Full Throttle

Craig Lowndes has increased the pressure on points leader Russell Ingall by winning the top 10 shootout at this weekend’s season-ending V8 round at Philip Island.

Lowndes is 49 points behind Ingall on the standings and showed he will be one of the leading contenders with a scorching lap of one minute 33.2826 seconds to pip Marcos Ambrose (1:33.2884) while Jason Bright (1:33.407) was third-quickest as the Fords dominated on the Holden test track.

Ingall was ninth quickest in a time of 1:33.8626 in his Falcon and would secure the title if he finishes eighth or better in all three races.

Earlier in Saturday qualifying, Greg Murphy was fastest in qualifying, ahead of Bright and Lowndes. Ingall snuck into the shootout by qualifying 10th-best.

In Saturday’s 100km event Craig Lowndes took victory in the first of this weekend’s three races for the BigPond Grand Finale after a daring move to take the lead from Marcos Ambrose.

Lowndes and Ambrose jumped a fast starting Garth Tander who had powered past both at the start, although the Tasmanian round winner was able to make position back on Ambrose as the 23 lap race neared its end as the reigning champ suffered from a flat spotted rear.

Russell Ingall meanwhile drove a strong race, keeping out of trouble, although the dicing cars of Todd Kelly and Steven Richards collecting each other ahead gave him cause for concern as he drove to fifth place, Rick Kelly having cemented a strong HSV Dealer Team, backing up Tander’s second with a fourth.

V8 Supercar, Auto Raving, Sports