Winterbottom back on top

Another great jump off the line aided Mark Winterbottom this afternoon, as he took Pepsi Max Crew's second win of the day at Winton Motor Raceway, ahead of Nissan's Rick Kelly and teammate Chaz Mostert.

The win - by 0.83 seconds - and second place from today's earlier race at the NP300 Navara Winton SuperSprint sees Winterbottom second in the Championship and just nine points away from leader Craig Lowndes, as the Prodrive FG Xs continue to fire.

The victory also meant Prodrive Racing (Australia) achieved its 50th race win.

"It's good to get off the line well. We tried to save some tyres there too, which was really cool - to win that race and have tyres for tomorrow is a good thing," Winterbottom said post-race.

"The guys worked really hard ... thankfully I could get off the line well.

"[The weekend] is going good, we have to try and maximise days when Triple Eight are having bad ones, they don't have many... any win in a V8 Supercar is special."

Further down the field there was chaos on the opening lap with Holden Racing Team teammates James Courtney and Garth Tander making contact, the two and stablemate Lee Holdsworth flying off track and onto the grass.

The team retired Tander's Commodore, Holdsworth failed to finish and Courtney receivied a drive through penalty, though he nursed his damaged car to finish the race 23rd.

Jason Bright and James Moffat also got together early in the race, the Nissan spinning and rejoining at the back after promising pace from his teammates.

Nissan's Michael Caruso finished third in today's first race, and driver and Nissan Motorsport team boss Kelly was pleased with the day's two podiums.

"We've been developing the Nissans behind the scenes as best we can and it feels fantastic," Kelly said.

"This track suits us and its good to capitalise on that."

David Reynolds put in another solid performance, home in fourth and ahead of Darrell Lea STIX's Shane van Gisbergen; while Red Bull saw both drivers in the top 10 with Jamie Whincup sixth and Craig Lowndes eighth.

Click here for full results.

Lowndes continues to lead the Championship, Winterbottom second and, Whincup jumping into third as Courtney fell to fourth position.

Click here for Championship points.

The V8 Supercars hit the track tomorrow for practice, qualifying and a 200km strategy-fueled race at the NP300 Navara Winton SuperSprint.