» VASC: Whincup/Dumbrell win Gold Coast finale

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