Motorsport: Drivers push V8 claims

Ford and Holden's main men have been given loud wakeup calls from their teammates as Craig Lowndes and Will Davison signalled themselves serious V8 Supercar title contenders at the Australian Grand Prix.

Team Vodafone driver Lowndes added yesterday's race three to his race one victory on Friday to clinch the weekend's manufacturers' challenge for Ford.

And Davison continued his stellar start to life at the Holden Racing Team with a second, a third and an unlucky fourth in the three races this weekend.

Both drivers finished well ahead of their teammates - Team Vodafone's defending V8 champion Jamie Whincup and HRT front-runner Garth Tander.

Whincup and Tander both had mechanical troubles scuttle their weekends.

The racing did not count for championship points. The next race in the championship is in Hamilton from April 17 to 19.

But the signs of life shown at Albert Park from a resurgent Lowndes and HRT new boy Davison will remind Whincup and Tander there is serious championship danger lurking within their own teams when the title race continues next month.

Lowndes, a three-time champion, last won the V8 title 10 years ago.

Yet Albert Park was evidence the 34-year-old's car is as quick as Whincup's, and he appears to have sharpened up his qualifying and racing for 2009.

Lowndes puts that down as much to his penchant for new toys as any change of approach, with Team Vodafone breaking in a new FG Falcon

Davison, who linked with HRT only this season, was wary of declaring himself at a similar championship-chasing level to Tander.

"I've probably got him on his toes a little bit, but he'll probably come out all guns blazing and hope to blow me away in Hamilton," Davison said. "Don't forget about him [Tander] because I'm certainly not thinking that way - that's the last thing on my mind."

The other championship contender in what appears a five-way battle for the title, Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom, did his chances no harm with victory in race two and two seconds.

Winterbottom admitted that his team used race three to test their package for Hamilton.

"We saved our worst tyres until last, but all weekend we made changes to the car and it was getting quicker and quicker."

- AAP