Motorsport: Whincup and Dumbrell win Bathurst 1000

Paul Dumbrell and Jamie Whincup drivers of the #1 Team Vodafone Holden hold aloft the Peter Brock Trophy after winning the Bathurst 1000. Photo / Getty Images.

Holden pair Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell have won today's Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercars endurance race.

Whincup held off a fast finish by Ford youngster David Reynolds to take out his fourth Bathurst crown and strengthen his grip on the V8 Supercars championship race.

Reynolds, along with co-driver Dean Canto, finished second in what is the first podium of his V8 Supercars career.

Whincup's teammate and championship rival Craig Lowndes came home third after a huge final stint where he hauled in the Commodores of both Michael Caruso and James Courtney to claim another Bathurst podium with co-driver Warren Luff.

Reynolds pushed Whincup all the way over the race's final laps in a thrilling finish, missing out on his first V8 Supercars victory by just 0.3sec.

Nonetheless, the result is a marvellous one for the 27-year-old, while Whincup joins Allan Moffat and Greg Murphy as four-time winners at Mount Panorama.

The victory is Dumbrell's first in his 12th start in the great race.

Holden Racing Team's Courtney came home fourth in his best result of the season while Caruso finished fifth.

At the other end of the field, another championship contender, Ford Performance Racing's Will Davison, started on pole and was leading in the early stages but endured a horror day.

He and co-driver John McIntyre had to settle for a 24th place finish after Davison was lucky to survive when his brakes failed going into Conrod Straight and he was sent spearing across the track at over 250km/h, narrowly missing a passing car on the track.

Davison's teammate Mark Winterbottom came in 11th after failing to get himself up to the front throughout the race and has relinquished second place in the championship to Lowndes.

Defending champions Garth Tander and Nick Percat also had a shocker, their title defence effectively ending in the 38th lap when their Holden Racing Team Commodore was damaged following a collision with a wall at the top of the mountain.

Percat was behind the wheel when it appeared to suffer a mechanical problem and despite the pair getting back on the track, the time lost to repair the vehicle left them out of contention.

-AAP