The Triple Eight car closed up to Ingall to join the party, whilst Lowndes was losing touch when he had a massive engine blow with just five laps to go. After this, Radisich was then in a comfortable second place for the championship round and opted for a sensible last few laps.
There was good reason for a cautious approach to the chequered as the rain has started, another feature adopted from 2003. It had looked like missing Eastern Creek, and mere laps previously the skies were clearing, but then the drops started, the wind got up and the circuit started to dampen. Alas, it wasn't to be the downpour of last year and it did dampen the Ingall/Skaife battle for a couple of laps, but the Caltex man was soon back in his groove as the chequered flag neared, although he did back off to set himself up for a lock-up in front of the Stone Brothers Racing pitwall in celebration.
Marcos Ambrose ended his year in emphatic fashion and in the post-race press conference he made reference to the fact that his Stone Brothers Racing team has no personnel changes for next season, unlike so many others in the series. Ambrose has plenty of time to celebrate his win, and is getting married in January.
With Russell Ingall taking second in the championship Queensland-based SBR will definitely be the ones to beat when the show gets back on the road. The countdown to the 2005 season starts here.
Top ten race three
1.
Marcos Ambrose
2.
Mark Skaife
3.
Russell Ingall
4.
Paul Radisich
5.
Todd Kelly
6.
Cameron McConville
7.
Paul Morris
8.
Steven Richards
9.
Jason Richards
10.
Garth Tander
