Gurr gets Konica Minolta first of season.

The Konica Minolta V8 Supercar series got underway today at New South Wales' Wakefield Park under cloudy conditions with Smith Trucks backed Alan Gurr taking the first win of the year.

For polesitter Andrew Jones it was a nightmare start with his car not making it away from the line cleanly and being swamped as half the field sped past, all thankfully missing the BOC Gases backed driver.

With Jones heading backwards, such that he was placed 12th come the end of the first lap, Howard Racing's Cameron McLean took the lead, followed by Matthew White, Owen Kelly and Alan Gurr.

White set about Cameron up ahead of him, but soon found himself the target of the affections of Owen Kelly behind him, the Dick Johnson Racing driver keen to impress his challenge home, which he did with a relative lack of delay to take his battle to the first placed McLean.

McLean's car certainly didn't look to have the measure of those behind him in the first race conditions, but his car was wide enough to keep those following at bay for the first few laps at least, until Owen Kelly found a way past and disappeared off into the distance. The Team Fujitsu driver underlined the pace of his car by pulling out a second in his first lap free of the Howard Racing AU.

The race, however, was not to be Kelly's. The tenth lap saw Owen take to the gravel and retire. Holden Young Lion Michael Caruso, who was running at the back of the field also came to a rest nearby...

All this time polesitter Andrew Jones was working his way steadily through the field, becoming steadily more robust the closer he got to the thick end of the action. Clearly he was out to make amends from his poor start, and it was just a case of who would defend their place the hardest against the fastest man from yesterday's qualifying session.

Sixth placed at the time, Brad Tilley was another to find himself in the gravel and out of the race after a solid season start. The Speed FX Racing driver had started the race in sixth and managed to retain that place for his tenth lap retirement.

Matthew White, eventual second placed man, achieved probably the longest lockup of the race as he battled to keep the recovering Andrew Jones behind him. Such was his effort to keep the Brad Jones Racing behind him that he decided that the best course of action was to pass Cameron McLean up ahead and let Cameron contend with the BOC Gases backed driver.

This strategy worked well for White. Clear of Cameron he was able to come home to silver whilst Jones' attempts to get past McLean certainly kept the crowd entertained, and the car to pit intercoms from both drivers were certainly very blue...

Through all this it was Alan Gurr who was the lead driver and the Smith Trucks backed car stretched out a comfortable lead of 4.3 seconds come the chequered flag. Matthew White took second, whilst Andrew Jones never did make it past McLean who took the last place on the podium.

Top ten
1. Alan Gurr Smiths Trucks Pty Ltd #70 VX Commodore
2. Matthew White Gulf Western / Jayco #28 AU Falcon
3. Cameron McLean Howard Racing #27 AU Falcon
4. Andrew Jones Brad Jones Racing #19 AU Falcon
5. Jose Fernandez Team Fujitsu #81 AU Falcon
6. Luke Youldon Super Cheap Auto Racing #30 AU Falcon
7. Mark Porter Hydraulink Racing #111 VX Commodore
8. Phillip Scifleet Rupprecht Motorsport #90 AU Falcon
9. Tony D'Alberto Independent Race Cars Australia #64 VX Commodore
10. Kevin Mundy Paul Cruickshank Racing #56 Falcon