Whincup and Winterbottom share GC spoils
Mark Winterbottom and co-driver Richard Lyons may have claimed the Armor All Gold Coast 600 with Ford Performance Racing’s first win of the season on Sunday, but Jamie Whincup had the best reason to party on a weekend that could prove decisive in the title race.
Carrying a 100-point deficit to teammate Craig Lowndes following Bathurst, XXXX GOLD’s own Whincup left Surfers Paradise with a 143-point lead following a win and a second place over the weekend, as Lowndes was left ruing mechanical dramas and other dilemmas that cost the former champ dearly.
The international co-drivers were in the main well behaved, apart from the odd indiscretion and love tap; Whincup’s co-driver Sebastien Bourdais won the inaugural Dan Wheldon Memorial trophy, on a weekend when the V8 Supercars community paid tribute to the late IndyCar star; while kerb hopping became a controversial accepted practice in Sunday’s race.
But it didn’t seem to matter much to the big crowd in attendance – total of 181,186 over the three days, up 11,000 on 2010.
The party the Gold Coast has to have didn’t disappoint, with big crowds staying to see the likes of Bliss N Eso, Hoodoo Gurus and Simple Minds perform on Friday and Saturday night. And judging by the amount of people pouring into the gates just for the concerts, they are proving very important for the event in attracting a much wider audience.
But it wasn’t too hard to find a party somewhere in Surfers Paradise over the weekend. As usual bars, clubs, restaurants and more got into the spirit of the race. While the locals came out in force for one of their marquee events of the year, there were plenty of out of towners soaking in the sun and frivolity of the weekend.
An example of such were the two lads from Newcastle yours truly shared a taxi with heading into Surfers Paradise: casual V8 fans who had heard the stories of the party Surfers throws each year, set with accommodation next to the track, looking forward to nothing more than mornings at the beach, afternoons at the track and nights at a pub – to be repeated for three consecutive nights.
Not a bad way to spend a weekend!
V8 Supercars now pauses for three weeks before visiting Symmons Plains in Tasmania, followed by Sandown and the finale Sydney.
Six races to go. Will Surfers Paradise prove to be the decisive event in the title race?
