by Adam Forwood
Greg Murphy is living it up tonight after sweeping the three races at Pukekohe's Placemaker's V8 International, whilst countryman Craig Baird is lucky not to be spending the night in hospital after a terrifying crash in the second round of the Australian V8 Supercar Series.
Reigning champ Marcos Ambrose had a difficult start and tangled with Craig Lowndes going into the second turn, slid off track, but managed to regain the tarmac into turn four with minimal loss of track position. Steven Johnson also had problems and failed to complete a lap.
David Besnard's abysmal weekend ended on lap ten when he lost control at the end of the back straight and buried the car in the sand trap. This triggered a mass of pit stops as teams call their drivers in, certain that deployment of the safety car was imminent. It was indeed deployed, but not until lap 14, too late for Jason Bargwanna. New Zealand-born Jason Richards made heavy contact with Bargwanna after passing him at the hairpin, causing damage to Bargwanna's steering, which failed in the high-speed kink on the back straight, heavily damaging Bargwanna's car.
Jason Richards did not escape unscathed, and was black-flagged to repair damage. After a lengthy safety car period to recover Besnard and Bargwanna, the race restarted on lap 23, and Murphy leapt away from Ingall. Murphy had noted that the weather was looking bleak, and his local knowledge proved to be accurate, as rain began to fall.
It was this rain that caused the most spectacular crash for some years. Steven Ellery and Jamie Whincup were caught out by the slippery track in turn seven, both running wide. As Whincup rejoined the track, Baird moved over to avoid him, unaware of Paul Dumbrell on his right. Baird pushed Dumbrell into the pit wall, who bounced off and spun Baird around.
