Eastern Creek, Sydney— Team Betta Electrical's Craig Lowndes has scored his first win of the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series with an outstanding drive at round 4 at Sydney's Eastern Creek.
Lowndes and defending V8 Supercar Champion Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing) finished on equal points for the round, but thanks to his victory in the final race, the Team Betta Electrical driver was awarded overall victory.
The result came on the back of his third consecutive pole position for the season. Lowndes finished second to Ambrose in the day's opening race, before turning the tables in race 2 thanks to an outstanding pit stop.
His crew replaced the mandatory two tyres in less than four seconds, while Ambrose's crew did the same stop just 0.5 of a second slower. It was enough for Lowndes to take the lead and he was never headed.
The only challenge to Lowndes was the intervention of two safety cars to clear damaged vehicles from the circuit. However, he was strong on each of the re-stars and easily took the chequered flag.
“It's a great moment for the team to finally win a round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series,” said Lowndes.
“We came into the season without even taking a pole position. Now we have a winner's trophy to go with our pole awards.
“It's certainly a great moment to close out all that hard work. We're now back in the fight for the championship. We still have a long way to go and we'll fight it all the way.
“The cars are so even out there, that it really came down to the crew in the pits. In the first race Marcos got the jump from the start and in the pits. Then in race 2 our boys were just fantastic.
“It makes the biggest difference when you're out in front. Running in clean air we were able to gap Marcos and control the race.
“Great again for Ford here in Sydney. Now let's go to China and keep it on going.”
For Ambrose it was a satisfying result. He's now extended his championship lead over teammate Russell Ingall.
There was one major moment for the Tasmanian when he had a coming together with Mark Skaife after fighting for position after the Holden driver left the pits in race 1.
After a post-race review by officials no further action was taken.
“Really happy with the result, it's as good as you can get without having the actual winner's trophy,” said Ambrose.
“Congratulations to Craig, he's definitely done everything this year without actually winning, so it's good for him and clearly great for Ford.
“We had a great car in the opening race, but we made some changes for race 2 and it wasn't quite on the mark.
“The racing incident with Mark was just that. Clearly the officials saw it that way as well.
“It's good to extend out championship lead, but I'm not getting ahead of myself. I can't be conservative and will once again attack in two weeks time in China.”
Ford finished with five cars in the first ten, with Russell Ingall (Caltex Racing) in sixth, John Bowe (Team BOC) in ninth and Steven Johnson (Westpoint Racing) in 10th.
The V8 Supercar Championship circus now packs up for the historical trip to China. A massive airlift of cars and equipment will take place from Melbourne's Avalon Airport later this week.
The fist ever V8 Supercar Championship round outside Australasia will take place at the Shanghai Grand Prix Circuit on June 10-12.
