Hat Trick for Ford at Bathurst
October 13, 2008 by Matt Brogan
It was three in a row for Ford and a case of history repeating itself for Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes who come from fifth on the grid to take out this year’s Bathurst 1000.
The result recalled memories of Lowndes’ friend and mentor the late Peter Brock taking triple victories in the ’70s and ’80s, but was said to me even more impressive in this era of tougher more competitive racing.
“We just set history. Three years in a row. It’s crazy,” Lowndes said. “You cannot dream of it. For us it’s just been a really clean weekend.”
Runners-up Greg Murphy and Jason Richards in a Holden Commodore were followed by James Courtney and David Besnard who overcame tyre issues to take third place.
Both HRT (Holden Racing Team) cars failed to finish, while Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards came in fourth with Richards blaming tyres for the result.
With attendance figures for the four-day crowd at 187,000 the legendary event has now been put to bed for another year. With four rounds to go the Championship Board reads as follows:
- 1 – Jamie Whincup (2316 points)
- 2 – Mark Winterbottom (2283 points)
- 3- Garth Tander (2234 points)
- 4 – Craig Lowndes (1923 points)
- 5 – Will Davison (1865 points)
Print it: 
GOOD TO SEE THE BLUE OVAL IS THE REIGNS SUPREME AFTER MANY YEARS OF BATTERING FROM THE OTHER SIDE.
AS FOR SKAIFE: YOU DESERVE IT FOR BEING A WHINGER. IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN DELIBERATE, WHY RISK YOUR CAR TO REMOVE SOMEONE FROM THE RACE? HOLDEN DRIVERS JUST COMPLAIN BECAUSE LATELY THEY THEIR EGO HAS BEEN GETTING TRAMPLED ON.
LONG LIVE THE BLUE OVAL
Well done and congrats. to them.
Its hard enough to win one, [ask Seaton] to win three on the trot is amazing.
On to the 4th.
Cheers
F-0
I was big fan of Peter Brock and have become a big fan of Craig so it’s nice to in a sport that can be very cruel and unfair to see a really nice guy like Craig rewarded for his skills and patience!!
Should have got a black flag for hitting Murphy on the first lap.
“Both HRT (Holden Racing Team) cars failed to finish as did Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards with Richards blaming tyres for the result.”
Ahh winterbottom and richards finished 4th, hence winterbottom being second in the championship.
We stand corrected on that one
Tom please explain? Murphy wasn’t punted off, in fact lowndes conceded the position before Griffith’s Bend. Look at the replay again murph squeezed Lowndes onto the grass coming over the crest then craig moved back onto the road and was getting prepared for the next corner when he just touched Murph. Racing incident no-ones fault. Murph is just a big whinger.
I just thought it was great that Tander and Skaife couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole they were in all day.
I couldn’t believe Skaife whinged about getting a 10 second penalty (added to a pitstop) for jumping the start. He is lucky it was only added to a pitstop and didn’t have to be done stand alone.
Congrats to Lowndes and Whincup, they did a great job all day.
It was great watching Frosty cry
Was I seeing things or were the crowd numbers right down this year? Some of the hills looked near empty. Thank gawd that twerp Tander didn’t get on the podium.
Fantastic race. Loved Murphy’s fight towards the end, even if he is a grumpy bastard. There was some great racing all round.
This is a great racing series for drivers and their teams.
I understand that the Holden vs Ford rivalry is used carefully by the owners of the franchise to keep the local folk interested, but it is a great racing series nonetheless.
I have no preference for either Red or Blue, but I still enjoy watching the races.
BJ…Why? Frosty is one of the best, most sporting racers in the V8SC comp. Compared to the likes of R Kelly, Tander, Skaife and Murph; why on earth would you like to see such a decent guy cry?
Watching Frosty cry was not a good thing to see.
Getting enjoyment out of someone crying is still understandable. Watching Gary Ablett Jr cry on Grand Final day after not winning the Brownlow, Premiership or the Norm Smith was so enjoyable.
