Lowndes, Whincup win Bathurst again

Lowndes took the lead for the final time in tricky conditions on lap 155 of 161, managing to just hold out Jim Beam Racing's Steven Johnson and Will Davison, Jeld-Wen Motorsport's James Courtney and David Besnard and Tasman Motorsport's Greg Murphy and Jason Richards to the chequered flag.

The final result saw an all-Ford podium, with the top four drivers covered by just 1.2 seconds at the finish.

While the race had been a hard fight even in the early stages, cars closely matched and drivers running a frantic pace, the rain in the closing stages led to a dramatic finish, with strong contenders Steven Richards and Mark Winterbottom suffering in the conditions, falling out of the lead, but recovering to finish tenth.

Team Vodafone's win followed on from their win at the other endurance race at Sandown, and has vaulted the two winning drivers to the top of the championship, Jamie Whincup now leading on 461 points from teammate Craig Lowndes on 445.

Toll HSV Dealer Team's Rick Kelly and Garth Tander, who paired up for Bathurst after driving separate cars at Sandown, scored no points as car number 1 failed to finish, and now are third and fourth on 443 and 434 points.

With the next two closest contenders not finishing, Todd Kelly 137 points behind Whincup and Mark Skaife 188 behind, with 288 points up for grabs, it seems likely the title is down to a shootout between the two Team Vodafone drivers and the Toll HSV duo.

The race got off to an unusual start, and it was over for Cameron McConville before it even started, retiring on the warm-up lap. This led to the safety car coming out after just half a lap, to recover his stricken car.

The race went green on lap four, Ford Performance Racing's Steven Richards leading the way with Skaife close behind. The start of the race was relatively incident-free apart from a tyre failure at the Chase for championship leader Rick Kelly on lap 25, the beginning of a troubled day for the number 1 car.

After a crash for the team's other car on Friday saw its withdrawal, it was looking like a good day for Team BOC's other car, running inside the top ten. But it all went up in flames (literally) when the car caught fire on lap 53, bringing out the race's second safety car.

Most of the leaders pitted but Jamie Whincup stayed out, pitting as scheduled to hand over to Craig Lowndes on lap 70 as the team ran to a four-stop plan. This returned the lead to the FPR car, now being driven by Mark Winterbottom, who then pitted earlier than expected on lap 80 with a delaminated tyre.

It remained a close fight at the front, with Greg Murphy, Allan Simonsen and Craig Baird all taking a turn in the lead before Lowndes retook the lead just before the safety car came out on lap 92 for a spin at the Cutting.

Most of the leaders stayed out, but Mark Skaife decided to pit and hand over to Todd Kelly, and though Lowndes led at the restart, Kelly moved into the lead on lap 98 after another safety car, this time for Jay Verdnik stuck in the gravel at the Chase, saw the rest of the leaders pit.

A slow stop for leader Lowndes, who handed back to Whincup, meant that he not only lost out to those who didn't pit, but also to some that had pitted, restarting in 11th place. However Whincup was on a charge and by lap 105 he was back up to third position.

However Todd Kelly had a comfortable lead over Steven Richards and Whincup with a third of the race remaining, though it was unclear if Skaife needed to stop one more time than his rivals.

The safety car made another appearance on lap 120 when Dean Canto crashed hard going over the top of the mountain, triggering pit stops, including a stop for leader Todd Kelly who handed back to Skaife and dropped to the bottom of the top ten.

At the restart on lap 123 Steven Richards led from Whincup and Will Davison, the Jim Beam Ford having run strongly all race. Everyone still needed to make one more stop, it was just a question of when.

It was around this time of the race that things became just a little bit more difficult, as rain, which had threatened for most of the day, began to fall lightly. With teams getting ready for final pit stops, should they try to stay out until wets were required, and did they have enough fuel to do so anyway?

With teams getting within their fuel window for the finish, there was a 'flood' of stops just before and after lap 130, most teams swapping drivers once more for the run to the finish as they all stuck with slicks, the track still not wet enough.

However, Jamie Whincup lost precious seconds to his Ford Performance Racing rival as he went off on the entry to the pits, somehow getting out of the gravel to hand back to co-driver Lowndes without losing position.

With these stops over, Jason Bright now led from the second Ford Performance Racing car of Owen Kelly, both yet to make their final stop, with Winterbottom next ahead of Lowndes. If the rain fell at the right time, Bright was on track to steal an unexpected win.

