After an exciting time stuck behind his old friend Mark Skaife, Stones Brothers Racing's Russell Ingall took second in the V8 Supercar Series overall standing.

Ingall came into the Eastern Creek round Holden drivers Jason Bright and Greg Murphy ahead of him on the points table but whilst the Holden drivers suffered various dramas, Ingall's weekend went well, although that wasn't what the Queenland based driver was thinking when he found himself staring at the back of Mark Skaife's HRT Commodore just four laps into the final race of 2004.

Ingall's team-mate, Marcos Ambrose, had already sealed the title for SBR on Saturday night, and now the focus was defintely on who would come second in the standings.

Ingall hounded Skaife for the entire remainder of the 39-lap race but held back from an incident, even though he Falcon was rarely more than two inches behind Skaife's car.

"I'm quite happy to finish second in the championship to be perfectly honest," Ingall said after the race.

"You never know in this game. It throws heaps of curve balls at you and it did yet again today but clearly Marcos is streets ahead of everyone else at the moment."

So what of finding himself behind that man Skaife, with whom Ingall famously clashed at the Eastern Creek venue last season.

"I kept thinking 'should I do it' but those ugly flashes from what happened here last year just kept coming back at me," said Ingall with a large grin in the post-race press conference.

"Then all of a sudden I thought it was time to engage the brain again. To his credit Mark drove very well given he was obviously in some kind of trouble with his car."

Joining Ambrose and Ingall on the podium was Paul Radisich in his last drive for the Betta Electrical team when he finished second for the event. He heaped praise on Ambrose.

"There's just no way that anyone can run with Marcos at the moment as he is really on top of his game," Radisich said. "It is a pleasure to run behind him because it is just so pretty to watch."