MOTORSPORT: Winterbottom wobbling

Even though the wheels are wobbling, Mark Winterbottom remains favourite to win his and Prodrive’s first V8 Supercars Championship following last weekend’s dramatic action in New Zealand.

After the dust had subsided and the carbon-fibre scraps collected from the Pukekohe track, Winterbottom emerged from his second unconvincing event in a row holding a narrowing 239 championship points lead over Ford teammate David Reynolds, with Red Bull Racing’s Craig Lowndes only one point further back in his Holden.

There are mow a maximum 600 points left to win over the remaining two championship rounds at Phillip Island and the concrete-lined Homebush street circuit in Sydney. Winterbottom’s rivals really need the Pepsi-Max Falcon FG X to have a DNF or two to get back into the hunt.

But whoever wins it will be a momentous result; victory for the eternal bridesmaids Winterbottom and Prodrive if they get up; revenge for Reynolds, who has been effectively sacked by the team and moves to Erebus Motorsport in 2016; or the first title for crowd favourite Lowndes since 1999 if he overcomes the odds.

Those odds definitely lengthened for Lowndes after he lost an almost certain win and 75 points when his left rear tyre exploded and he was pitched into the fence on Saturday afternoon in the second 60km sprint, the first ever conducted on soft tyres at a track renowned for its jagged kerbs and high tyre loads.

But fortune swung the other way on Sunday in the 200km main event when Winterbottom was spun to the very back of the pack on lap two. By the end of the race he had fought back to 11th, bodywork awry having banged panels with desperates like Dale Wood on the way through.

Prodrive boss Tim Edwards railed at the “morons” in Holdens for turning Winterbottom around, but he later had to backtrack when it turned out it was Winterbottom’s own teammate, rookie Cam Waters, who had initiated the concertina that ended with the championship leader chasing the pack.

Waters is in the FG X subbing for the injured Chaz Mostert, whose absence is being felt by Prodrive in terms of dialling in set-ups and scoring big points in the teams’ championship. In that regard the situation is tighter than the driver’s championship, with 1200 points still up for grabs and Pepsi-Max Crew’s lead 288 points over Red Bull Racing.

And if RBR keep performing as they did at Pukekohe – and PRA ditto – then Roland Dane’s crew will retain the prime position at the end of pitlane that is so important in terms of strategy and prestige.

Jamie Whincup officially dropped out of contention for title number seven despite winning two out of three races, finishing second in the other behind Reynolds and claiming the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy. It was his most compete weekend of the year and his first reunited with engineer David Cauchi.

Cauchi had stepped back to the data role mid-season to allow Whincup to work with former engineer Mark Dutton. The three of them then whipped the recalcitrant 2015-spec VF Commodore into shape and his lights-to-flag (barring pit stop shuffling) win on Sunday was classic ‘eyes forward’ domination.

That Lowndes followed him home second was a great reward for the RBR crew, which literally worked all night to get 888 back on track. With the aid of flawless pit stops, great strategy and excellent tyre longevity, the veteran was able to work his way through to second place on the podium.

If that was an ominous sign for Prodrive and Winterbottom about the level of competition to expect as the championship reaches its climax, an equally ominous long-term signal was given by Scott Pye and DJR Team Penske, which claimed their first podium on Sunday. With team owner Roger Penske watching on, Pye – still recovering from a Bathurst crash in which he fractured a rib -- expressed the hope that it would be the first of many.

Considering Penske’s record in other forms of racing, that will definitely happen.

There were others who showed promise and pace through the weekend; Michael Caruso’s fifth on Sunday in the Nissan Altima was one of his best results in a largely frustrating year, although he was lucky not to be taken out by his own teammate James Moffat on the starting line.

Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin showed outstanding single lap pace, but the S60 still can’t hang at the front for 200km and he came home sixth. Meanwhile, Lee Holdsworth’s eighth in Charlie Schwerkolt’s Walkinshaw-prepped Commodore was just reward for great effort.

Holdsworth finished ahead of both factory Holden Racing Team cars run out of the same equipe, with Garth Tander 10th and James Courtney a battered 15th.

It was a far cry from the glory of Sunday on the Gold Coast just two weeks ago when HRT finished one-three. In New Zealand HRT was was again confronted by its inability to qualify up-front, effectively cruelling their drivers’ chances in the processional sprint races on Saturday.

On Sunday in the longer big-points race, their usual fight forward through strategical smarts was stymied by V8 Supercars’ decision to impose strict conditions on the use of the soft tyre after Lowndes’ catastrophic failure.

To rub salt into the wounds for HRT men, RBR also passed them back for second in the teams' championship.

But HRT wasn’t the only crew feeling battered by the end of the weekend; Brad Jones Racing’s schizophrenic season was on a downer at Fabian Coulthard’s home track and Erebus spent the weekend in the wars.

And speaking of wars, the next battle site is Phillip Island in just two weeks.