The Shell Power-V Fords of Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin finally broke the Holden stranglehold at Symmons Plains breaking through to score an historic Supercars one-two finish in the final race of the Tasmania Supersprint on Sunday.
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It was the first victory for Fords at the Tasmanian circuit since Will Davison triumphed in 2012 with Holdens winning 18 of the previous 19 races leading into Sunday’s race 4.
Coulthard grabbed his third career Supercar victory and gave the DJR Team Penske their first victory in Supercars since Roger Penske took control, leading home his Kiwi teammate and six-time champion Jamie Whincup who claimed his first podium of the year for Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
It was a sweet victory for Coulthard who was hit with a 35-point penalty earlier in the day for his role in causing Saturday’s pile-up.
It provided DJR Penske team legend Dick Johnson his first taste of victory at the Symmons Plains circuit since Tasmanian John Bowe claimed a victory in 1995.
The Shell Fords took over the front-running when Supercheap Auto’s Chaz Mostert made an unforced error that saw him slide out of the lead at a slippery turn six relegating him to seventh as the race lead changed frequently due to pit-stop strategy.
Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen was handed a 15-second penalty for contact with Todd Kelly which relegated him to the tail end of the field before fighting back to an eleventh-place finish but continues to lead the series on 384 points from Coulthard on 364 and Whincup on 333.
Craig Lowndes set a new Symmons Plains race record with his lap of 51.437 eclipsing Rick Kelly’s previous mark of 51.4713.
Whincup claimed pole position in a very wet morning qualifying session with a time of 58.397 on his final lap edging out McLaughlin (58.6678) and Mostert (58.7079).
Supercar race stewards reversed a decision overnight to award points from Saturday’s accident-shortened race but van Gisbergen’s win and other results will stand.
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