Rick Kelly wins as leaders tangle
Rick Kelly benefited from a restart tangle between the three leaders to take a shock victory for Kelly Racing in the first of this weekend's V8 Supercars races at Hidden Valley Raceway
The race had been relatively uneventful until a late safety car period to retrieve Tim Slade's stranded car. At the restart with three laps to go, race-long top three Mark Winterbottom, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen attacked each other, with Lee Holdsworth getting involved as well. The four cars managed to become entangled at Turn 1, with the erstwhile top three going off the road and tumbling down the order.
Kelly had worked his way forward from 12th on the grid before then and was in position to take advantage of the chaos, going on to win ahead of Steven Johnson and Craig Lowndes.
Holdsworth briefly emerged second as the carnage unfolded, but was pushed back to fourth afterwards. Will Davison used an early pitstop before the first safety car period of the race - caused by Jason Bright stopping with damage after clashes with Tony D'Alberto and David Reynolds - to come through from 20th on the grid to fifth.
D'Alberto survived the Bright incident to take sixth, with van Gisbergen recovering to seventh and Whincup taking ninth behind Jason Bargwanna. A furious Winterbottom had to settle for 15th in a race he had looked certain to win.
Holden Racing Team's poor day continued with James Courtney only 25th after a puncture and Garth Tander 18th after a penalty for pulling out of a pitstop with an air hose still attached.
Results - 42 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Rick Kelly Kelly Holden 54m30.8593s
2. Steven Johnson Dick Johnson Ford + 2.5117s
3. Craig Lowndes Triple 8 Holden + 4.5271s
4. Lee Holdsworth Garry Rogers Holden + 5.4847s
5. Will Davison FPR Ford + 6.0642s
6. Tony D'Alberto D'Alberto Ford + 6.4400s
7. Shane van Gisbergen Stone Brothers Ford + 6.6429s
8. Jason Bargwanna Brad Jones Holden + 7.3032s
9. Jamie Whincup Triple 8 Holden + 8.4525s
10. Steve Owen Paul Morris Holden + 12.8577s
11. Michael Caruso Garry Rogers Holden + 12.9303s
12. Greg Murphy Kelly Holden + 13.0004s
13. Fabian Coulthard Walkinshaw Holden + 13.4879s
14. James Moffat Dick Johnson Ford + 13.8506s
15. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford + 15.6222s
16. Todd Kelly Kelly Holden + 16.9969s
17. Dean Fiore Triple F Ford + 17.5350s
18. Garth Tander HRT Holden + 18.4046s
19. Alex Davison Stone Brothers Ford + 18.7288s
20. Paul Dumbrell Rod Nash/FPR Ford + 22.4280s
21. Tim Slade Rosenberg/SBR Ford + 22.8906s
22. Jonathon Webb Tekno Ford + 23.1649s
23. Russell Ingall Paul Morris Holden + 24.0335s
24. Warren Luff Dumbrell Holden + 1 lap
25. James Courtney HRT Holden + 2 laps
Retirements:
Karl Reindler Britek/BJR Holden 38 laps
Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden 9 laps
David Reynolds Kelly Holden 9 laps
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