Dumbrell cannoned into turn one's outside wall, causing severe damage, but Baird's impact was truly catastrophic. He spun past the pit exit before going backwards at very high speed into the armco barrier at the end of the pit lane, severing a PA speaker pole and completely destroying the back section of the car. To cap things off, McConville lost control in his attempt to avoid the carnage and hit the wall, causing moderate damage.
While McConville's car is repairable, Dumbrell's is in bad shape, while Baird's is certainly a write-off. Thankfully, neither driver was injured.
With such carnage, a red flag was inevitable. During the stoppage, the rain increased, and the new, 16-lap race would be run on wet-weather tyres. Strangely, both Triple Eight cars had problems restarting. While Steven Ellery got going with some help, Lowndes' car wouldn't fire, and it was pushed off by marshals.
The wet weather made no difference to Murphy, who had a great restart to preserve his lead. Ingall struggled, though, sliding sideways and conceding ground. Paul Radisich was having a good run on home ground, and battled valiantly to hold fifth from Ambrose before conceding it on the back straight.
While Murphy ran comfortably in front, there were some fierce battles behind him. Skaife ran very close to Ingall, nearly making contact at the hairpin. A lap later, Steven Richards tried the outside line on Skaife at the same corner, but couldn't make it work in the wet. Ambrose, the fastest car of the top five, took advantage of the conflict to close the gap to Richards.
The hairpin proved to be Skaife's undoing. Richards got past him on the next lap, and Ambrose, ever the opportunist, followed him through. He ran wide through turn seven, though, and lost time to Richards.
