Having been involved in an late race incident with Jamie Whincup that saw him miss out on victory in the opening race of the Clipsal 500, Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom was left seething by an accident with the sister Team Vodafone Falcon of Craig Lowndes that forced him of the second race in Adelaide.
Winterbottom was well placed to take the opening race win of the season for the Prodrive-run team at the challenging street circuit until a forceful move from Whincup in the closing stages saw him demoted to second place but the incident in race two would have more dire consequences for 'Frosty' as it not only put him out of the race, but also left the team nursing a hefty repair bill.
The incident came on lap 55 when Lowndes dived up the inside of Winterbottom's Falcon, forcing the 26-year-old wide and allowing both Lee Holdsworth and James Countney to pass both drivers.
Lowndes, who stayed ahead of Winterbottom, then repeated the move on Holdsworth and Courtney but collected Courtney's car – with Winterbottom being collected in the melee and left with a car nursing damage to its front rails, radiator support panel, lights, splitters, air box, coolers, grills and bonnet.
"That was the third person Lowndes had shoved out the way in three laps and I got a good view of him with Holdsworth and Courtney," he said. "There was one common factor in all those incidents and he [Lowndes] ended in the pits.
"I could see there was going to be a big shunt but I couldn't pull out of it in time to miss it. I thought they had spun into the wall and would stay there but they advanced back out. It's ruined my weekend; I should have been in the top five no problem.
"We're trying to create good racing but having cars on the sidelines isn't good racing and it's going to be a long season if this is the standard. You're trying to get through a bunch of guys racing for sheep stations but it's not good when cars get damaged; it looks like $80,000-worth to me and that money should be going somewhere else."
