Saturday Sleuthing: The First Townsville Winner
As we count down to next weekend's Castrol Townsville 500 - Driven by TAFE Queensland, Saturday Sleuthing today traces the story of the car that won the first ever V8 Supercar race in Townsville five years ago.
The inaugural event on the Reid Park street circuit back in 2009 was known as the Dunlop Townsville 400 and the debut race on the Saturday was won by Jamie Whincup in a TeamVodafone FG Falcon - chassis 888A-019.
Whincup won the race from way back in ninth on the grid - he had set the second fastest time in qualifying but fell down in the Top 10 Shootout after a big rear end slide into the final hairpin spoiled his lap.
The front row starters that day were Lee Holdsworth, who also took his maiden career pole driving a Holden for Garry Rogers Motorsport, and James Courtney in another Triple Eight-built FG from the Dick Johnson Racing stable.
Both Holdsworth and Courtney were sidelined with engine dramas during the first half of the race, while Whincup charged up the order in the early stages and assumed the lead after the second round of pit stops.
Following a Safety Car period five laps from home, Whincup led the Holden Racing Team pairing of Will Davison and Garth Tander across the line to become the historic first winner in Townsville, but did so in controversial circumstances.
The #1 Falcon driver had made a passing move on Tim Slade at the final hairpin but tagged Jack Perkins - who was driving for Kelly Racing in its debut season and was in front of Slade on the road - which sent Perkins into a spin.
It was widely thought that Whincup would be penalised for the collision, but much to everyone's surprise - including his own! - Stewards took no further action against Whincup, so he was actually quite a fortunate winner of the first ever Townsville V8 Supercar race!
The next day Whincup qualified fourth and finished second behind Courtney, who took his first race win for DJR.
Saturday's Townsville race was one of 11 races in 2009 that Whincup won in our featured car, which carries significance for a number of reasons.
Debuted at that year's Clipsal 500, 888A-019 was the car Whincup drove to win the 2009 Championship - the second of five Championship crowns he now has under his belt.
It was rested only for the endurance races at Phillip Island and Bathurst (when a spare car was used for visiting internationals Allan Simonsen and James Thompson).
Whincup dominated the first four races of the season and recorded the debut win for the FG Falcon, which has since gone on to become the most successful Ford model in the history of the Championship.
Whincup clinched the title with this car in the season finale at Sydney Olympic Park, where it ran a silver and pink livery in support of the McGrath Foundation.
It was also the last of the Falcons campaigned by Triple Eight Race Engineering, who joined Holden in 2010 after Ford infamously pulled its support of the team at the end of 2008.
Triple Eight distanced itself from Ford as far as it could in 2009, making no reference to its cars as Falcons and even replacing the Blue Oval badge on their cars' grilles with the 'Hogster' logo of sponsor, Hog's Breath Caf!
This car was then sold to Dick Johnson Racing in 2010, and although it actually appeared at the official V8 Supercars season launch in Sydney wearing Jim Beam colours, it was never raced that year.
It was brought into service in 2011 as Steven Johnson's Jim Beam Falcon, first appearing at the pre-season test at Eastern Creek with a cheekily styled #17 on its doors.
The '1' in 17 was written in black and in a much larger style to a tiny '7' which was white with a thin black outline. This made the DJR cars of Johnson and teammate James Moffat appear as though they were #1 rather than #17 or #18, a reference to their 2010 Championship success with James Courtney, who took the 'real' #1 with him to the Holden Racing Team.
The team was forced to change the number style soon after.
Johnson raced the car in Abu Dhabi, Adelaide and at the non-championship event at the Australian Grand Prix, which to this day was its last race.
Johnson was involved in a bruising multi-car pile-up in Sunday's final race at Albert Park, set off by contact between Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes, which blocked part of the track on the opening lap.
The chassis was repaired and sold mid-season as a shell to then-Dunlop Series team Miles Racing, who had intentions to enter the endurance races in 2011 as a wildcard entry.
This never materialised and the car remains unraced since the Grand Prix event.
It has been retained by Wayne Miles in Queensland since Miles Racing discontinued its V8 Supercar racing program and presently sits inactive with some panels attached in the team's familiar fluro yellow and white colours.
There are no specific plans for the chassis in the short term, though there's no doubt that a restoration one day to Jamie Whincup's 2009 V8 Supercar Championship-winning #1 TeamVodafone Falcon would be a savvy move by a collector.
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