A punctured tyre has dealt Ford's Mark Winterbottom a big blow to his V8 Supercar championship hopes after the opening race of round eight at Winton Raceway today.
Ford's Jamie Whincup and Holden's Garth Tander have made huge inroads into Winterbottom's championship lead after Whincup won today's 40-lap race and Tander finished third.
Winterbottom's advantage at the top of the title chase has been cut to 64 points over Tander, with Whincup a further 72 points behind the Holden driver.
After starting on pole position and getting off to a flying start, Winterbottom's nightmare started late in lap two.
A stray piece of metal punctured his left rear tyre, and he spent three laps having to steer his car around the 3km circuit on three wheels before the pit stop window opened and he was able to change it.
Winterbottom fell to last in the 29-car field as he struggled to keep his Falcon on the road.
He even suffered the embarrassment of being lapped as left the pits before recovering slightly to finish 21st.
But it means the Ford Performance Racing driver keeps that lowly grid position for race two tomorrow, while Whincup and Tander have two races to gain further ground on him.
Team Vodafone's Whincup started from second on the grid, and took over the lead from Ford driver Will Davison on lap 11.
He then maintained his advantage to the finish, beating Davison and Tander.
Whincup and Davison will share the front row of the grid for race two - the first of two 40-lap races scheduled for tomorrow.
