DEWALT Racing driver Mark Winterbottom scored Team 18’s first ever race win as he took out Race 13 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway.
The 2013 Bathurst 1000 winner and 2015 Supercars Champion qualified a strong third position, before muscling past Broc Feeney into second place at Turn 1 off the start and slotting in behind race leader Cam Waters.
Hino driver Scott Pye ensured both cars progressed through to the final ten in qualifying, and started from eighth position.
A safety car was deployed on Lap 2 after Waters encountered a nasty fire, as the team executed an outstanding double stack to put Winterbottom back in the lead and Pye back into eighth.
Winterbottom sustained pressure from Feeney after a later safety car restart to take the chequered flag by half a second.
“Congratulations to Mark (Winterbottom),” commented Feeney. “It’s great to see him back on the podium because he’s one of the greats of the sport who has been doing it for a long time. I suppose it’s a good thing when you’re disappointed being second. I felt like we had more pace today, but overall to walk away with a podium and jump up a few spots in the championship is good. I knew I wasn’t going to get him on that last lap and was just trying to force him to make a mistake. “
Pye moved forwards to fifth before he was hit from behind on one of the later restarts, with a guard rubbing on the right rear tyre. However, Pye hung on for a solid points finish 12th.
Team 18 will return to action on Sunday for back-to-back qualifying at 9:30am, before Race 14 at 11:50am and Race 15 at 3:25pm.
Comments