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Far-north Queensland once again embraced the Australian touring car championship, as Supercars continues its holiday away from the winter of the south and the title race rages on.
In what was a crucial weekend for Scott McLaughlin’s rivals, the Red Bull Holden Racing Team made an emphatic statement with their clean sweep of the two 200km races.
From a special milestone for Jamie Whincup at the Reid Park circuit, to the start of what will be Craig Lowndes’ farewell tour in Supercars – here are the talking points from the Townsville 400.
Ten from ten for Whincup
Having been winless since the Tasmanian round earlier in the championship, Jamie Whincup fired back up the order to claim his third victory of the 2018 season with a commanding drive.
In what was his tenth victory in ten visits to Townsville, Whincup assumed control of the lead on the second lap from pole sitter Scott McLaughlin, who had no answer to the pace of the Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
The seven-time Supercars champion has won a race upon every visit to Reid Park since the North Queensland street circuit joined the calendar exactly ten years ago.
Whincup’s 110th career win was also an important one in the context with the championship, with the Holden driver moving up to fourth in the standings and to within 412 points at the end of Saturday.
A second-place finish on Sunday sees Whincup shave off another nine points to the championship leader, coming within 403.
Van Gisbergen completes Red Bull sweep
While Whincup’s winless drought only dated back to April, you’d have to look back to the season-opening Adelaide 500 in March for his Red Bull teammate Shane van Gisbergen for the last time the Kiwi won a race.
A faultless drive from pole position, having claimed the top spot via the top ten shootout earlier in the day, the 2016 series champion kept his teammate Whincup at bay to complete a crucial sweep for the Triple Eight organisation.
Van Gisbergen also solidifies second place in the championship standings, dropping within a race win’s worth of points to the leader in McLaughlin.
Street circuits have always been a forte of the Kiwi driver, though for a shot at winning his second title in Supercars, he’s going to have to start finding the pace at all tracks. As with Whincup, who’s had a solid points boost this weekend.
(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Damage limitation for McLaughlin
Despite having the pole for Race 17, the championship leader has struggled to match the pace of the Red Bull cars all weekend, conceding that a win was far off DJR Team Penske’s radar.
Nevertheless, a pair of podiums were claimed by McLaughlin, who was able to limit the damage overall as far the number of points lost this weekend.
Race 18’s result was more of a surprise for the Ford driver, having qualified a lowly seventh in the top ten shootout, and utilised a strategy that saw him pit early in the first stop and get an extended run on the second stint to make the gains.
McLaughlin himself post-race lamented that maximising the ‘bad days’ will be crucial in the drive towards the championship, as in 2017 it was a facet that DJR Team Penske didn’t really exploit.
Shoulder popping clash for Hazelwood
In one of the more bizarre moments at the Townsville 400, rookie driver Todd Hazelwood had his right shoulder pop out of position following a clash with Nissan’s Simona De Silvestro.
The clash between the Ford and the Nissan came on the eighth lap of the race, putting Hazelwood into the wall after a side-by-side bump with the Harvey Norman Nissan.
Using the force of the seatbelt, the 23-year was able to pop the joint back into place, which would have been an excruciating ordeal. Hazelwood also recovered to finish twentieth in the race, two positions up from where he started originally.
De Silvestro’s fortunes, however, weren’t as great, with the Nissan driving finishing a lap down and at the rear of the field in 25th.
Lowndes farewell tour commences
Craig Lowndes’ retirement announcement on Friday sent the Supercars world into a frenzy, with no one expecting the three-time champion to hang up his helmet as a full-time driver at the end of this season.
Ahead of the Townsville 400, there were 15 races remaining in the illustrious career of the 44-year-old and now he has ticked off another two, with a pair of fourth-place finishes across the two 200km races.
In both 70-lap races, Lowndes found himself battling with the championship leader in McLaughlin, who ultimately held off the veteran for the podium on both occasions.
Lowndes also secured a berth in the top ten shootout ahead of Race 18, qualifying sixth in his Autobarn Racing Holden Commodore.
The remaining races in the full-time Supercars career of Lowndes, as eluded to on this column in a tribute piece, will be of great importance and it was strongly recommended that if one is yet to see him trackside – to do so before the year’s end at the Newcastle 500.
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