“We didn't want that obviously,” the Tasman driver, who had finished fourth in race one, said, “He's driven into my back right wheel and I had nowhere to go. Racing room was a big factor.”
Ingall, too, was far from impressed by the standards set.
“He and Jason were having a head-butting session,” the veteran said of the incident, “Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Steven decided to turn right and it tore the whole front end of my car clean off.”
Richards' rear axle finally broke on lap 27 whilst he was running fourth, but FPR changed the damaged part in the pit-lane, getting the #6 Castrol Falcon back out in time to complete the 30 laps required to register a finish and score points.
"When it broke, it was like trying to drive 600 horsepower through one wheel," said 'Richo', "When you got off the accelerator, the car turned right, and on, it turned left. We're just going to have to be clever on strategy for the next race."
The chaos allowed those who avoided it to grab better results than maybe they were hoping for, and obviously aided Winterbottom's passage to some extent. While the FPR ace was claiming second behind Davison, however, Tander headed Vodafone pair Whincup and Craig Lowndes in fourth and fifth, with Rick Kelly, Lee Holdsworth, Jason Bright, James Courtney and Paul Dumbrell rounded out an unlikely top ten.
Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Holdsworth had had to come from 18th on the grid to claim his second top ten finish of the weekend, after a penalty in the wake of Saturday's opener - for contact with Rick Kelly - dropped him twelve places down the order.
“They said that, after looking at the in-car footage, they thought that I should get a stop-go penalty,” an unhappy Holdsworth said of his meeting with the stewards, "We didn't agree with that because it was a fair passing manoeuvre but, even though we're appealing it, they're still penalising us for it today and I think that's ridiculous. They should sort it out after the meeting when you have got an appeal like this. They're trying to promote racing out there, but they won't allow it.”
