Dumbrell holds on for maiden race win

Dumbrell ran wide at turn one on the first attempt to start the race, going across the grass and rejoining at turn three where he and Tander made contact, the two cars making contact again at turn four and they battled side-by-side up the back straight.

As they prepared to enter the sweeping left, Tander's tyre deflated, sending him off into the tyre barriers at speed, Tander's day over on the spot. The repairs to the tyre barriers saw the race red-flagged and fully restarted, but the distance shortened due to time constraints.

At the restart, Dumbrell stayed second behind Jamie Whincup, remaining there until the pitstops, where a slower stop for Whincup saw Dumbrell move ahead. Some strong defence from Dumbrell followed in the closing laps but after over 10 years of trying and nearly 250 race starts, he took his first race victory, following directly on from a career-best result in the second race in Tasmania last weekend.

Whincup looked set for victory after a perfect start and opening a couple of seconds on Dumbrell before the stops. But another pitstop issue cost him for the second race in succession, although at least this time it only cost him one position.

Dumbrell's struggles towards the end of the race meant there were another three cars close by, Mark Winterbottom just ahead of James Courtney, who moved up another two places from his starting position, with Russell Ingall less than 1.5 seconds off the win in fifth place.

Ten seconds behind Dumbrell, Lee Holdsworth was sixth, with Rick Kelly, Craig Lowndes, moving up from 12th, and Shane van Gisbergen, up from 18th on the grid, in close attendance.

Will Davison finished tenth but spent most of the race defending his position from faster cars behind, spending the opening seven laps holding off Winterbottom for third before slipping back as the race went on.

A stall for Greg Murphy at the start of the formation lap for the restarted race almost paid off, Murphy filling up with fuel at the race start. Despite some further fuel conservation it just wasn't quite enough to get him home, pitting with three laps remaining having already dropped to sixth and eventually finishing 23rd.

Another race and the gap at the top tightens, but again Courtney's advantage didn't decrease by as much as it could or maybe should have. Courtney remains on top, with a 32 point lead over Whincup, Winterbottom 191 points behind and Lowndes the only other driver with a mathematical chance, 287 points behind Courtney with 450 still up for grabs.

Pos  Driver                Make                  Time
 1.  Paul Dumbrell         Ford Falcon FG        39m19.6126s 
 2.  Jamie Whincup         Holden Commodore VE   +   0.2150s   
 3.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        +   0.7011s   
 4.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        +   1.0008s   
 5.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   +   1.6049s   
 6.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   +   9.4535s   
 7.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +  11.1740s   
 8.  Craig Lowndes         Holden Commodore VE   +  11.5091s   
 9.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        +  12.3040s  
10.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   +  15.8896s  
11.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +  20.9014s  
12.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        +  21.4448s  
13.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        +  21.9170s  
14.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VE   +  22.7221s  
15.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        +  23.4040s  
16.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   +  23.6367s  
17.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   +  25.9700s  
18.  Tim Slade             Ford Falcon FG        +  27.7944s  
19.  Dean Fiore            Ford Falcon FG        +  28.3725s  
20.  Jonathon Webb         Ford Falcon FG        +  28.6708s  
21.  Andrew Jones          Holden Commodore VE   +  38.1266s  
22.  Andrew Thompson       Holden Commodore VE   +  39.4064s  
23.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   +  42.9151s  
24.  Karl Reindler         Holden Commodore VE   +  43.0777s  
25.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE   +1m03.5650s  
26.  Tony Ricciardello     Holden Commodore VE   +1m05.3665s  
27.  Warren Luff           Holden Commodore VE   +1m07.2427s  
28.  Fabian Coulthard      Holden Commodore VE   +    8 laps

Did not start:

     Driver                Make                  
     Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE