It was no surprise that a Triple 8 Falcon crossed the line first in today’s V8 Supercar championship race at Winton, what was surprising is that it wasn’t Jamie Whincup.

Craig Lowndes drove a superb tactical race to lead home his team-mate as Fords took the top three places.

In the debut race for the new soft option tyres Lowndes and his team picked the perfect strategy, starting on the normal control tyre before switching to the new option tyre late in the race.

The move allowed Lowndes to move from fifth though to the lead late in the race as Whincup who switched tyres on the opening lap of the race struggled for grip.

“We spent about one and a half or two hours last night trying to figure out what the best strategy would be because no one knew.” Lowndes said after the race.

Third place went to Ford Performance Racing driver Steven Richards who also chose to switch to the option tyre late in the race and it nearly paid off as he just missed out on second place.

Rick Kelly was the first Holden home in fourth place. Kelly started on the option tyre before switching to the control tyre late in the race.

Despite missing the podium he was relatively happy with his race.

“… when you finish fourth it’s always extremely frustrating because you’re so close to getting a podium and it would have been fantastic to get the first ever podium for Kelly Racing here today. he said. 

“Not to worry - we should be happy with the job we’ve done and we’ll do our very best to make sure we’re in the top 10 again tomorrow.”

One Holden driver far from happy was 2007 Champion Garth Tander. Tander unleashed a strong attack on his fellow competitors after a number of incidents that left his normally immaculate HRT Commodore looking like it had been left overnight in an outer suburban railway station car-park.

“The driving standards were very, very poor … they were a joke. You give these guys room and they just drive into your doors, so what do you do?  We had good speed; we had the right strategy; other morons just ruined our race.” he said.

Tander was most vocal in his condemnation of Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Lee Holdsworth but Holdsworth laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of Tander.

Speaking to the V8 Supercar website Holdsworth believed Tander had gotten exactly what he deserved.

“He was driving blokes off the track. He is meant to be flying the flag for Holden, but he is hitting other Holdens off the track. I think he knows well enough that when you are side-by-side with someone in a corner that you should give them racing room, especially when I have the inside for the following corner,” he said.

“I was glad that he spun out because that was a little bit of justice. When he came up to me his car was an absolute mess, so he has obviously been doing the same to everyone else.”

After the relative tranquility of the last round in Hamilton New Zealand, it would appear after this one race that the new option tyre has at least gone someway to making the V8 Tourers worth watching again.

The second longer race will be held at Winton tomorrow (Sunday) Australian time.

Oh and showers are forecast, just to ass that little bit of extra spice into the mix.