I just noticed: in the photo, Lowndes and Whincup are giving the camera the ol’ “read between the lines” salute. :)
its funny how in the eyes of ford fans frosty is a god and all the holden drivers are bad sports, when frosty has been the one coming out making all sorts of crazy over the top statements all year, and lowndes is well renound in the paddock for being an asshole on the track.
In saying that 888 deserved their win, craig and jamie drove well, i thought their wasn’t anything in the first lap incident, just one of those things. I’m the first to bag lowndes for when he does a prick move (which is often) but i thought they both did excellent, as did his team, on sunday
Murphy always complains about something and when he’s caught “with his finger in the pie” he says it wasn’t him. Many of us still remember his “win at all cost” when he wiped out Ambrose. There is a fine line between brilliance and stupidity. I wonder where Murphy is swinging too.
further to the frosty thing, he has been making alot of comments about HRT and tander this year, and he was carrying on before winton like he had already won the championship. Thats why i think he was getting so emotional at bathurst, he thought he had the championship all but wrapped up not long ago but everything has seemingly gone wrong for him since he made his comments about HRT and tander.
For those who don’t know, the comment was when asked why Tander wasn’t as strong this year as last (it was just after the sandown round when Tander and HRT had a very bad weekend) and Frosty said “I think HRT and Tander just aren’t as good as we are, bottom line. We are the class of the field this year and thats why we are so far ahead in the championship”
Pretty bold things to be saying before the enduro’s which everyone knows can massively change the chamionship
Tony M – Ambrose wiped himself out, he turned in on murphy, didn’t give him any room. Yes Murphy could have backed out of it, but its not up to him to move over and let ambrose through, its his job to win.
The ironic thing is, murphy wasn’t penalise and ambrose actually was due to a new rule which ambrose created at eastern creek earlier that year when he punted skaife off, he arged racing room, and was successful and the rules where changed to go with the whole “racing room” concept. And then it was ambrose who gave no racing room to murphy, hence why ambrose was penalise and not murph
also i don’t know why people are having a go at skaife for “complaining” about the 10 sec penalty.. in the interview i thought he was very contained, he just said “yeah we got a penalty, thats just the way it is so we have to get on with it”
yeah, really complaining…
I wonder if HSV (Holden) etc will be arguing the parity case now.
Richo, I remember the case with Murphy and Ambrose and yes you are correct about the rule change etc. But Murphy is driving over the edge and that’s when people might (hoping never) get hurt. On a positive note, it also shows the brilliance of his driving when he is on the limit.
Biggest disappointment all weekend? Channel Seven’s in-car audio visual quality. Absolutely terrible. Every time they switched to an in-car camera it lasted 3 seconds before first losing sound and then the visual too!!! Obviously a cost cutting move gone wrong. Shame on you Channel 7. Give it back to Channel Ten I say!
Tony M – i think even Ford fans had to sit back and just admire how Murph drove those last 20 laps, he was just absolutely on the limit, every corner of every lap. Stevie Richard just couldn’t handle it in the end and then even though there was no chance of catching lowndes, he was still going absolutely banana’s in the cockpit trying to do the impossible. You have to admire that. His team where telling him to get out of the draft, your engines gonna over heat, your running out of fuel, but he was just “nup i don’t care about any of that!!” and was just going all out in that cockpit. Have to admire that… even if you don’t like the bloke.
why is Car advice blocking my posts?? theres no swearing in them, no religeous comments… i’m just talking about racing??
Not that Skaife/Tander actually served the 10 sec penalty anyway. It’s supposed to be 10 secs of nothing happening to the car, but clearly it started well before all “hands off” the car happened; windscreen was being wiped, spilt fuel wiped from arround the filler, driver making adjustments etc. Not that it mattered in the end anyway.
It was a great race good one Ford. It was race were every driver is a winner in there own right. Driving at the pace they where doing all day which puts stress on all drivers and cars its great to watch.
