The General had taken victory in each of the opening eight races of the championship, and had already taken pole and filled the top three of every race at Barbagallo.

Holden's flagship teams, combined with the new VE Commodore, seemed unstoppable.

However, Ford was given breathing space at Winton, when Jamie Whincup delivered the Blue Oval its first race win of the season, in addition to a round victory.

Despite this, the ledger was clearly uneven, and Ford's usual contenders were unable to match the pace of the Toll HSV Dealer Team and Holden Racing Team Commodores.

Triple V8 champions Stone Brothers Racing had only taken one pole position and round podium through James Courtney's efforts at the Clipsal 500, whilst Ford Performance Racing was apparently suffering its routine bout of early-season inconsistency.

Only Triple Eight Race Engineering's Team Vodafone flew the blue banner with pride, but it was a young and ambitious Jamie Whincup taking results – not the champion veteran Craig Lowndes.

The Holden Racing Team dominated at Eastern Creek – an important round for Mark Skaife, where he claimed a record thirty-eighth round win, eclipsing the previous milestone of the late Peter Brock.

Skaife's achievement overshadowed what was another dominant round for his beloved Holden, where he, team mate Todd Kelly, and reigning champion Rick Kelly, filled the second all-red podium of the championship.

Remarkably, it was the first time that Craig Lowndes had finished inside the top three of a V8 Supercar race in 2007, as the three-time title winner clearly struggled for pace in the older Vodafone Falcon.

But just as some pundits began to write off the Ford hero's title chances, the Victorian ace returned to form – netting a podium and two race wins to take outright victory for the Skycity Triple Crown at Hidden Valley – Ford now had two championship hopefuls.

With the momentum of two round wins for Team Vodafone lifting morale in the Ford camp, the Blue Oval headed to Queensland Raceway full of expectation, given that two thirds of its teams use the track as a testing venue.