Lowndes steals victory in wet race two

The two Team Vodafone cars were the class of the field from the start of the race, with Whincup looking set for victory before a late safety car brought the field back together.

With the race restarted with six of the 39 laps remaining, teammate Lowndes remained on his bumper, the close company eventually telling as Whincup made a mistake at the end of the back straight, running wide and losing two places, Lowndes taking the victory.

The other driver to sneak through was the only other driver out there with the same pace as the two Team Vodafone cars, SP Tools Racing's Shane van Gisbergen. Starting from ninth, he was up to fifth by lap 3 and third by lap 8.

He gained ground during the pitstop phase and was close to Lowndes before the safety car came out, but struggled immediately after the restart before coming on strong at the end.

It was another trio of Fords behind the top three, with van Gisbergen's teammate James Courtney in fourth ahead of Steven Johnson, who had started 13th, and Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom.

Supercheap Auto's Russell Ingall was again the best-placed Holden in seventh, just ahead of Todd Kelly, Garth Tander with Cameron McConville rounding out the top ten finishers.

HSV Dealer Team's Rick Kelly had an eventful race, spinning on lap one and falling to second-last, before charging through the field and breaking into the top ten around half-distance.

But contact with the lapped car of Michael Caruso earned him a drivethrough penalty, dropping him to 14th, before recovering to 12th in the closing laps.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     56:19.9593
 2.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +   2.4235
 3.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     +   2.9579
 4.  James Courtney        Ford     +   4.7339
 5.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +   4.8606
 6.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +   6.1241
 7.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +   8.5198
 8.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +   9.3568
 9.  Garth Tander          Holden   +  10.0280
10.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +  13.6207
11.  Will Davison          Ford     +  14.6194
12.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +  16.0370
13.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +  19.8626
14.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +  21.1198
15.  Jason Bright          Ford     +  22.0857
16.  Steven Richards       Ford     +  23.1307
17.  Andrew Jones          Holden   +  23.9524
18.  Mark Skaife           Holden   +  28.6856
19.  Shane Price           Holden   +  29.0866
20.  Jason Richards        Holden   +  59.3370
21.  Paul Morris           Holden   +1:19.7218
22.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +   1 lap
23.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +   1 lap
24.  Marcus Marshall       Ford     +   1 lap
25.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +   1 lap
26.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +   1 lap
27.  Andrew Thompson       Holden   +   1 lap
28.  Kayne Scott           Ford     +   2 laps

Excluded:

     Driver                Make
     Michael Patrizi       Ford