Good one Ford…
Richo, It automatically blocks anything with cock in it. You mentioned “cockpit”!
Just approved them for you
Richo,
Nah I don’t like Murphy, he’s a whinging ****.
And what would of the team boss said if the engine overheated and blew and they didn’t finish – would not have made him look good then.
The only reason he stayed on Richards’ case is that from where he was he could see that the falcon’s rear tyres were absolutely shot.
Nothing to do with Richards’ “not being able to handle it”. Murphy just had better tyres, nothing more, nothing less. And if anything I think that Richards’ efforts to keep him out, with a car clearly with no rear grip at all was huge.
Still, credit where it’s due, he has the second place trophy.
Contratulations 888 and the boys from a Holden man. Good race….
Geeez Richo, aka “Jason Richards”, stop sucking up to your team mate Greg Murphy will ya? Geeeez!
Whincup and Lowndes drove brilliantly. JW deserves to be leading the championship – lets not forget his form in NZ when that spud T Kelly destroyed Jamie’s car and got off Scot-free.
ASJJ Says:
October 13th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
“Biggest disappointment all weekend? Channel Seven’s in-car audio visual quality. Absolutely terrible. Every time they switched to an in-car camera it lasted 3 seconds before first losing sound and then the visual too!!! Obviously a cost cutting move gone wrong. Shame on you Channel 7. Give it back to Channel Ten I say!”
Gotta agree with ya there! Not only that, but Channel 7 with their crap intro/before the ad break “suspense” music, and that knobhead Kochie saving the world being plugged over and over. And Matthew White, what a tosser, even he was in there plugging Tossay Tossnight. Please Cochrane give it back to Ten, pleeeeeeease.
Yes seeing Kochie’s ugly melon on the box over and over was enough to give my kids nightmares….If it wasn’t for Neal Crompton I would have gone completely mad!
Problems with Channel 7s broadcast:
– Cross promotion of other 7 shows within the telecast
– Time between ads decreased throughout the telecast
– Stupid ‘We are having an add’ music
– In car camera work was really bad, could never hold a decent a signal to get more than 5 seconds worth of vision
– Track side camera work. How many times did the camera pan back and you got a huge view of the sky?
– Commentators who were obviously concentrating on what was happening out the window in front of them when something major was being shown on screen.
– Whenever someone entered the pits, the director left the camera on them for their extremely slow drive down pit lane instead of keeping with the real action for as long as possible.
– During the safety car, they stopped running the running order across the bottom of the screen. I want to know the true order of things before the safety car is released
There are more but I have work to do…
Cromly is awesome.
I think honerable mentions have to go to the 11 car of jack perkins and nathan pretty, drove a good solid race, made the number 7 car look a bit silly for two race weekends in a row now! The BJR car of max wilson and brad jones, and particuarly max, drove brilliantly. Jason Bargwana also did very very well, and the number 2 HRT car of seton and baird also drove a really good race, shame to see them punted off by the 17 DJR car at the end in what was a pretty dumb move by warren luff.. but then warren is pretty dumb so that makes sense. I thought the euro’s in car 88 also drove pretty darn well aswell.
Further to the number 7 JDR car, Todd is alright but I think Larry Perkins faith in Shane Price is a bit miss-placed and he should be showing a bit more faith in his son Jack, I think Larry was just a bit worried about people thinking his son was being “given” a ride over Shane or whatever, and no one can deny that Shane is better at the single lap stuff then Jack, but Jack is a MUCH better racer then Shane and deserves more of a chance. I think anyway
Good stuff 888,3 in a row.A hat trick at bathurst is as likely as a hat trick in cricket and also shows BA-BF is a better race car than the VE.
Supercujo……..You must be a Collingwood supporter……
Garry Ablett might have cried this year but he has a Premiership medal from last year and the Mighty Cats won alot of games this year ……..just didnt kick straight in the GF…….oh well…….
