Another big weekend on the streets of Townsville, with some championship contenders doing it rough, whilst Mark Winterbottom extends his lead. Here are my Townsville 400 talking points:
The Event
Whilst the rest of the east coast suffered through one of the coldest cold snaps in fifteen years, Townsville turned on the weather – and the massive crowds. This is fast becoming one of those bucket list V8 Supercar events.
The rock and race format is the perfect way to get people in through the gates. Hilltop Hoods, Birds of Tokyo and The Living End played over the weekend, but not until the last of the on-track had concluded. There was so much going on around the track, pretty much from sunrise to sunset, including the new Formula 4 category and the beautiful cars of the Australian GT Championship. Townsville get it right. Fantastic weekend! No wonder the crowds flooded into the Reid Park circuit.
Mark Winterbottom
Maybe Frosty doesn’t want to talk up his championship possibilities after six completed rounds of the 2015 season, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t. Realistically, he’s in the box seat after two emphatic victories in Townsville. Particularly during Sunday’s race, we saw some of his closest contenders – Craig Lowndes and Fabian Coulthard – stumble, and come home deeper in the pack than they would have liked.
Winterbottom holds a 258 point lead over Craig Lowndes. That’s by no means an insurmountable gap, but the way the Prodrive Racing Australia group are executing at the moment, it’s going to take a massive meltdown from PRA to shift the needle. The way they’re performing at the moment, I honestly can’t see it happening. Driver and crew are clicking like never before.
As a long-suffering Ford fan, it’s good to see. I know Holden fans won’t agree, but it’s nice seeing someone other than Jamie Whincup sitting atop the standings. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing Lowndes or Coulthard up there, either. The more variety we have in terms of individual race wins and series championships, the healthier the sport is. Look at NASCAR, where the Sprint Cup Series has suffered a downtick in ratings and track attendance at the same time as Jimmie Johnson has won six series championships in the last nine seasons.
New Regulations
If I had a dollar for every comment I’ve read on social media along the lines of ‘The V8s have sold out – they should keep it Ford and Holden V8-engined cars only!’ I’d be fabulously rich by now. The fact of the matter is that if both traditional manufacturers were going to continue making V8-enginwed machines, let alone remain financially involved in the sport, then I doubt we’d be seeing these new changes.
Sadly for motorsports traditionalists, Ford is leaving at the end of the season – and, let’s be honest, are barely token supporters in 2015, anyway – and Holden will not be making a V8-engined car in Australian anymore. The series is moving with the times, understanding that the only way to continue to ensure survival is to update regulations and attract new makes to the series. As long as the cars retain their trademark sound - not to mention big car counts - I'll be happy!
Scott McLaughlin
Honestly, is there anything else that can go wrong for the young Kiwi and his Gary Rogers Motorsport squad? Things were looking good when the fan favourite blazed his way to pole for Sunday’s race, but it proved to be a false dawn for anyone believing that the problems the Volvo team have endured all season long.
McLaughlin was forced to retire nineteen laps in after evacuating a power steering belt from his car, necessitating the weekend’s only safety car intervention. Sometime soon, this team and driver combination is going to get some luck on their side, I’m sure of it!
David Reynolds
A win in the long Sunday race last time out in Darwin, and Reynolds, for a time the forgotten man at Prodrive Racing Australia, seems to have broken the shackles. He scored a second and third in Townsville, and might have bettered those results had he not suffered from deteriorating tyre wear at the end of both races. Still, good form for a guy who remains out of contract and is looking for a new deal from PRA for 2016 and onward. These podiums, and a few more wins, won’t hurt.
Cameron Waters
Many believe that Waters will be the guy replacing Reynolds in the Bottle-O Falcon at Prodrive if the principals there decide to go in a different direction. Waters had another dominating weekend at the Townsville round of the Dunlop Series, winning Saturday’s race after starting from pole, and recording a second place on Sunday. His championship lead over Paul Dumbrell, who won Sunday’s race, sits at 145 points halfway through the eight-race season.
Nick Foster
A dominating weekend in the Carerra Cup for Foster, who claimed all three race wins, keeping veterans Steven Richards and Craig Baird in his rear-view mirror. So much great racing in this category!
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