After 10 unsuccessful attempts, Mark Winterbottom (co-driver Stephen Richards) driving his Ford Falcon finally won his very first Bathurst 1000 title following a dramatic finish on Mount Panorama last Sunday by holding out the pole sitter and V8 Supercar series leader Jamie Whincup in the Red Bull Holden by three tenths of a second. Craig Lowndes in the second of the Red Bull cars celebrated his 20th Bathurst and 500th career start with third a further 6.0 seconds in arears.
Remarkably Winterbottom had never finished on the podium in 10 Bathurst starts before the 2013 race, but it also marked the first Bathurst victory for the factory backed Ford Performance Racing (FPR) since the controversial 1977 formation finish between Alan Moffat and Colin Bond, taking the Blue Oval’s overall Mount Panorama tally to 20 wins (Holden already has 30 wins on the mountain).
The victory came a day after Ford ended speculation and confirmed it would support FPR again next year despite announcing in May it would cease manufacturing in Australia and retire the Falcon product in 2016.
There were only two safety car periods in the entire race – Todd Kelly’s Nissan hitting a kangaroo on lap 20 and Holden team driver Greg Murphy crashing into the wall at 175kmh on lap 86.
Top ten finishers were:
1. Mark Winterbottom, FPR Ford
2. Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Holden
3. Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Holden
4. Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team
5. Jason Bright, Team BOC Holden
6. Scott Pye, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport Holden
7. Will Davison, FPR Ford
8. Scott McLaughlin, Fujitsu Racing Holden
9. David Reynolds, Ford FG Falcon
10. Andy Priaulx, Xbox One Commodore