Frosty fires back

Frosty wins race 19.

Mark Winterbottom started 10th, with his Championship rival Craig Lowndes on ARMOR ALL Pole Position. Frosty fired, a soft tyre strategy seeing him race at the front.

There was uncertainty of whether he could hold on late in the race, with speedy Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen powering on, past Jamie Whincup in third to latch on to the back of the Pepsi Max Falcon.

The mixed tyres made it an intense strategic battle over 69 laps, with many of the field starting on Dunlop soft tyres, though the Red Bulls filling the first two grid spots did not.

An early safety car for Robert Dahlgren, whose Volvo suffered from a sticking throttle, played into their hands and raised question marks of whether those who started on softs had lost their advantage.

But by just 0.534sec, Ford’s Winterbottom brought it home, showed us why he’s the Championship leader, and cemented another 200km race win for FPR after teammate Chaz Mostert won the Sunday race in Perth, and Frosty the two prior in New Zealand and Winton.