It was around this point of the race that car number 1, Rick Kelly and Garth Tander, finally retired their car after a succession of offs and lack of brakes, the sister car following suit shortly after.

When Paul Morris crashed at the Cutting on lap 145 on a slippery track and brought out the safety car, it was time for him to pit. However, it was still too dry for wets, and so the gamble had not comepletely succeeded, though he did rejoin third.

As the race restarted on lap 148 Mark Winterbottom led from Lowndes, Bright and Johnson. Meanwhile the rain continued to get a bit heavier.

Before the lap was over Winterbottom went straight ahead at the Chase on the restart lap, somehow recovering to sixth as Lowndes took the lead having just missed a car spearing through the Chase for the second time during the day.

A lap later, the condition caught out several drivers going over the top of the Mountain, with Jason Bright, Russell Ingall, Mark Skaife and Winterbottom all brushing the wall, Skaife and Bright out on the spot, Ingall retiring after returning to the pits while Winterbottom pitted to put fresh slicks on.

The order was now Lowndes, Johnson, Murphy, Courtney and the second Team Vodafone car of Allan Simonsen completing the top five. All the leaders were gambling that they would not have to pit for wet tyres, despite the track getting slipperier and slipperier by the lap.

Lap 152 and it was back to green flag racing, the leaders tightly bunched as the conditions prevented anyone opening up a gap, or if they did, it soon disappeared. As they completed lap 153 Johnson was all over Lowndes, taking the lead into turn one as Courtney passed Murphy for third at the same time.

Up Mountain Straight Johnson and Lowndes battled side-by-side, but Johnson held on. A better exit for Lowndes off the final turn as they completed the lap saw him retake the lead from Johnson at the same place he'd lost it a lap earlier, Courtney following past Johnson on the exit.

From then on it was a question of not making a mistake and defending your position at the same time, Lowndes holding on to take the win in a dramatic finish to a hard-fought race.

Pos Drivers                            Car                   Time
 1. Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup        Ford Falcon BF        6h29:10.1985
 2. David Besnard/James Courtney       Ford Falcon BF        +     0.6238
 3. Will Davison/Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon BF        +     0.8160
 4. Greg Murphy/Jason Richards         Holden Commodore VE   +     1.1712
 5. Richard Lyons/Allan Simonsen       Ford Falcon BF        +     8.3128
 6. Steve Owen/Tony D'Alberto          Holden Commodore VZ   +     9.3294
 7. Jason Bargwanna/Max Wilson         Ford Falcon BF        +    11.8338
 8. Alex Davison/Andrew Thompson       Ford Falcon BF        +    14.6462
 9. Cameron McLean/Greg Ritter         Holden Commodore VE   +    17.8800
10. Steven Richards/Mark Winterbottom  Ford Falcon BF        +    18.3579
11. Nathan Pretty/Glenn Seton          Holden Commodore VE   +    28.3388
12. Paul Dumbrell/Paul Weel            Holden Commodore VE   +    31.7890
13. Matt Halliday/Owen Kelly           Ford Falcon BF        +  1:15.1621
14. John Bowe/Jonathon Webb            Ford Falcon BF        +     1 lap
15. Michael Caruso/Grant Denyer        Ford Falcon BF        +     2 laps
16. Fabian Coulthard/Chris Pither      Holden Commodore VZ   +     2 laps
DNF Russell Ingall/Luke Youlden        Ford Falcon BF
DNF Jason Bright/Adam Macrow           Ford Falcon BF
DNF Todd Kelly/Mark Skaife             Holden Commodore VE
DNF Shane van Gisbergen/John McIntyre  Ford Falcon BF
DNF Steve Ellery/Paul Morris           Holden Commodore VE
DNF Mark Noske/Jay Verdnik             Holden Commodore VE
DNF Craig Baird/Paul Radisich          Holden Commodore VE
DNF Rick Kelly/Garth Tander            Holden Commodore VE
DNF Alan Gurr/Warren Luff              Ford Falcon BF
DNF Dean Canto/Lee Holdsworth          Holden Commodore VE
DNF Jack Perkins/Shane Price           Holden Commodore VE
DNF Marcus Marshall/Kayne Scott        Holden Commodore VE
DNF Andrew Jones/Simon Wills           Ford Falcon BF
DNF Cameron McConville/David Reynolds  Holden Commodore VE