Townsville Supercars: Whincup cruises to Race 2 win

For the second day running Whincup was untroubled across the 39 laps, converting pole to a win without conceding the effective lead at any point.

He was particularly strong across the first stint, Whincup able to gap second placed Chaz Mostert by more than six seconds before stopping on Lap 22.

Mostert did manage to halve Whincup's advantage around the stops, but the seven-time champion was able to comfortably manage that gap in the second stint.

The final margin between the two was right on three seconds.

"The car was fantastic," said Whincup. "I got good start and had a good battle with Chaz into Turn 2. 

"From there the car was excellent. We don't normally go long, we normally go pretty short. It was great to go long and have some good tyres for the end there."

The top two were in a league of their own, Shane van Gisbergen finishing a hefty 16 seconds behind his Red Bull Holden teammate in third. 

That was thanks to a rapid second stint, the Kiwi charging past the likes of Scott McLaughlin, Cam Waters and James Courtney to seal the final spot on the podium.

Waters and Percat finished fourth and fifth, while McLaughlin completed a decent recovery from 13th on the grid to finish sixth. That was largely thanks to impressive tyre life, McLaughlin stopping early but still able to mix it with the likes of Percat at the end.

Whincup's win did still put a dent in McLaughlin's series lead, though, the gap now 109 points.

Courtney ran third for much of the race, but a rear locking issue in the last 10 laps proved costly as he slipped all the way back to seventh.

Anton De Pasquale was best of the Erebus Holden in eighth, two spots ahead of teammate David Reynolds, while Scott Pye made up 10 positions to finish ninth by running long and then having the good rubber for the last 12 laps.

Townsville Supercars - Race 2 results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB
2	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	3.014
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	16.131
4	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	20.439
5	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	23.789
6	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	24.365
7	44	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	28.637
8	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	29.104
9	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	29.839
10	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	30.222
11	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	31.298
12	55	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	31.833
13	14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	33.564
14	7	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	34.381
15	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	39.634
16	35	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	41.489
17	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	43.741
18	3	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	43.944
19	2	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	45.719
20	15	Rick Kelly	Ford Mustang GT	47.010
21	34	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	52.108
22	19	Alex Davison	Holden Commodore ZB	52.491
23	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	54.433
24	22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	55.237
View full results