
25.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 1:18.2760
26.	Shane van Gisbergen	VIP Petfoods / Tekno Autosports	+ 2 laps
27.	Lee Holdsworth	IRWIN Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 3 laps
28.	Scott McLaughlin	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 4 laps

Red Bull Racing’s domination continued in Race 2 as Jamie Whincup and RBR made history today by taking the 1-2 home in the afternoon’s second race.

There was no doubt in any American fan’s mind who the Championship leader was after Whincup powered to the win for a second time this weekend, followed again by Craig Lowndes and Holden’s Fabian Coulthard.

Jamie thinks this weekend might be a turning point for the team.

"We were quite off the pace at the start of the year. We were nowhere near the quickest car out there," Whincup said.

"Finally now we’ve got a car which can challenge for wins. We’ve made a step up.

"All sport all over the world goes in swings and roundabouts. A team at the top generally plummets down to the bottom then comes back to the top three or four years later.

"We’re pretty proud of our efforts to stay at a competitive level for a long period of time."

Whincup started on pole and cruised to a victory with little threatening his decisive win.

It seems that the previous race experience that RBR study so rigorously wasn’t even needed for the team to assert their dominance. Craig Lowndes commented on the improvements between races for his drive, though.

"We made adjustments to the cars between the races, I wasn’t happy with the car at the end of the first race, we had too much understeer. Because we ran so long we put on fresh rears and we had too much understeer, so we adjusted our thinking and made a rear spring change. The car was better in the late part of the first race.

"The reason we pitted early was I struggled with the rear tyre. I burned it up too fast but you live and learn so we’ll be smarter tomorrow. I was more satisfied with race two than race one." Lowndes said at the end of the race.

Coulthard (right) was also happy with the result but realises the need for extra consistency.

"Anytime you get pole, stand on the podium and spray champagne is a great day though.

“We’ve got a little bit of work to do but our lap speed is not too bad. We’ve just got to make it a bit more consistent.”

Struggling again was Ford, with Winterbottom and Davison placing sixth and ninth respectively. Tekno Autosports duo Webb and Van Gisbergen were in fourth and fifth respectively, with Scott McLaughlin, Rick Kelly and James Moffat rounding out the top ten. The Altima was unable to perform as well in Race 2 of the weekend, running out of fuel and frustrating the younger Kelly brother. The Nissan VK56DE engine is a more American-style gas guzzler than anything!

“We knew if the race went green all the way we would be tight on fuel,” Kelly said. “It’s just the way it is for us. We are brand new and they set the race lengths so that we have to fill the thing to the brim to get there.

“We kept ‘Frosty’ behind with a horsepower advantage and every other advantage you could poke a stick with and we had the guy covered. But we lost two spots when the fuel ran out.”

It was still a winning weekend nonetheless for Nissan who recorded two top ten finishes. The 20 turn circuit definitely played to their strengths and reduced the effect of their power deficit to their Holden and Ford counterparts.

Winterbottom lamented the circuit’s tendencies to highlight slight imbalances in handling and driveability.

It was a tough day and by the end we probably were sixth-fastest and we finished sixth so we just need to work on the car for tomorrow. It is one of those tracks that exaggerates slight handling imbalances so we are probably not far off where we need to be but it looks like we are so that’s something we’ll work on overnight.”

2013 V8 Supercars Austin 400 – Race 2 Final Classification (27 laps):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing AU / Triple 8 Engineering	43:16.6491
2.	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing AU / Triple 8 Engineering	+ 1.0981
3.	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing	+ 10.6924
4.	Jonathon Webb	Tekno Autosports	+ 10.8520
5.	Shane van Gisbergen	VIP Petfoods / Tekno Autosports	+ 11.1946
6.	Mark Winterbottom	Pepsi Max Crew / Ford Performance Racing	+ 14.9792
7.	Scott McLaughlin	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 16.5465
8.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 17.0775
9.	Will Davison	Pepsi Max Crew / Ford Performance Racing	+ 20.6301
10.	James Moffat	Norton 360 Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 20.8736
11.	David Reynolds	Bottle-O Racing / Ford Performance Racing	+ 21.6482
12.	Alexandre Prémat	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 23.6236
13.	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team / TWR	+ 27.2180
14.	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team / TWR	+ 32.4208
15.	Michael Caruso	Norton 360 Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 32.5614
16.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 34.2161
17.	Alex Davison	Jeld-Wen Racing / Ford Performance Racing	+ 36.1665
18.	Russell Ingall	SuperCheap Auto Racing / TWR	+ 42.0407
19.	Chaz Mostert	Wilson Security Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 42.3644
20.	Lee Holdsworth	IRWIN Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 42.6633
21.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 44.6860
22.	Scott Pye	EKOL Racing / Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	+ 46.3050
23.	Dean Fiore	Dodo Insurance / Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	+ 51.8150
24.	Tim Blanchard	Wilson Security Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 53.0576
25.	Tony D’Alberto	HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 59.4383
26.	Tim Slade	Heavy Haulage Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 3 laps
	Not Classified
DNF.	Maro Engel	SP Tools Racing / Erebus Motorsport	3 laps
DNF.	David Wall	Wilson Security Racing / Brad Jones Racing	0 laps