Full Throttle

Ford driver Craig Lowndes has claimed round 11 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series on the Gold Coast, after winning the second and third races.

Lowndes finished runner-up behind Holden’s Greg Murphy in the opening race on Saturday, but dominated the second and third races after making perfect starts in both.

He won the second 22-lap race on Sunday in 43 minutes 41.7737 seconds, while HRT’s Mark Skaife (43:44.3204) was second and finished third overall after crossing third in the first two races.

Murphy (43:46.0829) finished second in the first race on Sunday and third in the last race of the round to finish second overall.

Holden drivers dominated the top ten placings in the final race, with Garth Tander (43:48.5826), Cameron McConville (43:49.0487) and Rick Kelly (43:50.2143) finishing fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Lowndes’ Team Betta Electrical teammate Steve Ellery (43:50.4891) was seventh in the final race, while HRT’s Todd Kelly (43:50.7234) finished eighth, FPR’s Jason Bright (43:51.3967) ninth and Jamie Whincup (43:52.0610) rounded out the top ten in his Commodore.

Lowndes has now climbed to third in the Championship standings on 1529 points, while Russell Ingall (1610 points) extended his lead over Stone Brothers Racing teammate Marcos Ambrose (1544) at the top of the standings.

Ingall could have extended his lead even further if not for two run-ins with race officials.

He was penalised 32 seconds for cutting a chicane during race two and dropped back to tenth after crossing fourth. His problems with the chicanes continued in race three as he missed the chicane as he exited the pits and was given a drive through penalty.

He dropped to 28th position, but managed to claw way back up to 24th before crossing the line. Ambrose finished 11th in race three.

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