Motorsport: Lowndes takes series to the wire

Craig Lowndes is all smiles after the win. Photo / Getty Images

Truth is stranger than fiction. No one really thought the race for the V8 Supercars' championship would still be on today with the 188-point lead Jamie Whincup had over his TeamVodafone team-mate Craig Lowndes heading into race one yesterday.

But there's never a dull moment around the mean streets of Olympic Park, Sydney - either the drivers are crashing, or winning, and this year it was no different.

Lowndes survived the best of the field, staying out of the chaos and carnage to take the win from Garth Tander and Kiwi driver Shane van Gisbergen.

Whincup, who could smell the title, let the red mist descend and broke a dampener banging off the curbs and was fired into the concrete wall a few corners later.

He managed to limp back to the pits and, after frantic work by the crew, made it back into the race to finish 21st picking up a measly 42 points. Lowndes, on the other hand grabbed the maximum 150 points, and closed the gap to 83 points with another 150 on offer today.

"My shoot out was probably the worst I've ever done and I had to rectify it as best I could," said Lowndes.

"My focus was to get the points gap down and make it a contest today. We've had a good car from the beginning and I'm confident and pretty happy about putting on a good show. I know Jamie very well and I know he'll be gutted about what happened and it's very rarely he makes the same mistake twice."

The organisers wouldn't have dreamed Whincup would finish towards the back of the field and open the championship right up on the last race of the season.

"I actually asked Tony Cochrane [V8 Supercars chairman] behind the podium if he'd paid Jamie off and he refused to answer. I knew coming into this weekend anything could happen and it did," said Lowndes.

Polesitter Will Davidson shot out to an early lead only to be monstered by Lee Holdsworth and Mark Winterbottom on lap 11, due to a bent steering arm that let go shortly after firing Davidson into the tyre wall.

Shane van Gisbergen put the demons of last year to bed when he ran out of fuel while leading with just three laps to go. Despite an early battle with Whincup for third and some heart-in-the-mouth moments, he settled down after being clipped by Rick Kelly.

Fuel became an issue for all the drivers, but this time Van Gisbergen was confident his team had got it right and pushed hard towards the end of the 74 laps. On the last lap, second-placed Michael Caruso's engine began to stutter and was passed by Tander.

Van Gisbergen arrived behind a weaving Caruso at the last corner and ploughed into the back of him - launching into the air. Luck was with the Stone Brothers Racing driver and he managed to gather the car up and cross the line in third.

"I had a pretty good view of the weather," said Van Gisbergen. "Michael [Caruso] was weaving around, trying to slosh the fuel around and make it to the line. I know what that's like. I conserved my fuel and like Garth [Tander] was hitting the right numbers.

"To get a third in the race is awesome and I'm only 17 points behind Mark [Winterbottom] now but I'll have to be careful as Garth is only 17 behind me."