Jamie Whincup will look to make it three wins from three at Queensland Raceway in Race 25 of the V8 Supercar Championship today.
Join The Roar for a live blog of all the action from race 25 of the Championship. Coverage will start when the qualifying begins at 12:55pm AEST.
Yesterday it was all about the five time V8 Supercar champion, as he won both Race 23 and 24 at the Queensland Raceway.
In race 23 he was able to overtake his teammate, Craig Lowndes, in the final stages to win for the eighth time this season.
He then made it nine wins for the season after capitalising on an incident involving Scott McLaughlin and Michael Caruso on lap 24 of the 24th race in the championship.
Caruso – chasing Nissan’s first win of the season – made contact with McLaughlin as he attempted to overtake the Volvo driver into the final turn at the Paperclip.
He spun McLaughlin around with the Volvo driver losing plenty of positions as he tried to re-join the track.
Caruso was given a pit lane penalty which handed Whincup the lead of the race.
Whincup took the gift and reduced the margin to Mark Winterbottom in the championship with the dominance on Saturday.
Winterbottom finished in sixth position in both races and lost 24 points in each race to Whincup in the overall standings.
This reduced the lead between the two to just 48 points.
A win by Whincup, and a seventh place finish by Winterbottom, in today’s race would hand the championship lead to the Red Bull driver.
Whincup has the pace to do it, and will be hard to beat in today’s 200-kilometre race.
Despite that though there will be plenty of other drivers who will try to stop him.
Two of them, McLaughlin and Caruso, will want to make amends for what happened in Race 24.
McLaughlin has been the best of the rest behind the Red Bull’s and has been quick in his Volvo this weekend.
He should be high in the positions in qualifying and be a genuine threat for the win today.
Caruso will also be looking to bounce back in a Nissan that was competitive for the first time this season.
While Caruso was racing for the lead, his teammate Rick Kelly was comfortably in the top five for the Nissan team.
They are a chance to spring a surprise today with the team on the ball this weekend.
Qualifying is the key for the Japanese manufacturer.
Lowndes will also be looking to win after being beaten by his fellow Red Bull driver in both races.
Lowndes has plenty of experience at Queensland and the longer distance will suit the three time champion.
Ford Performance Racing will also be looking to bounce back after struggling in qualifying.
Once again Mark Winterbottom was buried in the pack and had to fight his way to the top in the races.
If FPR can make it count in qualifying then Winterbottom, and histeammate Chaz Mostert, will be one’s to look out for in the race.
One final driver to look out for will be Shane Van Gisbergen who slowly moved towards the front of the field in both races.
He finished 10th in Race 23 and moved forward to fourth in Race 24. He could be a dark horse today.
It could be an action packed race today after no safety cars came out in races 23 and 24. Usually when one day is quiet in V8 Supercar land, the next is full of action.
I wouldn’t rule it out today.
Today promises to be a close race with plenty of drivers in contention for the win. It could also be a significant day in the championship standings.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
James Courtney wins Race 25 as Jamie Whincup takes the championship lead. Big weekend for Holden as they clean sweep the round and take the lead in the championship. That is all from me in the live blog. Thanks for joining in and I'll be back in three weeks for the next round in Eastern Creek.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1. Jamie Whincup 1790 2. Mark Winterbottom 1775 3. Craig Lowndes 1628 4. James Courtney 1598 5. Fabian Coulthard 1535
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
65/65 James Courtney wins Race 25 of the V8 Supercar championship. It is his 13th win in V8 Supercars and his 4th win at Queensland Raceway. Craig Lowndes finishes second with Chaz Mostert finishing in 3rd. Scott Pye finishes in fourth - his best ever finish in V8 Supercars. James Moffat rounds out the top 5. Mark Winterbottom finishes 22nd and loses the championship lead. Jamie Whincup moves to the lead after finishing in 6th.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
65/65 Moffat tries to make the move around the outside into turn 3. He can't hold his line and goes off the track. Mostert holds on but Moffat loses 4th spot to Scott Pye. Pye moves to fourth.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
65/65 Last lap. Can Moffat overtake Mostert for the final spot on the podium?
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
64/65 Moffat is closing on Mostert for the final podium spot. Lowndes is holding on nicely for 2nd. His tyres are the oldest out of the top four drivers.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
61/65 Courtney now leads by almost 6 seconds over Lowndes. Winterbottom moves past Perkins for 22nd. It said on live timing that he was 10 seconds behind. Either that was wrong or he has moved quickly to catch his team-mate. More points in the bank for him.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
59/65 Scott Pye is closing on Lowndes, Mostert and Moffat but won't catch them before the end of the race. He is almost 3 seconds behind the trio.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
59/65 Winterbottom is still in 23rd position. He is 10 seconds behind Jack Perkins.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
58/65 The lap record has also been broken at the Queensland Raceway. Lee Holdsworth did the time on lap 39.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
58/65 Mostert is closing on Lowndes. The battle for the final two spots on the podium will be something to look at over the last few laps.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
54/65 The lead is almost 5 seconds between Courtney and Lowndes.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
51/65 Courtney is extending his margin over Lowndes. It will be interesting to see if Mostert and Moffat can catch Lowndes in the final few laps.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
49/65 Scott Pye would be in contention for drive of the day so far. He started in 12th position and is now in 5th. He just overtook Whincup for the position too. Great race from the Dick Johnson Racing driver.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
48/65 Top 5 with 18 laps to go: Courtney, Lowndes, Mostert, Moffat and Pye.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
46/65 Winterbottom moves to 23rd after David Reynolds pits. It will all be about gaining points for the FPR driver.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
46/65 Dale Wood pits from the lead and hands Courtney the lead back. He is now the outright leader of the race.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
44/65 Problems for Mark Winterbottom. He has a blown tyre on his left rear side and needs to pit. He goes from 6th to 24th. This is huge for his championship aspirations.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
42/65 Moffat has four green tyres on his car. Courtney and Percat have two green tyres on their car. They both put them on the left hand side of the car.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
41/65 Yes he can, and he does it with ease. He has a lead of 4.3 seconds and has better tyres than Lowndes. Courtney is in the box seat here.