Meanwhile, Murphy made his move on Muller, passing the European veteran while the Gallic man was still learning to drive a V8 Supercar in the wet. Vitally, as all and sundry pitted for wets, Skaife stayed out on smooth tyres and took a thirty second lead, in the process lapping half the field as they changed rubber.
Skaife took a massive advantage as the track dried out, lapping Youlden (this was the second time that the SBR enduro driver lost a lap to the race leader) and further extending his lead. His lead was looking good, until the heavens opened, and once again the track was a veritable ice rink.
The lead HRT driver lost positions to Tander, Muller and Murphy, discovering that, in wet conditions, grooved rubber is several seconds faster each lap than shiny slick tyres. He too stopped for wet weather tyres, and struggled on the cold rubber, understeering at turn one into Dale Brede, (who was having a very bad day, having already left the circuit three times) sending the young Canberran spinning from the circuit.
Luff was forced again to stop to repair damage caused by Ambrose earlier in the race, while Muller silenced local doubters, holding off Skaife, who was attempting to regain his lost lead.
After another round of pit stops, Lowndes was back in the car; Skaife held a dominant lead, and the 500km event was hurtling toward a thrilling finale. With thirty laps remaining, only three cars were left on the lead lap. Current and former Holden Racing Team drivers Mark Skaife, Greg Murphy and Craig Lowndes pushed hard, lapping traffic and making the mastery of monsoonal conditions look easy.
No matter how the drivers handled it, it was tough on their cars. On lap 140, Skaife cracked his front splitter, which had been progressively wearing away throughout the race. Murphy suffered a much worse fate, suffering engine troubles which, upon pit bay inspection, turned out to be a knock in the motor. With Murph out of podium contention, fellow Kiwi Jason Richards inherited third position, and was relatively unchallenged for the rest of the race.
