During the safety-car period, the Falcon of Andrew Jones appeared to have a driveline issue, with the OzeMail engineers pushing the car the length of pit lane, finding that the tail shaft had to be replaced.
At the race restart, Besnard spun
again at turn one, needing to be towed from the mud while the safety-car made its third appearance after only a dozen laps.
A somewhat frustrated Ambrose was passed by Kelly and Lowndes when the champ missed a gear while accelerating at the race restart, though this did not deter Ambrose too much, as he put awesome passes on Lowndes and Kelly, regaining the lead just as Scifleet's Commodore caught fire, the Konica driver abandoning his car at turn eight, forcing the safety car into action yet again.
Lap 25 heralded a return to race speed, and Ambrose led Kelly and Lowndes past the flag, as Garth Tander seized an opportunity to gain race positions, passing Paul Morris and Owen Kelly to take eighth position.
After only four laps at full race speed, Ambrose' lead over Kelly was 2.9 seconds, with Lowndes right on the tail of the Kmart Commodore.
The inferior performance of Lowndes' Prodrive-built V8 reared its ugly head, when in the dry conditions, Lowndes deferred positions to Jason Bright, Jason Bargwanna and Garth Tander in only a few laps.
On lap 38, Paul Radisich's Triple Eight Ford appeared to have an engine failure/fire, while Steve Richards' Commodore came in few a new front splitter, a complicated procedure that saw him a lap down on Ambrose.
Ten laps later, Russell Ingall passed Lowndes, before pitting for a driver change, Cameron Mclean stepping into the Havoline Falcon, with Ambrose stopping on the next lap with Greg Ritter going into the car, and the Stone Bros. team changing the brake pads on the blue Ford.
Jason Bargwanna was next to stop, and as his Orrcon Falcon trundled down pit lane, his V8 coughed twice before dying, its fuel supply exhausted, the once-contending Falcon losing many positions.
