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The top team

06 Dec 2015
Roland Dane praises his group after clinching the teams’ championship over the weekend in Sydney.
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Red Bull Racing Australia yesterday won its seventh V8 Supercars teams championship, clinched in the final event of 2015.

The team headed to the Coates Hire Sydney 500 with a 71-point deficit to Prodrive, but managed to reel that in on Saturday, coming into yesterday’s 250km race with just a 16-point lead.

Jamie Whincup came home second – earning enough points to finish fifth in the drivers championship – with Craig Lowndes sixth in the final dash on the Sydney streets.

While Prodrive and Mark Winterbottom took the drivers’ championship, Red Bull boss Roland Dane flagged the teams’ win as an important achievement and noted it as the priority over the weekend.

Not only does it give Red Bull bragging rights, but locks in the garage closest to pit exit for next year, which many consider an advantage.

Shifting to a three car operation means Triple Eight will take the first two garages, with Lowndes’ Vortex entry believed to be pairing with TEKNO’s single car to be driven by Will Davison.

“Very pleased to win the teams' championship. It’s the seventh time we won and I think sixth in a row, so over the moon with that,” Dane told v8supercars.com.au. 

“We’ve managed to pull it off again – it’s a great reflection of what we managed to achieve in the second half of the year.

“We weren’t that flash in the middle of the year, and we pulled it back and that’s through teamwork – from the drivers, the engineers, and everyone who works back at the factory making things and doing a better job.”

While Lowndes came into the weekend still able to win the drivers’ title, he and the team knew it was a long-shot given Winterbottom’s 179-point margin.

Whincup had his toughest year with the Triple Eight team, dropping as low as ninth before a strong late season recovery.

It hasn’t been a walk in the park for Prodrive either, with young star Chaz Mostert explosively crashing out at Bathurst and unable to contest the rest of the season. Rookie Cameron Waters stepped in for two rounds, Steve Owen in Sydney, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the charging Red Bulls, particularly with on-going electrical gremlins for Owen over the weekend. 

Dane agrees Mostert’s absence cost his competitors – but that didn’t lessen his group’s achievement.

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“It is what it is – Chaz isn’t there,” Dane said. 

“Honestly, yes, they would’ve been stronger in terms of teams points with Chaz there but they would’ve had their own issues trying to manage Mark and Chaz fighting for the championship – that would’ve had it’s own pressures.

“It is what it is – the drivers are part of the team, Chaz made a mistake at Bathurst and that’s costly.

“We’ve had mistakes when we lost the teams’ championship in 2009 – we made a couple of silly mistakes here on the last day on track … so we’ve been on the other end of that.”

That year, the Holden Racing Team won the championship, with Will Davison and Garth Tander driving. This time around, HRT climbed as high as second after the Gold Coast round in October, but ultimately finished third, 499 points behind Prodrive. Brad Jones Racing, which combines the Team BOC and Freightliner racers, is next on the list.

Heading into the Coates Hire Sydney 500, Dane knew snagging the drivers’ championship with Lowndes was a long shot, and congratulated Prodrive on its achievement.

“We knew it was a big gap and we needed something to happen to Mark, which would’ve been unfortunate. So we came here with realistic expectations and the races unfolded.

“We came here expecting Mark to be champion – and he is a deserving champion, and good luck to him.

“Hopefully it will be a single championship, but very well deserved.

“So we had to set our sights on ensuring Craig finished second and our drivers have finished first or second the last seven years in a row. That’s something I’m also very proud of.

“The number of races we’ve won – 14 races I think we’ve won this year – so we’ve won Holden the manufacturer’s championship as well.”

Holden has won the manufacturer award every year since 2010, though it was only decided after Whincup’s two wins on Saturday this year, with Ford also in contention.

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