by Matthew AgiusCraig Lowndes has secured his first ever outright win at the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge as the third and final V8 Supercar race rounded out an amazing weekend of racing at the Indy 300.
In doing so, Lowndes became the first Queensland based driver to secure the Sunshine State double win (victory in the Queensland 300 and at Surfers Paradise) since Russell Ingall did so in 2003 for Stone Brothers Racing.
Before the race began, two important stewards decisions rearranged the grid for the final sprint. Russell Ingall was relegated to tenth position after being dealt a 32 second time penalty, equivalent to that of a pit lane penalty, for shortcutting a chicane in the second race. Steven Richards was also handed the same time loss for nudging Team Australia driver David Besnard into a wall during the second sprint.
Lowndes started brilliantly, as did HSV Dealer Team Garth Tander and the former led the field into the first corner. The Team Betta Electrical driver opened a sizeable margin over Mark Skaife in second, but carnage soon unfolded down the pack. Paul Morris was handed a drive through penalty for spinning Jason Bargwanna (who eventually retired from the race), whilst Russell Ingall was handed a second penalty for driving over the control strip on the approach to pitlane. Ingall had received an abrupt call to enter pitlane for his compulsory tyre stop, yet had taken evasive action to avoid colliding with Steve Ellery who had also peeled into pitlane.
Ingall subsequently lost valuable position and slid down the order, yet up the pointy end of the field Lowndes had increased his lead to over six seconds over Mark Skaife following the pit stop shuffle. The first and single safety car of the weekend was brought out when Anthony Tratt spun and stalled his Toll Commodore at turn three. It proved no problem for Lowndes however – managing to maintain first place en route to his inaugural win at Surfers Paradise.
Big movers in the field included Marcos Ambrose driving solidly to finish eleventh after starting near the back of the grid, and Dean Canto who capped off his first weekend back as a solo driver in the V8 Supercar Series by finishing thirteenth in the second Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden. Indeed, Steven Richards and David Besnard recovered from their race two encounter to claim places within the top twenty-one.
Russell Ingall maintained his championship lead, but slipped to twenty-fourth in race three after suffering his tedious pitlane penalties.
Mark Skaife, Greg Murphy and Cameron McConville continued their consistent top five finishes for the weekend during the final twenty-one lap race, whilst both HSV Dealer Team Commodores left the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge with a solid points haul.
The championship standings now read nothing but good news for Ford supporters. Craig Lowndes' brilliant performance this weekend sees him slot into third place behind Russell Ingall and Marcos Ambrose, completing a Ford top three in the series. Bathurst champions Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly fly the Holden flag in their HRT VZ Commodores in fourth and fifth and continue to hold a mathematical chance at securing the 2005 title.
Teams will next travel to Tasmania's Symmons Plains circuit for the twelfth and penultimate round of the V8 Supercar Championship - the Ferodo Triple Challenge.
