TeamVodafone has recorded the perfect race weekend at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway claiming two pole positions and two race wins at a track that has traditionally proved to be unsuccessful.

Today saw a complete reversal on yesterday’s results with Jamie Whincup claiming pole position for Race 24 of the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series and teammate Craig Lowndes taking the race victory.

Storming from the last pit stop where he put on his slightly used soft tyres, Lowndes capitalised on the bunched field to elevate him from seventh to first and was never headed for the remainder of the race.

Although the soft tyres were nursed home over the closing laps, his 15 second buffer ensured he was never under threat from Steven Johnson in second place, who was also driving a Triple Eight Race Engineering manufactured car.

“Not bad for an old bloke,” Lowndes acknowledged wryly.

“Going into this event my primary role was to be rear gunner for Jamie and now I am standing on the podium.

“It was an awesome weekend for TeamVodafone. Two pole positions and two race wins - what more could we ask for,” he said.

Team strategy and an opportunistic safety car helped Jamie Whincup record a credible fourth place without lengthy use of the soft tyres.

With his championship rival failing to finish the race Whincup now holds a commanding 281 point lead going into the last event of the year in a fortnights time and only has to finish one race in 28th place to seal his second consecutive title.

“While I only need to finish better than 28th in one race in Sydney there is the Team’s Championship which is also undecided and Craig and I are desperate to achieve the double header,” Whincup said.

“It was no secret I was racing Car 22 today but once he was out, I pushed on as hard as I could.

“With the tyres I had to work with fourth place certainly exceeded my expectations today,” he added.

The Sydney 500 will host the Grand Finale of the V8 Supercar Championships from December 4-6 at Sydney Olympic Park and is expecting more than 150,000 people to attend the three day event.

V8 Supercar Top Ten Race 24 Results

1. Craig Lowndes, 150pts
2. Steven Johnson, 138pts
3. Garth Tander, 129pts
4. Jamie Whincup, 120pts
5. Russell Ingall, 111pts
6. Jason Bright, 102pts
7. Jason Bargwanna, 96pts
8. Steven Richards, 90pts
9. Cameron McConville, 84pts
10.James Courtney, 78pts

V8 Supercar Top Ten Championship standings

1. Jamie Whincup, 3175pts
2. Will Davison, 2894pts
3. Garth Tander, 2766pts
4. Craig Lowndes, 2544pts
5. Steven Johnson, 2177pts
6. Mark Winterbottom, 2147pts
7. Rick Kelly, 2078pts
8. James Courtney, 1988pts
9. Lee Holdsworth, 1886pts
10. Russell Ingall, 1871pts