Courtney leads V8 after Whincup crashes

Ford driver James Courtney has taken the V8 Supercar championship lead after winning
Sunday's race at Winton while defending champion Jamie Whincup crashed out.
Courtney beat home Holden's Craig Lowndes to open up a 114-point series lead over
Whincup.
But there was despair for Holden star Whincup, who was punted off the track in an
incident with Ford driver Jonathon Webb - Courtney's Jim Beam Racing team-mate - on
lap 45.
His car was bogged in a sand trap and left with broken steering, though his team
managed to fix the problem and he completed the race in 24th position to pick up a
handful of points.
Courtney, who also won Saturday's opening race at Winton, drove brilliantly on
Sunday and had a great tussle with Lowndes during the second half of the race.
The two cars came together on lap 53, with Lowndes being nudged off the course but
recovering to come out ahead of Courtney.
Eventually Courtney passed Lowndes in a far neater move four laps later and went on
to win comfortably, with Holden driver Lee Holdsworth third.
The time-defined race was also shortened by several safety car periods to 64 of the
scheduled 67 laps.
Courtney's fruitful weekend allowed him to snatch the overall title lead from early
frontrunner Whincup, while third-placed Lowndes has closed the gap on his Team
Vodafone team-mate to 105 points.
Earlier Rick Kelly had clocked the fastest lap ever around the northeast Victorian
track during Sunday morning qualifying.
His one minute, 21.849 second lap lowered the mark set by Courtney during Saturday
qualifying and gave him pole position for Sunday's race.
The next races in the championship are scheduled for June 18 to 20 in Darwin.