LOWNDES & WHINCUP COME HOME TO HOLDEN

It's official. The Triple Eight team of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will race a Holden in 2010. Speculation had been growing that the British owned team would switch to the General Motors marque after Triple Eight was dropped from official Ford support earlier this year. In a press conference held at Holden's Port Melbourne headquarters this morning, the announcement was made that the championship team would be making the switch to Fords for 2010, Holden Executive Director Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Alan Batey  said that “Holden has a long and proud history in motorsport that stretches back over 40 years and today's’s announcement is an exciting step into the next chapter.” “Our commitment and passion for motorsport has not wavered. Today we are making a clear statement on how much we value this sport which is also a very smart, responsible sponsorship decision.... click headline for more.

HAIL TO THE GREAT CARUSO

Former Australian Formula 3 star Michael Caruso has broken through for his first ever V8 Supercar win at Darwin's Hidden Valley Raceway. In a virtuoso performance Caruso took the lead in the race on lap eight and despite challenges from the more experienced Craig Lowndes and Alex Davison held on to the end. Davison stormed through the field coming from 13th place to finish second to Caruso after a late race change to the softer compound sprint tyres. Caruso's win was another triumph for former racer, Melbourne car dealer Gary Rogers who has made something of a speciality of taking young drivers from supporting categories and turning them into top V8 drivers. “I’m just really stoked but I don’t think there has been enough time yet to really feel the emotion. said Caruso. Davison's second place was also his best ever V8 Supercar finish. The Falcon driver stayed out on the control tyres until his last pit stop late in the race. With the rest of the field, including Caruso battling with wearing rubber, Davison raced through the field and almost took his first victory. "I just kept plugging away and I had no idea what position we were in until I was in about third or something. he said. “Before today I wasn’t that keen on this soft tyre thing but obviously I’ve changed my mind on that now." Davison the Grandson of former Australian Grand Prix winner Lex Davison and cousin of Indy Lights driver James admitted that the transition from GT cars in Europe to the big heavy V8 Supercars had been difficult. "It's been pretty hard for me coming from Porsches and it requires a totally different set up and I’ve had to erase all that from my memory and I’ve just been learning every round.” Third place went to Team Vodafone diver Craig Lowndes. Lowndes, known around the paddock as "The Kid" celebrated his 35th birthday today. Lowndes was one of the drivers to benefit from a late race safety car that came out inexplicably to attend to the slowing car of Tim Slade. Slade had stopped briefly with overheating problems but managed to return to the pits under his own (dare I say it) steam. CAMS stewards have launched an enquiry into just why the safety car was deployed so rapidly. Rick Kelly was next just in front of Garth Tander who was furious after the race with backmarkers, especially young Victorian driver Dale Wood. “We got stuffed up at the restart by Dale Wood and that hurt as Lowndes got past and ended up third. “Wood needs to go back to Formula Ford because he’s seriously out of his depth,” Tander said. “I was caught amongst a few cars at the restart that were coming through, so it was just a matter of getting through that and trying to hold position with Murph and McConville behind me.” said Wood who finished down in 26th place. Championship leader Jamie Whincup who won Saturday's first race finished back in 10th place after starting the race 13th. Whincup however extended his lead in the series after second place man Will Davison had late race drama with Falcon driver James Courtney and finished 18th. The V8 Supercar circus will now move east across the top end of Australia to race at the new Townsville circuit in North Queensland  on July 10-12.

LOWNDES ON TOP AS TANDER HITS OUT

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."

WHINCUP GOING GLOBAL ?

Jamie Whincup  is well on his way to becoming a modern great of Australian Motorsport. He currently sits 12th on the all time round winners list, and if his current form continues he may jump to 7th by seasons end. If that occurs only the likes of Brock, Skaife, Lowndes and Co. stand in front of him.  So far in 2009, he has proven to be fast, precise and virtually mistake free. If you trace his results back to Bathurst last year, Whincup has won 14 out of 17 championship races contested, a winning percentage of over 80%. While domination isn't exactly a new concept to motorsport, V8 Supercars Australia had invested in a variety of changes to prevent the curse of predictability.  After the Holden Racing Team's domination of the mid 90's, Project Blueprint and a raft of format and championship points changes were implemented. Yet in the face of this, Team Vodafone and Whincup have been in a league of their own.  Not even his much fancied teammate Craig Lowndes has been able to keep up with the 26year old. In fact Whincup has proven to be the only teammate to consistently outpace Lowndes for over two seasons and with both Team Vodafone drivers out of contract at years end, Lowndes may be the only one feeling any pressure to perform.  But for Whincup, V8 Supercars may not be his only choice...

