Jamie Whincup has kept his championship aspirations alive with a crucial victory alongside co-driver Paul Dumbrell in the second leg of the Castrol Gold Coast 600 ahead of teammate and championship leader Shane van Gisbergen.
It was Whincup’s 101st touring car victory, earned in commanding style thanks to an impressive and lengthy opening stint of 60 laps by Dumbrell. In the end, the pair was over nine seconds clear of van Gisbergen at the end of the 102-lap race, with van Gisbergen’s tilt at a clean sweep around the Surfers Paradise street circuit thwarted by several track limit warnings from Race Control.
Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin and co-driver David Wall continued their recent run of strong pace with their second podium finish of the weekend; the young Kiwi put in one of the passing moves of the season on defending champion Mark Winterbottom, diving up the inside of the Ford driver with all four wheels locked.
McLaughlin’s third place came under threat late in the race by the third Triple Eight Engineering Holden of Craig Lowndes, but McLaughlin held firm to deny the series veteran a podium lockout for the team. The Prodrive Racing Australia Ford of Mark Winterbottom / Dean Canto and Chaz Mostert / Steve Owen were fifth and sixth respectively.
The race featured a crucial Safety Car interruption just before the minimum number of laps required to be driven by the co-drivers when Jack Perkins (Holden Racing Team) and Richie Stanaway (Super Black Racing) collided, putting the latter out of the race.
It was also a bad day for Erebus Motorsport. Shae Davies and co-driver Chris van der Drift couldn’t make the start of the race thanks to Davies’ heavy accident in qualifying, while the sister car of David Reynolds / Craig Baird copped a pit lane penalty when Baird clumsily collided with former Erebus driver Aaren Russell’s LD Motorsport Holden.
Despite Whincup’s victory, van Gisbergen still leads the championship by 148 points to the six-time champion and 385 points ahead of third-placed Lowndes. Van Gisbergen and co-driver Alexandre Prémat also claimed the Pirtek Enduro Cup title by 159 points over Bathurst 1000 winners Will Davison and Jonathon Webb.
2016 Australian Supercars Castrol Gold Coast 600 – Race 23 Classification (102 laps) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pos | Driver | Team / Entry | Result | |||
1. | Jamie Whincup / Paul Dumbrell | Triple Eight Engineering | ![]() |
2:09:10.510 | ||
2. | Shane van Gisbergen / Alexandre Premat | Triple Eight Engineering | ![]() |
+ 9.079 | ||
3. | Scott McLaughlin / David Wall | Polestar GRM Volvo | ![]() |
+ 14.124 | ||
4. | Craig Lowndes / Steven Richards | Triple Eight Engineering | ![]() |
+ 14.633 | ||
5. | Mark Winterbottom / Dean Canto | Prodrive Racing | ![]() |
+ 20.109 | ||
6. | Chaz Mostert / Steve Owen | Rod Nash Racing | ![]() |
+ 23.489 | ||
7. | Lee Holdsworth / Karl Reindler | CS Racing | ![]() |
+ 24.334 | ||
8. | Tim Slade / Ash Walsh | Brad Jones Racing | ![]() |
+ 25.418 | ||
9. | Michael Caruso / Dean Fiore | Nissan Motorsport | ![]() |
+ 29.657 | ||
10. | James Courtney / Jack Perkins | Holden Racing Team | ![]() |
+ 40.636 | ||
11. | Garth Tander / Warren Luff | Holden Racing Team | ![]() |
+ 42.884 | ||
12. | James Moffat / James Golding | Polestar GRM Volvo | ![]() |
+ 43.737 | ||
13. | Will Davison / Jonathon Webb | TEKNO Autosports | ![]() |
+ 44.347 | ||
14. | Cameron Waters / Jack Le Brocq | Prodrive Racing | ![]() |
+ 52.382 | ||
15. | Fabian Coulthard / Luke Youlden | DJR Team Penske | ![]() |
+ 53.257 | ||
16. | Nick Percat / Cameron McConville | LD Motorsport | ![]() |
+ 1:00.326 | ||
17. | Rick Kelly / Russell Ingall | Nissan Motorsport | ![]() |
+ 1:02.325 | ||
18. | Tim Blanchard / Macauley Jones | Brad Jones Racing | ![]() |
+ 1:03.587 | ||
19. | Jason Bright / Andrew Jones | Brad Jones Racing | ![]() |
+ 1:03.964 | ||
20. | David Reynolds / Craig Baird | Erebus Motorsport | ![]() |
+ 1:04.585 | ||
21. | Todd Kelly / Matt Campbell | Nissan Motorsport | ![]() |
+ 1 lap | ||
22. | Dale Wood / David Russell | Nissan Motorsport | ![]() |
+ 1 lap | ||
23. | Scott Pye / Tony D’Alberto | DJR Team Penske | ![]() |
+ 1 lap | ||
Not Classified | ||||||
DNF. | Andre Heimgartner / Aaren Russell | LD Motorsport | ![]() |
Accident | ||
DNF. | Chris Pither / Richie Stanaway | Super Black Racing | ![]() |
Accident | ||
DNS. | Shae Davies / Chris van der Drift | Erebus Motorsport | ![]() |
Image via Red Bull Content Pool
Geoff Burke
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