Bathurst: Davison the new 'King of the Mountain'

Disaster again struck for Jamie Whincup as Holden's Will Davison claimed his second Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama on Sunday.

Four-time champion Whincup crossed the line first but he had already been hit with a 15 second post-race penalty for a controversial incident with 11 laps left, relegating him to 11th on the timesheets.

It set up a final dog fight for the Great Race between 2009 winner Davison and Kiwi van Gisbergen.

And it didn't disappoint.

Trying to conserve fuel, Davison somehow held out a fast finishing van Gisbergen by 0.14 of a second - the closest competitive finish in the race's 56 year history.

Holden's Nick Percat was third.

"It ran out of fuel as I crossed the finish line," Davison said.

"I can't believe the way it panned out."

Neither could Whincup.

He copped the time penalty after trying to snatch second spot from Volvo's Scott McLaughlin on lap 150.

He tried to overtake on the inside of McLaughlin at The Chase, forcing the Volvo driver off the track.

McLaughlin weaved back onto the track, spectacularly crashing with Holden's Garth Tander prompting yet another safety car.

"Whincup started all that," said Tander, whose Holden was written off by the incident.

"Jamie was being pretty desperate, it's not on."

Six-time Bathurst winner Whincup was apologetic.

"I don't know what to say. I feel sorry about that," he said.

"I will apologise but I felt the move was on."

Whincup was looking for a reversal of fortunes after his last two disastrous Bathurst campaigns.

Last year he sensationally ignored team orders to pit before passing a safety car, relegating him from second to 18th.

And in 2014 the Holden gun also defied a team directive and ran out of fuel on the 161st and final lap while leading.

As usual, there were no shortage of hard luck stories.

In the end, eight of the 27 cars failed to finish, prompting six safety cars.

The biggest name scalp was Ford's Mark Winterbottom whose Supercars title defence appears in tatters after his brakes failed on lap 135.

There was also no luck for sentimental favourite and defending champion Craig Lowndes.

The Holden veteran had hoped to claim a seventh Bathurst to honour Peter Brock on the 10th anniversary of his mentor's death.

He finished fourth last after his campaign was sabotaged by early gear issues.

Female driver Simona de Silvestre - who will compete in the Supercars full-time next year - finished 14th.

Brock's anniversary attracted a four day attendance of 204,512 - the second biggest Bathurst 1000 crowd.

Bathurst champions of the last decade honoured Brock in a pre-race parade driving some of the late great's most famous race cars.

The crowd also gave a standing ovation on lap five, honouring Brock's famous 05 racing number.