Lowndes Leads Ford Front Row

Lowndes continued his superb weekend to edge out fellow Ford frontrunner and reigning series champion Marcos Ambrose by a quarter of a second as a cold and slightly damp track affected times.

Although Ford secured the front row, the next five cars on the grid are Holdens, with Mark Skaife, Garth Tander, Steven Richards and Jason Richards filling those places. Holden have won the last six Bathurst events, with Ford's last victory at Bathurst in 1998.

Damp conditions at a couple of corners saw the first two runners, Jim Richards and Glenn Seton, drive their laps on wets. But with the rest of the track effectively dry it was clear someone would choose slicks soon, and next out Russell Ingall was the first to do so.

Ingall was on target for the fastest lap of the session to that point before his gearbox locked up at the Chase and sent him into the gravel.

From that point on the session settled down, with a mistake at the Chase costing Jason Richards a couple of seconds. Small mistakes cost a few of the other drivers but no more than could have been expected considering the lack of grip available.

Top Ten Shootout Results, Super Cheap Auto 1000, Mount Panorama, Bathurst, Australia:

Pos  Driver                   Car                  Time
 1.  Craig Lowndes            Ford Falcon BA       2:08.5990
 2.  Marcos Ambrose           Ford Falcon BA       2:08.8571  + 0.2581
 3.  Greg Murphy              Holden Commodore VZ  2:09.1834  + 0.5844
 4.  Mark Skaife              Holden Commodore VZ  2:09.3787  + 0.7797
 5.  Garth Tander             Holden Commodore VZ  2:09.6648  + 1.0658
 6.  Steven Richards          Holden Commodore VY  2:09.8170  + 1.2180
 7.  Jason Richards           Holden Commodore VZ  2:12.2092  + 3.6102
 8.  Glenn Seton              Ford Falcon BA       2:19.6014  +11.0024
 9.  Jim Richards             Holden Commodore VZ  2:20.1202  +11.5212
10.  Russell Ingall           Ford Falcon BA       -