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Whincup shows signs of another mighty comeback

12 Jul 2015
Six-time Champion Jamie Whincup fought hard and may be ready to mount the seemingly impossible comeback.
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Sunday Press Conference - Castrol EDGE Townsville 400

Jamie Whincup fought his hardest in another tough day at the office - were there enough signs to say the six-time Champion may be ready to mount a seemingly impossible challenge?

With the Prodrive Falcons dominating for the second day in a row at the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400 it was the Holden charge of James Courtney (having started from grid position 16), Garth Tander, Whincup and Craig Lowndes that became the post-race talking point.

Mark Winterbottom became only the second driver to go back to back in Townsville, after Whincup in 2012, with another commanding victory to extend his Championship lead in front of the second biggest crowd (152,873) since the very first event seven years ago.

The Holdens found something overnight after a rough and tumble Saturday to surge at the end of the 70-lap race. Courtney punched his way into second from position 16 against a fading David Reynolds and Tander went from 11 at the start to finish fourth.

Whincup started in position 13 and made it to fifth while Lowndes, fighting a heavily sprained wrist throughout the race, made up 14 places to finish ninth. Both teams will be quietly content that they seem to have discovered the car speed missing in recent times.

"I don't know where he is in the points but from here last year he put about 600 points on everyone in six or seven rounds. He dominated," Winterbottom said after the victory.

"Who knows what he is going to do. It's definitely not what we are focussed on. He has won six Championships, he is not someone you right off and nor that team.

"Them (Red Bull), HRT, him (Whincup), Fabian (Coulthard), Reynolds, Chaz (Mostert), Van Gis (Shane van Gisbergen) ... everyone is a threat. Anyone can win it and he is one of them."

Still it was Winterbottom that continued to set the pace. He continues to lead the Championship standings, now by 258 points over Lowndes, with Coulthard dropping to third and Reynolds, third today, elevating to fourth.

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"The weekend was really good. Adelaide was the last time we were on a street track and we haven't changed the body work on the car. Since Adelaide we had concerns but there's a lot of kerbs here and that's where we have really improved the car," he said.

"I think we can win anywhere after this round. This was the bogey round for mine. Homebush, Gold Coast now don't seem as frightening as they did four days ago."

Courtney was excited by the team's sudden competitiveness after a forgettable Darwin round mostly marred by he and Tander accidently taking each other out.

"I think their (Prodrive) qualifying speed is the thing that's helping them the most, being able to unlock the car and get so much speed out of it in qualifying," Courtney said.

"That's what we've been struggling with. We can either get the car to go okay in qualifying and then it's crazy bad in the race, or not so good in qualifying.

"We can't constantly get it the same. We're struggling through five and six quite a bit and through the faster, flowing corners where these guys seem to be really hooked up. They've done a great job and that's the areas we're looking at where our car is weak."

While Volvo's Scott McLaughlin started the race on ARMOR ALL Pole Position and had the jump ahead of Reynolds and Chaz Mostert, his day ended early losing a water pump pulley during the race and triggering a safety car.

Fabian Coulthard was also in the mix until spinning wheels during his pit stop caused a black flag pit lane penalty.

The next V8 Supercars event is the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint, running from July 31 to August 2.

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