FROSTY THE FORD MAN

TANDER FASTEST IN PRE-SEASON V8 TESTING

Holden driver Garth Tander has set the early pace for in pre-season testing for the 2009 Australian V8 Supercar championship at Victoria's Winton Raceway. Tander in the Walkinshaw Performance Commodore edged out the Garry Rogers Motorsport pair of Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso also in Commodores. Fastest of the Fords in the early going was Mark Winterbottom in the new Ford Performance Racing FG Falcon. The test was delayed by over 30 minutes after a big crash involving Commodore driver Macus Zukanovic. Zukanavic's car left the track at turn 11 and made heavy contact with the wall, he was extracted from the car by the safety team and taken to hospital with unspecified but aapparently non-life threatening injuries. More Updates later in the day.

KELLY WINS A WET ONE BUT ALL IS SUNNY FOR JAMIE

Falcon driver Jamie Whincup edged closer to his first Australian V8 Supercar championship despite finishing second to Holden's Todd Kelly at a wet and windy Symmonns Plains Raceway in Tasmania. Starting from the front row Whincup led early but was soon under pressure from main title rival Holden's Garth Tander as rain began to sweep the Northern Tasmanian track. Tander ran off the track in the tricky conditions and stalled leaving Kelly as Holden's main contender against the fast Fords of Whincup and Mark Winterbottom. Kelly drove brilliantly in the terrible conditions coming from way back in the pack to be challenging for the lead within a few laps. After changing to wets Kelly stormed through the field again to take the lead for good on lap 35. After the race an emotional Kelly, who leaves the Perkins team at the end of the year, described the race as one of his best ever.

IT’S GOING TO BE A BRIGHT SUNSHINY YEAR?

  Jason Bright will drive a third car for Stone Brothers Racing in 2009, the move seeming to bring an end to Bright's own Britek Racing operation in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong. Bright's move comes after the decision by Ford Australia to withdraw support from a number of Falcon teams including Brights. Speaking to In Pit Lane earlier this year Bright made his intention clear that he wanted to continue with his own team, but less than three months later Bright has been forced to admit that his on-track future lies with the Queensland based operation. Bright and several senior Britek staff are now set to leave Melbourne to move to Queensland leaving the Factory backed FPV team the only top level Ford team still based in Melbourne. “I’ve tried to push the Fujitsu Racing Falcon well into the top ten and have done so on a number of occasions. However, with a new car coming on stream and the changes in fuel technology we simply don’t have the resources, or time, to research and develop what is needed to be competitive.” he said. Just how the decision effects Bright's other projects such as the Britek Scholarship is not known at this stage. A decision on the second, currently IRWIN Industrial Tools sponsored, Britek entry driven by Marcus Marshall will not be made until early December.  

HAT-TRICK FOR LOWNDES & WHINCUP AS FORD WINS BATHURST

Ford drivers Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup took a hat-trick of wins in Australia's biggest race the Bathurst 100 at Mount Panorama. The Team Vodafone/Triple Eight team hit the front early in the race and despite a late race challenge from Holden driver Greg Murphy hung on to win by just under three seconds after 1000 kms of racing.

BLOW TO SBR AS SPONSOR CLOSES THE WINDOW

Stone Brothers Racing have announced the loss of long time sponsor JELD-WEN for the 2009 season. In a press release issued earlier today JELD-WEN Australia spokesperson Bruce Tosello said “We’ve enjoyed a great relationship with Australian motor sport through our partnership with SBR, first with Marcos Ambrose taking the championship twice and in the last three years with James Courtney.”  Mr Tosello said that the company's  decision to sponsor a whole car in 2005 was part of a branding exercise to introduce Australian homeowners to the JELD-WEN name. “With that job now complete, we’re headed in a different direction for 2009 so we remain fresh and competitive in the eyes of our customers.”