by Matthew Agius
Craig Lowndes has taken honours in the second race of this weekend’s Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge at the Lexmark Indy 300.
Lowndes made a strong start to lead the 32-car field into the first chicane, ahead of Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall. Race one winner Murphy pressured Lowndes for the lead during the opening few laps, but the Ford driver eventually opened a stable lead over the Holden front man, and further increased the buffer after the first stint.
Greg Murphy, after leading Saturday’s sole race in much the same fashion as Lowndes did race two, settled for second place ahead of Mark Skaife. Murphy is now deadlocked with Lowndes on 126 points apiece.
Mark Skaife lost out to Russell Ingall off the starting line, but managed to leapfrog his sparring partner and secured another third placing. With the likes of Todd Kelly and Marcos Ambrose suffering unimpressive results this weekend, Skaife has once again filtered into the championship picture – and is mathematically in with a chance at securing a sixth title.
However Skaife will have to outgun the ever-consistent Russell Ingall in the Caltex Falcon. Ingall was the fastest man in the second race – setting a new lap record – and continues to bag solid points as he increases his margin at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings.
The HSV Dealer Team further improved on their double top ten finish on Saturday to claim positions five and six, with Garth Tander leading younger teammate Rick Kelly to the flag. Cameron McConville continued to hover around the front of the pack in seventh position in the Repco Valvoline Cummins Commodore.
Steven Ellery once again finished in the top ten, complementing teammate Craig Lowndes’ win. Ellery’s consistent approach this weekend has continued to add to Team Betta Electrical’s impressive form during the latter half of the 2005 championship.
Jamie Whincup and Jason Bright rounded out the top ten – Whincup flying the flag for Dodo Racing after teammate Jason Richards crashed out of the race on the sixteenth lap.
Todd Kelly was a big mover in the second Holden Team Racing Commodore. After mechanical dramas dashed his championship hopes on Saturday, Kelly rose from thirty-first to fourteenth at the end of twenty-two laps. Marcos Ambrose also bailed out of race one, but he was unable to carve his way through the field – a spin whilst trying to pass Paul Morris midway through the race halting his progress and forcing him to settle for twenty-seventh.
