V8 Supercars-Richards Leads Home FPR 1-2

DARWIN—Unless Ford wins Bathurst or the championship, the besieged carmaker will not have a sweeter V8 Supercar victory this year than Steven Richards' round six triumph at Darwin this weekend.

Battered mercilessly in recent days over its decision to rip the funding rug from under several teams, Ford was able to finally smile as one of the two horses it has financially backed for 2009 bolted in at Hidden Valley.

Richards led home Mark Winterbottom in a Ford Performance Racing one-two for the weekend.

Winterbottom also extended his championship lead over Holden's Garth Tander to 58 points, while one of his rivals Craig Lowndes, whose Team Vodafone was a Ford funding casualty, fell by the wayside.

The Ford star's hopes of a fourth V8 title evaporated in a last lap puff of smoke as his engine blew in race three while he was sitting fourth.

He failed to finish, costing him valuable championship points as he slipped to sixth overall and faces a monumental task to haul in Winterbottom and company.

Championship third-placed Jamie Whincup also lost ground today, dropping 50 points on Winterbottom and Tander as a race three tangle with the Holden driver took its toll.

It was a weekend of FPR dominance which could not have been timed better, though Richards also survived several tests of nerve to win his first V8 round in two years.

Richards had to bounce back from anger and disappointment after a luckless race two, with a bizarre incident involving a stray Holden flag helping Tander beat him.

With Richards leading and on his way to victory with seven laps remaining, the race was controversially stopped when a Holden flag somehow found its way on to pit straight.

Richards' lead evaporated as a restart was called, Tander got the better of it and went on to beat the luckless Richards.

But the two FPR drivers got the jump on their Holden Racing Team rival at the start of race three.

Then Richards had his nerves tested late, when he saw another lead evaporate as a safety car was called when Tony D'Alberto and Andrew Thompson tangled.

But this time Richards made no mistake at the restart, clearing out to beat Winterbottom and Tander - the same order as the round finished.

The Darwin event is the first of three V8 rounds in the space of six weeks, with Queensland Raceway and Winton to now follow at fortnightly intervals.

But Richards said his team emerging unscathed and on top was critical with the short turnaround times for teams to prepare cars.

"I'm sure from here we're going to get consistently better," Richards said.

"It's a great result for our team under the circumstances. The next three rounds are absolutely critical for what's going to pan out in the championship after that.

"What it does particularly is puts teams under an immense amount of pressure to turn the cars around especially if you've had incidents and accidents.

"It's a really important phase of the championship."

For FPR, which has gone from serial underachiever to pack leader in the past three years, today's one-two finish has sparked genuine belief the team can rocket skyward as Winterbottom pursues a maiden title.

"We've never ever stood on the podium first and second, it means both cars have done a great job, everyone at the workshop's done a great job," Winterbottom said.

"We're all celebrating and this will move us forward as a team as well."

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Results of Round Six

V8 Supercar championship at Hidden Valley Raceway (circuit: 2.9km):