Whincup moves up all-time ladder

CRAIG LOWNDES tripped up yesterday in his bid to become the first centurion of Australian motorsport.

Instead his Red Bull Racing team-mate, Jamie Whincup, moved into outright second place in all-time wins with 91, passing Holden great Mark Skaife with an emphatic victory – the second straight year the team have won all three races in Tasmania.

Whincup also assumed the V8 Supercars Championship lead through a piece of good fortune created by Lowndes, overtaking Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney.

Lowndes’ attempt to add to his 99 wins was finished when he shoved David Reynolds after one turn of the final race of the Tasmanian Supersprint.

Having dominated with two races wins and three pole positions, Lowndes came to a sudden halt when he belted fellow front-row starter Reynolds out of the way and was penalised.

Erebus Motorsport’s Will Davison also got tangled up in the drama when he came into contact with Reynolds, breaking a steering arm.

It ended a bad weekend for the Mercedes’ Benz outfit that had sensational speed but zero luck.

While Whincup felt for Lowndes, he knew it had opened up the race for him. His team also won the strategy battle with his closest challenger, Shane van Gisbergen, lightning fast on soft tyres but not given enough time with them.

‘‘I certainly didn’t expect to be sitting here this weekend,’’ Whincup said.

‘‘It’s tight down there at turn two.

‘‘To get around there cleanly is hard work and unfortunately they tripped over each other.

‘‘I took the rewards but not how I would have liked it.

‘‘We didn’t have a bad weekend but I wasn’t the quickest out there.

‘‘The weekend was owned by my team-mate who I would have liked to have seen get the triple [100 wins].

‘‘I would prefer to have the pace and race hard for the win but I need someone to trip up.

‘‘We circulated this weekend and just had enough to win.’’

Van Gisbergen finished third behind Pepsi Max Crew’s Chaz Mostert who flew through the field and on to the podium with the drive of the day.

Lowndes will now focus on breaking the mark at the Perth SuperSprint in Western Australia where he will have three more attempts at the Bradmanesque mark.

Based on his form in Tasmania, the short Perth track should also be kind to him. Barbagallo is also where he broke Skaife’s previous longstanding record of 90 race wins.

When Lowndes hit him, Reynolds got shuffled to the back of the field in the Bottle-O Falcon but a brilliant drive back through field pushed him up to 11th, a good save for the team.

Young Kiwi Andre Heimgartner was one of the other star performers, with a fighting eighth for the rookie in what was an impressive weekend for the SuperBlack outfit.

As his Kiwi cricket compatriots were struggling against the Aussie bowlers in Melbourne, Heimgartner was flying the flag in Launceston with his best performance to date in the new FG-X.