Twenty laps remained, and the massive Ambrose lead evaporated in a moment. Mark Skaife – fastest lap holder from Saturday’s leg – and Sunday’s fastest man, Marcos Ambrose were both in sight of each other for the restart which should have meant a perfect opportunity to check out the relative race pace between the HRT and the SBR cars. However, Anthony Tratt’s car was a convenient sandwich for Ambrose, and Skaife had the attentions of old team-mate Craig Lowndes right with him.
Lowndes hassled Skaife, but the Tratt buffer worked perfectly for Ambrose who disappeared off once more. Lowdnes managed to nurf the HRT car wide, but watching on was Russell Ingall who took the two of them in one go. Unfortunately for the Caltex car driver, his gear selection woes were already in evidence, and he overshot at the next corner, undoing his fine passing move.
Ingall was later to run long into Wakefield Street and he struggled to get it back into the race and was an eventual eighteenth place finisher.
The Lowndes/Skaife battle continued till the race end. Lowndes’ tyres were truly shot as the chequered flag neared, and the Skaife HRT kept the pressure on all the way. The cheers from the fans as the Holden man and the former Holden man who firmly nailed himself to the blue oval were massive, drowning out the roar of the V8s. A mistake from Skaife on the last lap however, gave the Triple Eight car some space and Lowndes led the red car across the line.
“I think we’ve got a good car, but we’ve got a star of a driver,” said Triple Eight’s Roland Dane. His driver more modestly gave the credit to his Ford Falcon. “The car was a jet,” said Lowndes.
After a tough start to the weekend, Mark Skaife was happy. “It was a great run for us, the car was fantastic,” said a breathless Skaife at the end of the race. “That’s as hard as it gets, Lowdes and I were at it, the cars were pretty ordinary at the end.”
But despite the strength on display elsewhere, Marcos Ambrose truly remains the man to beat. “I’m absolutely pumped up with the result, I’m just having a blast,” said the reigning champion.
