Lowndes finally grabs top spot

Craig Lowndes drove a near faultless race to take top spot on the podium, at the Hidden Valley raceway in Darwin yesterday.

The 33 year old Ford star finished second in race one, before going back-to-back yesterday to hold off championship leader Rick Kelly, with the barnstorming Mark Skaife third.

“It feels nice to finally win a round,” said Lowndes, after putting his birthday celebrations on hold.

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“Winning up here for the second year in a row, and especially for a new sponsor in Vodafone, is doubly special.

“If I had it my way, I'd pick up the track up and have it trucked around the circuit.”

Holden drivers Garth Tander, Todd Kelly and Skaife also fill out three of the next top four placings.

While Lowndes finished the weekend on a high, the ageless Skaife, who took the major points at Eastern Creek a fortnight ago, again took the honours in the opening race on Saturday. In a dramatic race, Will Davison, in second of the Jim Beam Falcons, fell foul of the stewards.

Davison was excluded from the results of race one and was fined $5000 (suspended) for his part in a dingle that took four cars out of the reckoning.

But Lowndes, who started race three on pole, proved unstoppable yesterday, at one point opening up a 4.5-second gap, leaving a swag of Holden drivers to race for the minor placings.

“The team mechanics deserve much of the credit for the improvement in the car,” Lowndes said. “I got them to make some minor adjustments to the suspension and on the rear of the car."

“With 600 horsepower under the bonnet, I thought I may as well make use of it."

“It certainly made the car a little bit more driveable.”

Lowndes says the series is by no means over, with eight rounds still to race.

“We've got a testing day organised at Willowbank to tweak the car, before we race there again in July,” he said.

Kelly's podium finish in Darwin sees him open up a 39-point buffer on his Toll HSV dealer team-mate Tander, heading into the next round of the series, the Queensland 300 at Ipswich on July 22.

The defending series champion has finished on the podium every round this year.

* V8 Supercar series chairman Tony Cochrane will remain in the position until the end of the year.

It was reported that Cochrane would lose his job, after lashing out at former V8 TV partner Network Ten over broadcast arrangements for next year's Melbourne Grand Prix.

“Tony continues to have the very strong support of V8 Supercar teams, in his role as chairman,” V8 Supercars chief executive Wayne Cattach said.

“There is no agenda item listed for the next board meeting in relation to the position.”

Meanwhile, Touring Car Entrants Group re-appointed general manager Kelvin O'Reilly for a further three years to oversee the business of the teams competing in the series.

Tega chairman John Hewson announced O'Reilly's reappointment at Hidden Valley yesterday.