No I’m not a Collingwood supporter.
I just thought it was funny that all the betting had Geelong and Ablett to sweep everything on offer and they didn’t get any of them. Sure it is good to win in the season, but it is better to win the most important game of the season.
And also, it was funny to see Malthouse cry a few years back.
Richo,
Jack Perkins lost his seat because he got diagnosed with a heavy case of diabetes.
it was Jacks choice to atep down until he got his illness under control.
i have a mate with a serious case of it, and it takes a heck of a lot to manage it.
there was a vacant seat and larry had to fill it with a full time driver. Todd was a good option to try and bring a bit of experience to the driving side of the team.
i tend to disagree that Jack is the better racer than Shane though. when they but ran a car each in the development series, they were both dominant, but shane was clearly the quicker racer.
the main notable/surprise performances were the BJR commodore of Wilson/Jones and the PCR/Glenfords falcon of Coulthard/Davison.
Coulthard had a strong showing in the previous raound aswell.
Also Richo,
you gotta stop putting your hatrid for Lowndes into others mouths.
if every one else thinks Lowndes is an *sshole, why the hell does he keep taking the best and fairest/ most liked gong which includes votes from fellow drivers???
You hate Lowndes, so what, you are a minority, Get over it
And on Ambrose……
who the hell passes up the inside at the cutting??
one thing that annoyed me was the laziness of Paul Morris.
openly saying on TV that Russel was going to do all the practice, qualifying etc, and he would just be there to take the honours.
if russel had have had a decent team mate, he may have been an even hotter chance.
and NO, Skaife doesnt Whinge…. (sarcasm)
i guess you werent following the whole Parity issue being pushed by skaife with threats of law suits??
the review that they did to shut him up found that there was no disparity.
he certainly didnt care about Parity when there was a problem in the late 90’s early 00’s in his favour.
ford deserve a few wins on the trott.
ford did it hard at the mountain for a few years
Can’t wait to put the family to shame. (Their holden fans, I love my ford).
Although, I suspect it has a lot to do with other conditions as well such as who is behind the wheel.
Andrew M,
Funny how richo only saw teams driving commodores. According to him no team blue cars were even worthy of a mention.
“Moment” of the day goes to Tander muffing the start – what a scream! Second funniest moment was all the excuses!
Bret,
funny that…….
i also find it funny how murphy was given a massive mention for ripping in once he got passed Richards and a possibility of chewing into lowndes (i know he got that from the commentators mouths who carried on to make it sound close), but the gap between lowndes and murph was bigger at the finish than it was once murph got passed richo.
the late charge mention should have gone to James courtney if you ask me.
its a pity for them that their car “went off” during the middle part of the race.
oh and i forgot to address the #17 car Versus the #2 HRT car.
the #17 car was right down the inside and pushed up onto the kerb. it then copped a whack from the Bargs commodore which in turn bumped it into Baird in the #2 HRT.
no ones fault really because bargs probably only hit the #17 car because it would have no doubt slowed a bit once it was half off the track.
any word yet on whether charges were laid over the TKR/PWR accident??
there was talk of a possibility.
There were many great moments of the day but probably the best was Skaife getting his big nose stuck in his visor and crashing at Forest Elbow. That and the look on Tanders face, priceless! Especially when you look at the replay and Tander the dog did jump the start.
Not a single HSV car finishing the race, superb!!
One HSV dealer team Commodore destroyed in practice, brilliant, the other finishes 40 laps down, sensational!!
Murphy the balding imbecile complaining endlessly as usual, god will someone please revoke his passport and do Australian motorsport a favour.
We will never forget the disgraceful day in Australian motorsport history when the HSV and HRT cars and drivers, with the support of their teams and Holden, all combined to earn 7 bad sportsmanship flags in preventing Lowndes from winning the championship that year.
So the greatest moment of all was Lowndes, Whincup, and Ford crushing the hopes and dreams of Holden for a third year in succession. Well done!!
