He won the inaugural race in 2009 and has his name on five winner's trophies from the 10 races held at the Reid Park street circuit.
Whincup might have won more races than FPR pilot Winterbottom this season, but he hasn't won on Sundays when the big points are on the line. Winterbottom has grabbed 500 points from his four race wins this year compared with Whincup's 375 points for his five wins.
This season Winterbottom has been Mr Consistency, evident in his leading points haul, and he'll be looking forward to this weekend. He has finished the 10 races held in Townsville in the top eight with a few podium finishes thrown in for good measure, so expect more of the same over these two days.
His qualifying results way up north aren't too shabby either -- he's planted his Ford on the front row in five of the past six races in Townsville. Lowndes on the other hand will be looking for a change of fortune on what some would consider his bogey event. It is only one of two tracks, the other being Pukekohe, on the 2014 calendar where he hasn't won a V8 Supercars race.
To add a bit of salt to the wound, Lowndes has claimed only two podium results in Townsville from 10 races and has qualified on the front row there just twice (2010 and 2011).
Fabian Coulthard lost a place to Jamie Whincup after a mediocre round in Darwin.
Coulthard, the best of the Kiwis in fourth, needs to get back in the groove if he wants to continue to challenge for the title this year.
"We should be okay [in Townsville]," said Coulthard. "I think we improved the car a little bit for sure [in Darwin] and there're more improvements to come from the car.
"We should be right. Hopefully we'll hit the ground running and fine tune the car from the start."
Coulthard finished third in race one last year in Townsville and enjoys the unique hybrid track.
"Townsville is a track that we've gone pretty well at in the past. It's 85 per cent parkland, so it's purpose built for us, the other bits being public roads, so it's got a good combination of both -- permanent facility and street circuit.
"It's one of those events where it's not a big town so the place embraces it 100 per cent and you see that with the crowd numbers."
Tekno Autosport's Shane van Gisbergen has quietly been collecting points and is nicely tucked in behind James Courtney in sixth, just nine points behind the HRT driver. Van Gisbergen qualified on pole last year but failed to capitalise on his good work and finished 17th. He made amends, though, in Sunday's race, finishing on the podium in third.
The third Kiwi in the field, Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin, is breathing down Van Gisbergen's neck in seventh, a mere 56 points back.
The Volvo has been fast this year on street circuits and the team will be looking to repeat their feat in Adelaide where McLaughlin barged past Whincup to grab a well-deserved second in race two.
The Top 10 Shootout makes its return in Townsville to determine pole position for the Sunday race. There has only been one Shootout held this year (claimed by Van Gisbergen in Adelaide).
V8 Supercars points after six rounds
1. Mark Winterbottom - 1451
2. Craig Lowndes - 1290
3. Jamie Whincup - 1265
4. Fabian Coulthard - 1201
5. James Courtney - 1120
6. Shane van Gisbergen - 1111
7. Scott McLaughlin - 1045
8. David Reynolds - 952
