Team Penske and the Shell V-Power Racing Fords have proven to be this season’s rivals for the Red Bull Holden Racing Team, scoring 1-2 wins in two races at the Australian GP. The non-championship round saw Fabian Coulthard nearly sweeping all four pole positions, with one held by Jamie Whincup after an inspired qualifying lap. Fabian Coulthard and Scott Laughlin set the pace by finishing first and second in Race 1 and Race 2. Both were on the podium for Race 3, with Coulthard taking the win and Jamie Whincup finishing ahead of Scott McLaughlin. Chaz Mostert claimed his first win this year when he finished Race 4 ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, who made a valiant comeback after the difficult earlier races. Jamie Whincup was on course to win Race 4 when Fabian Coulthard when front left tyre failure, handing the lead to Whincup. However, the rear tyres on Whincup’s Commodore were cooked and also blew out, due to a broken brake bias cable. This left Chaz Mostert to sweep his first win in Supercars since 2015.


Jamie Whincup put down his tyre failure to a broken bias brake cable, saying: “From the second lap it started winding itself back so I ended up with full rear brakes. I had no front whatsoever,” Whincup explained.

More teams are starting to uncover secrets of the new control tyre from Dunlop, as the tyre failures of Whincup and Coulthard revealed a high sensitivity to heat and tyre pressure. The two XForce sponsored Holdens will be back in action April 7th at Symmons Plains, where the Triple 8 Engineering cars have had a great record since 2015.


LINKS:

XForce Performance Exhaust – www.xforce.com.au

XForce Authorised Dealers – www.xforce.com.au/where-to-buy