2008 Winton Round of The V8 Supercar Championship - Race 3

Race 3

Race 3 was held on Sunday August 3. Mark Winterbottom got the jump off the start for Race 3, and led Will Davison and Garth Tander into turn one. However Tander jumped into second place by passing Davison at turn 3 on the opening lap. At the same time as this was happening, race leader Winterbottom locked a front tyre and ran off the circuit onto the grass. Upon re-entering the track he made contact with Todd Kelly, and spun off at turn four, this time into the sand trap. This brought the safety car out on lap one to clear the stuck Ford Performance Racing car of Winterbottom, with Tander becoming the new race leader and Davison in second. It turned out to be a disastrous race for the Ford Performance Racing team, with Steven Richards also involved in an accident, resulting in a bent steering arm and subsequent retirement from the race.

The order changed at the front of the field after the compulsory pitstops were complete. With Garth Tander choosing to stay out longer before taking his pitstop, Will Davison and Jamie Whincup pitted, with Whincup performing his stop one lap beforehand. When leaving the pitlane, Davison surrendered second position to Whincup, who was already on warmer tyres. James Courtney was one of the last of the front-runners to take his pitstop, however a drama with the left rear tyre not been put on properly during the stop resulted in the wheel falling off the car only a few metres from leaving his pitbox. This ruined Courtney's race three hopes, with the team having to use a manual jack to lift the car off the ground to get it back to the pit box.

After his penalty earlier in the day, Lee Holdsworth recovered well, coming out in third position after pitting. Tander continued to lead the rest of the race, taking his fifth race victory for the season. The race win also bumped Tander back up into the lead position in the championship.