Craig Lowndes has salvaged a result from a potentially ruinous day of V8 Supercars racing in Townsville.

Lowndes crashed out of race one, ending an 81-race finishing streak and losing ground to championship leader Mark Winterbottom.

After being buttered up in a manic first lap, Lowndes flew into a tyre bank on lap 12, ending his race.

He was unhurt in the crash, saying it “looked probably worse that what it felt like”.

His Holden appeared unsalvageable for race two but excellent work from his Red Bull Racing team had him back on track for a sixth place finish.

While Lowndes’ off-road dramas preoccupied most on the Townsville street circuit, his teammate Jamie Whincup impressively took honours in race one.

The reigning champ started the race in tenth position but steered clear of lap one mayhem to win ahead of Garth Tander and Will Davison.

Saturday’s second race was won by the impressive Tander ahead of teammate James Courtney and Fabian Coulthard.

The race two result was a fitting reward for effort from the Holden Racing Team pair, who qualified fastest for the first race but weren’t able to convert.

At least six drivers will be unsure of their race points as stewards consider the incidents from a hectic day.

Lowndes, Tander, Courtney and Jason Bright were all involved in the opening lap fight, with Chaz Mostert and Lowndes both turned around.

The final results position Whincup as Winterbottom’s nearest championship challenger.

Winterbottom stemmed the losses by improving his terrible qualifying results to finish 11th and eighth.