Whincup takes title despite Lowndes' best efforts

Jamie Whincup secured his third V8 Supercars championship crown in four years at the Sydney Telstra 500 season finale last weekend despite the best efforts of team-mate Craig Lowndes.

The TeamVodafone driver’s outside chance of the title became a little more likely in race one when a broken suspension damper pitched Whincup into the wall. Despite recovering to finish 20th, Lowndes’ victory by just 0.8 seconds over Garth Tander, who picked up second on the final lap from Michael Caruso, ensured the gap shrank to 83 points ahead of the final race of 2011.

Running low on fuel, Caruso’s third became fourth at the final corner when Shane van Gisbergen pounced, but not before launching his Ford Falcon over the slowing Holden Commodore.

Mark Winterbottom recovered from a drive-through penalty for tapping Greg Murphy into a spin to come home fifth ahead of Tim Slade and outgoing champion James Courtney.

Lowndes’ late season surge ultimately came to nought in race two however as Whincup dodged the debris around Sydney’s Olympic Park to finish eighth and claim the championship by 35 points.

The result remained in doubt until the final couple of laps though as carnage rained. Pole-sitter Will Davison crashed out of victory contention with only four laps left. On the same lap second-place driver Paul Dumbrell span at turn 11 and was collected by Lee Holdsworth, eliminating the pair there and then. Lowndes too could have easily become involved but just snuck through into second.

Up front Mark Winterbottom profited from FPR team-mate Davison’s earlier accident to take victory and with it third in the final standings. Lowndes followed him home second ahead of van Gisbergen, Jonathon Webb, Russell Ingall, Caruso and Courtney.

But despite recording 20th and eighth place finishes, there was no denying who the day belonged to.

"It's been such a long year and a long week to be honest,” said Whincup. "(This) probably won't sink in until the week later. It was great to see my dad there at end of the race, and obviously the whole team - we've gone through thick and thin. I've never driven so soft before just trying to get clean air and stay out of the carnage! To finally get there is an unbelievable feeling."

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Tom Hornsby