Hiccup sinks Whincup

Jamie Whincup could not hide his disappointment after losing yesterday's L&H 500 enduro at Phillip Island.

The Team Vodafone young gun looked set for his fourth straight V8 Supercar endurance race win until he made a critical mistake with only 10 laps remaining.

It was only a small mistake, but it was all it took to hand the win to the Holden Racing Team pairing of Tander and Mark Skaife.

“I was just pushing too hard,” Whincup said. “I was on the limit and just went over the limit. I shouldn't have done that. I'm a professional. I should have found the limit and stuck to it.”

Whincup's teammate Craig Lowndes had his trademark grin on display throughout the media conference in a vain attempt to put a positive light on the heartbreaking loss.

But Whincup could not. He sat dejectedly through proceedings, pausing only to berate himself.

He did not need to be so hard on himself. Up until that point he had driven a magnificent race under some difficult conditions.

In the end he was beaten by Tander, but the Holden man had to produce one of his best performances to do it.

A mid-race shower turn the race on its head, but Whincup and his crew played the strategy to perfection.

HRT, on the other hand, looked as if it was destined for a disappointing day.

During Skaife's stint the car was languishing in 15th place as he fought an ill-handling machine. But with fresh tyres, a smart pit strategy and Tander behind the wheel, the team re-emerged as a serious contender.

“He's the benchmark guy in Australian motor sport at the moment,” Skaife said of his teammate.

“I thought that the battle Garth and Jamie had there at the end was as good as it gets in Australian motor sport. Personally, (I feel) fantastic. But the win was Garth's. He drove the car very, very well.”

The win was Tander's third of the season and Skaife's first since Eastern Creek last year. It was also Holden's first endurance win since Bathurst 2005 when Skaife was partnered by Todd Kelly.

“I said going into this weekend the team that thinks best on its feet will win,” Tander said.

The team was fantastic. But so was Team Vodafone, the team that has won the last three endurance races and looked unstoppable before Whincup slid off.

“It's a good result, I suppose, but it's not what it could have been,” Whincup said.

“Craig did a faultless performance but I just dropped the bundle.

“I'll come back. I don't know how yet. I don't want this feeling ever again.”

Third place went to the Dick Johnson Racing duo of Will Davison and Steven Johnson in another sign the former championship-winning team is on the road to recovery.

Davison again demonstrated he is a star on the rise by holding off a determined Steven Richards in the closing laps.

Richards was recovering after his Ford Performance Racing crew did not pit for wet tyres during the mid-race rain, a decision he described as “as wrong as you can get”.

Before the rain fell he was running second behind Whincup and looked set for a strong points haul to elevate his co-driver, Mark Winterbottom, back into the championship points lead.

“For sure (we could have won),” Richards said. “Absolutely, no question. I don't say that with flippancy. We had the pace of the guys that won the race. If we had the track position, we could have.”

Richards survived the treacherous conditions to finish fourth, passing James Courtney and Lee Holdsworth in the closing laps.

It was good enough for Winterbottom to retain second place in the standings, despite Tander's win and Whincup's second place.

Tander did manage to extend his lead from 12 points going into the weekend to 80 points as the series head to the Bathurst 1000 next month.

The biggest disappointment of the weekend was the crowd. Only 19,020 fans passed through the gates yesterday for the inaugural 500km race at Phillip Island.

But V8 Supercars officials remained upbeat about the event's future, believing it will take three years for the race to gain a foothold after replacing the traditional Sandown event.

ROUND 9

L&H 500, PHILLIP ISLAND

1 Garth Tander/ Mark Skaife Holden

2 Jamie Whincup/ Craig Lowndes Ford

3 Will Davison/ Steven Johnson Ford

4 Mark Winterbottom/ Steve Richards Ford

5 Lee Holdsworth/ Michael Caruso Holden

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Garth Tander 2096

2 Mark Winterbottom 2043

3 Jamie Whincup 2016

4 Rick Kelly 1702

5 Will Davison 1661