MOTORSPORT: One for Nissan, another one for Penske

Just days after Nissan announced its pull-out from Supercar racing at the end of this season an Altima won a race at the sixth round of the championship, although the DJR Penske Fords remain fastest in the series – and one of them won Sunday's longer race at Victoria's Winton circuit.

Nissan Motorsport/Kelly Racing team boss Todd Kelly was so emotional after Saturday's triumph by his brother Rick that he reckoned it was better than victory in the Bathurst 1000, the sport's 'crown jewel', which they both won in the days of racing Holdens.

Series leader Scott McLaughlin's winning streak came to an end with mistakes both days at Winton, but DJR Penske teammate Fabian Coulthard – who had started alongside him both times – took a comfortable victory on Sunday.

However, the top point scorer of the weekend was Triple Eight/Holden Racing Team's Shane Van Gisbergen after third place in Saturday's 40-lap race at the 3km regional circuit and second after the 67 laps the next afternoon.

Sunday's podium – on which McLaughlin joined Coulthard and 'The Giz' – was the first 'lock-out' by New Zealand drivers in the sport's history.

Van Gisbergen has narrowed McLaughlin's lead to 121 points, with a four-week break now until the seventh round in Darwin on June 16-17.

Craig Lowndes in another Triple Eight Commodore is up to third – but almost a whole round's maximum points off the lead – after a couple of great recovery drives at Winton, climbing from 24th on the grid to 13th on Saturday and from 23rd to 12th on Sunday.

Reigning Bathurst champion David Reynolds (Erebus Motorsport, Holden) has slipped to fourth, while seven-time champion Jamie Whincup lingers in fifth, 364 points behind the man he beat to last year's title, McLaughlin.

Scott Pye, an excellent second in a Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore on Saturday and sixth a day later, is sixth in the championship, ahead of Rick Kelly and Coulthard – whose victory yesterday was just his second podium this season.

Saturday's success for Kelly was only Nissan's third victory in its sixth season of Supercar racing – and his first since a sprint race at Melbourne's Sandown in 2011, when he was driving a Holden.

Kelly pounced on what McLaughlin admitted was "a rookie mistake" when Saturday's race resumed seven laps from the chequered flag after a safety car and Pye followed him through as the series leader, who had let his tyres get too cool, was shuffled back in the space of three corners to fifth, where he finished that day.

"Scotty [(McLaughlin] had a big wobble through turns one and two and I got enough of the build-up off my tyres to sneak up the inside of him – I was pretty proud of that," Kelly said.

Todd Kelly said of his younger sibling: "The pressure he was under that whole race was pretty crazy and he just put his head down and got the job done ... absolutely awesome."

Nissan teammate Michael Caruso, who had headed Kelly early in the race, wound up sixth on Saturday and on Sunday the pair backed up with fourth and fifth places, Kelly again ahead of Caruso, who had been the Japanese make's previous Supercar winner almost two years ago.

The Kellys have aggressively developed the Altimas recently and will continue to race them next year, despite last Tuesday's announcement that there won't be any more Nissan factory support.

Rick Kelly said that, after the signs of improvement from the Phillip Island round four weeks earlier, it had been "very promising to get a solid weekend from start to finish" at Winton. "We had a great day yesterday [Saturday] and a very strong day today [Sunday], which is important for us to achieve," he said.

"If we continue to do what we're doing then we'll keep moving forward. Yesterday we won the race without the quickest car and today there were just a few cars that had the edge on us.

"We certainly know where our weaknesses are and we can go away and further work on that."

Coulthard's drought had not been anywhere near as long as Kelly's, but it still stretched back to last August, while teammate McLaughlin had been a dominant force in that period, including four straight wins before Winton.

Coulthard ran away on Sunday after pole position man McLaughlin fluffed the start, dropping to eighth, but his crew then pitted him on the fourth lap, short-fuelled him and the No.17 Falcon was the fastest car on the track as he fought back to complete the all-Kiwi podium.

Coulthard said his Falcon had been "on rails" as he became the eighth winner in 14 races this season by motoring to his 10th Supercar success, 11 seconds clear of Van Gisbergen, who had charged from seventh on the grid in his Holden.

"I haven't driven that hard for a long time – just pushing hard the whole way," Van Gisbergen said.

Another Kiwi, Richie Stanaway, drove strongly too, to come away with his first top-10 finish (ninth place) in his rookie Supercar season with Ford team Tickford Racing. That team's big guns Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert are only 13th and 11th in the championship, while youngster Cameron Waters had a horror weekend with driveshaft problems.

Supercars Championship driver standings after 14 races – 1. Scott McLaughlin (DJR Team Penske, Ford Falcon) 1487 points; 2. Shane Van Gisbergen (Triple Eight Holden Racing Team, Holden Commodore) 1356; 3. Craig Lowndes (Triple Eight, Holden) 1188; 4. David Reynolds (Erebus Motorsport, Holden) 1169; 5. Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight HRT, Holden) 1123; 6. Scott Pye (Walkinshaw Andretti United, Holden) 1114; 7. Fabian Coulthard (DJR Team Penske, Ford) 1079; 8. Rick Kelly (Nissan Motorsport/Kelly Racing, Nissan Altima) 1003; 9. James Courtney (Walkinshaw Andretti United, Holden) 996; 10. Tim Slade (Brad Jones Racing, Holden) 992.