Jamie Whincup managed a feat Australia's cricketers would have yearned for - a half century - as he took one more small step towards a third career V8 Supercar Championship at Symmons Plains in Tasmania yesterday.
Whincup extended his Championship lead by a handful of points over TeamVodafone team-mate CraigLowndes with his win in race one of the Falken Tasmania Challenge, notching up 50 race victories in his stellar career. Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander stormed home for third.
A perfect race played out for Whincup who was unchallenged throughout. Aside from one safety car for a wheel that fell off Greg Murphy's Commodore, the rest of the field did not get close. Lowndes chipped away for second and Tander exploited a late clash between FPR team-mates Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom for third.
"The Ford guys were very strong yesterday so we knew we had out work cut out to have a strong run today," Whincup said.
"To do what we did today you need quick cars and both were unbelievably strong. The pit guys did a phenomenal job and I was able to control the race from there.
"It's good to get a great start to what I call the finish. We just have to keep our head down and focused each weekend."
Lowndes battled with Shane van Gisbergen for the majority of the race, until a locked brake from the young Kiwi sent the SP Tools Falcon tumbling back down the order.
"We got a reasonable start and had a great battle throughout the race with Shane van Gisbergen," said Lowndes.
"We had a couple of passing opportunities that needed to be done but by then Jamie was too far in front. Second was the best we could do today." Tander was quick yesterday, promising to challenge more today.
"This is like a win for us because we beat the two guys that we're challenging for third place in the championship," said Tander, referring to van Gisbergen and Winterbottom.
"We had some dramas with the car in qualifying so we should have been better than where we were. A few guys made some mistakes in front of us which made it easier, but the car was really good and I look forward to qualifying a bit further up for tomorrow."
The race was quite straight forward until the first pit stops which cost Winterbottom dearly. His FPR team did a good stop but Winterbottom seemed to get a little held up on exit, shunting him back down to fifth on running order.
