by Adam Forwood
Greg Murphy is set to retake his throne as King of Pukekohe after winning the 50-lap race two of the Placemaker's V8 International in New Zealand, but it was almost overshadowed by a frightening incident involving Brad and Andrew Jones.
Russell Ingall had an awesome start, launching like a scalded cat to take the lead into turn one, followed by Murphy and Ellery. The Pukekohe esses produced the usual first-lap melee, this time claiming Rick Kelly who made contact with John Bowe and Steven Johnson. Kelly retired with damage to the front left corner.
Ellery's hold on third place was short lived as Skaife dove down the inside into turn five. Murphy, having won race one, was not going to be satisfied with second, and on lap five he made his move, passing Ingall at the hairpin with a beautiful late-braking move. Ingall tried to take the place back at turn six, but Murphy held him off.
Ellery was the first to pit on lap six, followed by John Bowe, who was penalised $5000 for a pit-lane collision in race one on Saturday. Bowe rejoined the track just ahead of the leaders, and was quickly lapped by Murphy. Crucially, Bowe made life difficult for Ingall, baulking him for nearly a full lap, allowing Murphy to pull out a 1.5 second lead.
Skaife was right behind Ingall and followed him past Bowe. Skaife attempted to pass Ingall under braking for the hairpin, but locked up enormously, spinning off and severely damaging his tyres. Ingall saw that Skaife was out of control, and stayed wide to let him slide by. Despite this, Skaife only changed left-side tyres during his pit stop, and would suffer from a flat-spotted right-front tyre for the rest of the race.
