Lowndes Scores Queensland Win

Lowndes' win backed up his round win at Barbagallo in May. Second place for Marcos Ambrose extended his lead in the championship to 105 points over Steven Richards, with Russell Ingall and Todd Kelly still close behind in third and fourth. Mark Skaife remained in fifth but lost ground after finishing in twelfth place.

The start of the race saw Lowndes and Ambrose break away at the front, with Russell Ingall third, with the HRT duo of Todd Kelly and Mark Skaife not far behind.

An early safety car period for a stationary Greg Ritter saw most of the field, including all the front-runners, make their compulsory pit stop for tyres. Ambrose and Lowndes swap positions as Ambrose chose to take four tyres, while his teammate Ingall lost time in the pits to drop to fifteenth.

The race restarted on lap 17, with five cars yet to pit led by Max Wilson at the front, ahead of Lowndes, Ambrose, Todd Kelly, Garth Tander and Steven Richards.

Skaife, having lost positions in the pit stops after having to queue behind his teammate, compounded his problems by spinning at turn one on lap 28, dropping him from tenth to 25th.

Up front the race was quiet, teams just beginning to make their compulsory fuel stops around half distance when the safety car returned to the track. It came on as a result of an incident on the exit of turn three between Jason Richards and Paul Morris which resulted in Richards' car destroying itself in a series of rolls. Later in the race an angry Morris was given a 60 second stop-go penalty for the incident.

As a result of this safety car all the drivers yet to take fuel dived for the pits. As the race resumed on lap 51 it was still Lowndes and Ambrose at the front, Todd Kelly in third ahead of Tander and Ingall, Kelly dropping to fifth by the end of the lap as Tander and Ingall passed him, Steven Richards taking fifth from Kelly a lap later.

A late race safety car period made no difference to the result, Lowndes just a little too fast for Ambrose, while Tander just managed to hold off Ingall for third, with Steven Richards in fifth.

Result of Queensland 300, Queensland Raceway:

Pos  Driver              Car
 1.  Craig Lowndes       Ford Falcon BA
 2.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford Falcon BA
 3.  Garth Tander        Holden Commodore VZ
 4.  Russell Ingall      Ford Falcon BA
 5.  Steven Richards     Holden Commodore VY
 6.  Todd Kelly          Holden Commodore VZ
 7.  Steve Ellery        Ford Falcon BA
 8.  Greg Murphy         Holden Commodore VZ
 9.  Jason Bright        Ford Falcon BA
10.  Steven Johnson      Ford Falcon BA
11.  Glenn Seton         Ford Falcon BA
12.  Mark Skaife         Holden Commodore VZ
13.  David Besnard       Ford Falcon BA
14.  Max Wilson          Holden Commodore VZ
15.  Rick Kelly          Holden Commodore VZ
16.  Craig Baird         Ford Falcon BA
17.  Cameron McConville  Holden Commodore VZ
18.  Paul Dumbrell       Holden Commodore VY
19.  Jason Bargwanna     Ford Falcon BA
20.  Brad Jones          Ford Falcon BA
21.  Andrew Jones        Holden Commodore VZ
22.  John Bowe           Ford Falcon BA
23.  Simon Wills         Holden Commodore VZ
24.  Steve Owen          Ford Falcon BA
25.  Mark Winterbottom   Ford Falcon BA
26.  Paul Morris         Holden Commodore VZ
27.  Matthew White       Ford Falcon BA
28.  Jamie Whincup       Holden Commodore VZ
29.  Paul Radisich       Holden Commodore VZ
DNF  Anthony Tratt       Holden Commodore VY
DNF  Jason Richards      Holden Commodore VZ
DNF  Paul Weel           Holden Commodore VZ
DNF  Greg Ritter         Ford Falcon BA
DNF  Alex Davison        Holden Commodore VZ