Skaife’s loss has been the gain of two Ford pilots however. With Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and defending series champion Russell Ingall each climbing a place on the ladder to both be within 150 points of leader Lowndes. Good results at the weekend from the pair mean that a slip up from any of the top three could severely dent their championship aspirations.
The biggest improvement at Queensland was Paul Radisich from Team Kiwi Racing. A seven position climb is one of the largest experienced by an entry this year, and has injected much needed confidence into the original trans-Tasman competitors for the rest of their 2006 campaign. Another strong performance came from the beleaguered Greg Murphy, who rose four places following a top ten finish for the struggling Supercheap Auto Racing operation.
Jason Bargwanna, Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly were, interestingly enough, the biggest losers between Hidden Valley and Queensland. After the sixth round of the championship series, the WPS Racing pilot and the HRT frontman dropped four positions whilst Kelly continued his run of outs – down three.
The low average of dropping positions this round does indicate that the field is evening out, with individuals gaining or losing no more than one position, it seems as though the championship contenders and the championship pretenders are being well sorted from each other.
Over recent years the V8 Supercar Championship has prided itself on the close competition, and whilst the midpack seems almost cemented, the battles at the top will surely heat up at the enduros in little over a month’s time, and will be the focal point of a tight championship scuffle.
