» V8s: ‘Frosty’ bounces back with Race 2 win

Mark Winterbottom has closed to within 18 points of series leader Craig Lowndes by winning the second of this weekend’s four races at Pukekohe Raceway.

The Ford Performance Racing driver bounced back from a troubled Friday – where he had wild spins in both qualifying and the race – with a lights-to-flag win. He overtook pole-sitter James Courtney at Turn 1 and controlled the 35-lap race from there on.

His only serious threat came with having to manage a safety car restart with less than ten laps to go, triggered by a mechanical failure for Robert Dahlgren’s Volvo.

That allowed Courtney to close right up to Winterbottom, but ‘Frosty’ had no trouble keeping the chasing Holden at bay to claim his second win of the 2014 season.

It was a double podium result for the works Ford team, with Winterbottom’s teammate Chaz Mostert finishing third, getting by reigning champion Jamie Whincup at the final corner after his Holden ran wide at the high-speed right-hander.

Whincup held onto fourth, finishing ahead of Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, with Nick Percat, David Reynolds, Garth Tander and Fabian Coulthard completing the top ten.

Championship leader Lowndes had a poor first race after he only qualified fifteenth. The veteran lost more ground after sliding wide at the final corner and crossed the finish line in sixteenth place.

Friday race-winner Jason Bright also had a poor race, suffering incidents with both van Gisbergen and Tim Slade. He earned a drive-through penalty for his contact with the latter, but took the opportunity to make a pit stop and charge back up to finish twelfth from last place.

2014 V8 Supercars ITM 500 Auckland – Race 2 Results (35 laps):

	Driver	Team / Entry	Result
1.	Mark Winterbottom	Pepsi Max Crew FPR / Ford Falcon FG	39:39.700
2.	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team / Holden Commodore VF	+ 1.951
3.	Chaz Mostert	Pepsi Max Crew FPR / Ford Falcon FG	+ 5.252
4.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing / Holden Commodore VF	+ 6.789
5.	Shane van Gisbergen	TEKNO VIP Petfoods / Holden Commodore VF	+ 8.693
6.	Scott McLaughlin	Valvoline Racing Polestar GRM / Volvo S60	+ 9.391
7.	Nick Percat	Walkinshaw Racing/ Holden Commodore VF	+ 10.315
8.	David Reynolds	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Ford Falcon FG	+ 12.151
9.	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team / Holden Commodore VF	+ 12.770
10.	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing / Holden Commodore VF	+ 14.031
11.	Scott Pye	Wilson Security Racing / Ford Falcon FG	+ 14.903
12.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Holden Commodore VF	+ 17.631
13.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Altima	+ 22.452
14.	Lee Holdsworth	Erebus Motorsport / Mercedes E63 AMG	+ 22.687
15.	James Moffat	Nissan Hornets / Nissan Altima	+ 22.961
16.	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing / Holden Commodore VF	+ 23.962
17.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Altima	+ 24.273
18.	Will Davison	Erebus Motorsport / Mercedes E63 AMG	+ 24.677
19.	Russell Ingall	Repair Management / Holden Commodore VF	+ 25.096
20.	Michael Caruso	Nissan Hornets / Nissan Altima	+ 25.961
21.	Dale Wood	Team ADVAM / Holden Commodore VF	+ 55.560
22.	Jack Perkins	Jeld-Wen / Ford Falcon FG	+ 1:00.665
	Not Classified
DNF.	Robert Dahlgren	Valvoline Racing Polestar GRM / Volvo S60	24 laps
DNF.	Tim Slade	SuperCheap Auto Racing / Holden Commodore VF	10 laps
WD.	David Wall	Wilson Security Racing / Ford Falcon FG