Oh and how could I forget Murphy being boo’ed endlessly as he took his place on the podium, and then to have his speech drowned out by the crowd calling and cheering for L-O-W-N-D-S-E-Y!!
IT WAS OH SO M-A-G-N-I-F-I-C-E-N-T!!!
Was a great race, and was good to see the Whincup/Lowndes combo win again, no doubt they are a supreme combination for enduro’s. I am a ford fan so obviously was happy to see the fords win, but I have to say, contrary to others here, that I actually think Skaife handled himself well when interviewed regarding the jump-start….certainly more composed than Tander who carried on a bit. Murphy is just a whinging pr!k, and he’s just becoming a broken record. And to those who justify his deliberate taking out of Ambrose a few years back, it wasn’t the first time Murphy was involved in nearly killing another driver…does anyone remember when he pole-axed Bargwana at Phillip Island, and again justified himself saying he’d do it again? Not only is he a sore loser, he has a tendency to be quite reckless.
What a shame Ambrose didn’t shove Murphy over the concrete wall and off the mountain after that crash and cement a place in racing folklore. I would have.
Only one thing matters
First
On
Race
Day
!!!
Andrew M – mate did you miss my comments regarding the 888 and lowndes thoroughly deserved their win? Did you miss my comment that i thought the lowndes contact with murphy was a racing incident and nothing more? No thats right, you just lay into me without considering my complete comments, stuff you.
Lowndes didn’t win the auto action best and fairest this year, Tander did, lowndes actually slipped quite a long way from the top spot which he won last year. So what do you have to say about that?
I also remember in auto action after the rick kelly v craig lowndes championship decider they guaged the opinions of other drivers over the incident, most said that the move rick made on craig was the same as craig makes on most other people on a regular basis.
I’m not going to defend my opinion on craig to you, i think he is an exceptional talent, BUT just like lewis hamilton in F1 i think he pushes his luck sometimes, hence why jamie is smashing him in the championship. Jamie is the number one in the team now, and he thoroughly deserves to be because he is a great bloke and a hell of a driver to boot. I’m actually a big whincup fan, how is that possible considering i am so one eyed as you are suggesting? Well maybe its because i’m not as one eyed as you are suggesting.
Luff’s move on baird at the end was crap, opportunistic and it didn’t work, and he got penalised, so it seems other people saw it my way.
The PCR team i missed on my honerable mention by mistake, i simply overlooked them, fantastic effort by them and they are looking at running a 2 car team next year so good luck to them Paul runs a first class team and they have come a heck of a long way.
Chris Pither was charged with dangerous driving and given a reasonably large fine, but i forget exactly what it was.
Yes i know Jack stepped aside on his own decision relating to his condition, but he is ready and able now. I said Shane was a bit quicker then him, but i think JAck has improved alot and at bathurst he was clearly the second quickest JDR driver behind Todd. Go check out the V8 supercar website and look at all the practice times, they will back this up. Who is better between jack and shane is relitively subjective so don’t have a go at me for my opinion, but the last two rounds where JAck has been given a go i think supports my argument more then yours.
Andrew M, you can think want you want, i don’t really care.
sorry in this years auto action awards tander won best driver, rick kelly won fairest. Craig Lowndes didn’t rate in either, he won fairest last year. Big change over 12 months, what happened in Adelaide this year must have change more then just my opinion about craig eh?
with reference to Adelaide, the crash in race two was 100% courtney’s fault and lowndes was completely innocent and I actually felt a bit sorry for him in that, particularly when courtney tried to finger him up for it.
In the above post i was referring to race one where lowndes pushed a number of guys out of the way to make up positions, not even close to clean moves. That was the race when i realised that lowndes isn’t the squeaky clean bloke he makes himself out to be.
Surely even you Andrew could concede that if someone wins fairest one year, and then doesn’t even rate a mention for fairest the following year, something must have happened to change pitlane opinion about him…