Holden star Jamie Whincup snares V8 Supercars double in Townsville

JAMIE Whincup, fired up for being branded "soft" in Darwin, hit back by smashing Ford's stranglehold on the V8 season.

Jamie Whincup

JAMIE Whincup, fired up for being branded "soft" in Darwin, yesterday proved his knockers wrong by smashing Ford's stranglehold on the V8 season as he came from the clouds to snatch a remarkable win in Townsville.

Holden's Whincup confirmed Team Vodafone were well and truly back, with the three-time champion stunning the field by winning from ninth place.

In what will go down as one of his best drives, Whincup's performance was even more impressive given his team have been unable to match it with Ford Performance Racing's trio of cars for much of the year.

Whincup was flawless as hunted his way through the field to score back-to-back wins at Townsville and extend his championship lead to 100 points.

To make things worse for Ford, who locked out the first three places on the grid before the Townsville 400 roared to life, the only man that was left to challenge Whincup was his Team Vodafone teammate Craig Lowndes.

Whincup said he was fired up after being called soft after his failure to win in Darwin last round and was determined to be "hard" as he was relentlessly pursued by Lowndes in an epic finish to the 200km race.

"They called me a bit soft after Darwin," Whincup said after his 57th career win. "So I thought I would go out a bit fired up and prove them wrong.

"That was a cracker race and I don't think I have ever raced Craig that hard.

"We had great cars in Darwin and I was a little soft there so I thought I had to give it a good crack and race hard.

"We had a cracking battle with two good cars where our tyres were wearing out and the track was breaking up. We were hanging it off the walls."

After securing his first pole, FPR's David Reynolds held his nerve on the start line with the young gun beating teammate Winterbottom to the first turn.

The brutal Townsville street circuit again found its share of drivers with Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso the first to find trouble following a dust-up with Russell Ingall.

Fabian Coulthard's team were forced to douse a flaming wheel after the Kiwi and Rick Kelly collided on lap 22.

After starting in 10th place, Whincup charged and stole the lead with Lowndes behind after the final pit-stop.

FPR were left scratching their heads with the lightening Team Vodafone stops paving the way for a shock result.

Whincup extended his lead over Mark Winterbottom by 100 points, with the FPR driving hanging on for fifth after a front-row start. Will Davison claimed third.

Whincup's remarkable drive was the only thing that kept Lowndes from victory in his 200th race round.