His main rival all weekend was Team Perkins Racing’s lead driver Steven Richards. The New Zealand born superstar started from pole, but his race pace was slightly slower than that of the #16 HSV Dealer Team Holden. Richards holds on to sixth place in the championship and is the third placed Holden.
Rick Kelly was not able to quite match the pace of his round winning team-mate, however managed to keep out of trouble throughout the majority of the weekend and collected a respectable podium finish.
"It is great to have both cars up the front again. We had a good first race, making up a couple of positions, but unfortunately in race two, we made a couple of changes that didn’t quite work out," said Kelly.
Team Betta Electrical endured their first weekend since Oran Park where they were not the class act in the field. Craig Lowndes was the best performing Ford driver however, and a solid fourth outright shifts him up to second in the championship.
"It was a positive result for the weekend, I just lacked the pace in the final race to challenge the guys in front of me," said Lowndes.
"I'm excited that I am now second in the championship and with a reasonably healthy buffer between myself and Ambrose. With Phillip Island only two weeks away and the benefit of it being my previous test track, I am confident that the team will produce another consistent result.”
The last time Paul Dumbrell was consistently competing in the top ten over a race meeting was at Adelaide, but the 2002 Konica V8 Series champion today continued his solid form to sit comfortably in fifth position at the end of the Triple Challenge.
Steven Johnson and Westpoint Racing competed brilliantly in race trim this weekend. After qualifying nineteenth, ‘Junior’ Johnson was able to muscle his way into the top ten and benefit from his rivals’ misfortunes to finish sixth.
"After the start we had, to finish sixth for the weekend is fantastic," Johnson said.
"The Westpoint Ford has been a really strong race car all weekend; it's just a shame that we couldn't get the same form out of it in qualifying. We were competitive today, and that is pleasing. We were up there with the more competitive cars.
