Todd Kelly, on his in-lap, snatched a brake at Dandenong road (turn eight) and understeered off the circuit, the low front splitter on the car collecting several kilos of mud, the team an losing an age in the pits, taking time out to clear the clods of muck from the radiator intake.
Lap 73, and as Greg Murphy was taking seconds out of Ritter's (Ambrose's too) lead, Glenn Seton connected with the Holden of Jason Bright, sending the Falcon spinning from the circuit, causing yet another safety-car break.
The return to race speed after Seton's car was fetched gave an in-form Murphy an opportunity to close the gap to the Pirtek Falcon of Greg Ritter.
Ritter coped well with the pressure, and with a buffer of four lapped cars between him and Murphy, the pressure was on Murphy to catch and pass the race leader.
Ritter did a great job maintaining the pace, setting lap times not far removed from Ambrose's performance, as Murphy continued to push and push, struggling through lapped traffic, though closing the gap to the lead Falcon.
Later however, Ritter appeared to fold under Murphy's pressure, spinning the Stone Brothers Falcon in the same place that Russell Ingall last year threw away Ambrose's hard-earned lead. Ambrose shook his head as he watched Murphy take the lead from Ritter's buried Ford.
On the same lap that Ritter gave up the lead, Alex Yoong spun his WPS Falcon and became stuck in the sticky mud, causing another safety car break.
The safety car's intervention saw a rush of pit stops take place, most importantly, race leader Greg Murphy in first place and Mark Skaife closely behind took stops, though the speedy effort of the Holden Racing Team in pit lane saw Skaife get past the Kmart Commodore, as Murphy's team took too long to make their stop.
On lap 109, Skaife, who had the effective lead, pitted with extreme damage to the front of his car, when an out-of-control Glenn Seton smote the front end of the HRT
Commodore, handing the effective lead to Russell Ingall.
When Jim Richards, senior citizen and Porsche deity spun at turn eight, baulking Ingall and allowing Ambrose to slip past Murphy
and Ingall, into the race lead.
