V8 Supercars veteran and oldest driver in the field, Russell Ingall who equalled the great Peter Brock’s ATCC/V8 Supercars Championship 212 race starts last Friday, really surprised everyone, when his Supercheap Auto sponsored Holden blistered around the Ipswich track to be the fastest driver on the opening day of the Ipswich 300. Ingall went round in a time of 1:09.68s beating Craig Lowndes by 0.19 of a second.
On raceday however, it was Craig Lowndes in the Vodaphone 888 Holden that kept his V8 Supercars championship hopes alive by setting a new qualifying lap record to grab pole in the opening race, before sealing a dominant victory by winning the opening 140 kilometre race of the Ipswich 300 last Saturday.
Jamie Whincup, second fastest in qualifying in the other Vodafone entry was swamped at the start of the race after his Holden suffered clutch issues giving his team-mate Lowndes a ‘free kick’ at the front. Ford’s Mark Winterbottom came in second while series leader Whincup recovered from the disasterous start to take third place
The timely win revived Lowndes’ chances of V8 championship number four with another 200 km race scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Initially it did not look like it would be Lowndes’ day on Sunday as he struggled in qualifying before pulling out a fast lap to start the race in fourth position on the grid.
Much the same as Saturday’s result the Holden veteran, Craig Lowndes completed a clean sweep of the Ipswich V8 Supercars round to lift his championship prospects. Lowndes, again proved too good in Sunday’s race posting his fifth straight victory – and eleventh overall at Ipswich ‘s Queensland Raceway.
He finished the 65-lap race almost two seconds ahead of Ford’s Mark Winterbottom, with series leader and Lowndes team-mate Jamie Whincup third.