Weekend of speed and race in Gold Coast

Monday, 26 October 2015
By Nanni Henrique 

The V8 Supercars race on the street circuit in Gold Coast was special for audience and drivers.

 The temporary street track cover 2.96km in middle of buildings and beach. The layout allows a great spectacle for the record of attendance with 197,872 fans this year's Castrol Gold Coast 600 at Surfers Paradise.

On Sunday, the victory of 300km race was especially emotional for James Courtney and Jack Perkins.

Courtney return after the freak injury at Sydney Motorsport Park earlier this year to his second victory of the season and a remarkable result considering he was only cleared to drive last week by his surgeon. For co-driver Perkins because this was his first ever V8 Supercars victory.

They won race 27 in spectacular style with a clean drive and smart strategy from the Holden Racing Team in a tense fuel race. The second place was for Nissan's Rick Kelly, three seconds behind the Holden, and Garth Tander finished third to claim the Endurance Cup with co-driver Warren Luff for the best performed pairing over the past three events.

On Saturday, Holden's Shane Van Gisbergen celebrated the victory of race 26 of the championship to remember as he claimed his first victory of the year.

Championship leader Mark Winterbottom came 11th in a disappointing weekend with main title rival Craig Lowndes finishing fourth to reduce the Ford star's lead to 258 points with three rounds to go.

Position	Driver	Car	Make	Penalty	Points	Diff
1	Mark Winterbottom  Pepsi Max Crew	5	Ford Falcon FG X	0	2599	0
2	Craig Lowndes  Red Bull Racing Australia	888	Holden Commodore VF	15	2341	-258
3	David Reynolds  The Bottle-O Racing Team	55	Ford Falcon FG	0	2281	-318
4	Garth Tander  Holden Racing Team	2	Holden Commodore VF	0	2141	-458
5	Fabian Coulthard  Freightliner Racing	14	Holden Commodore VF	0	2096	-503

The V8 Supercars next round will be the Auckland 500 in New Zealand from 6th November.