Lowndes wins again in race three

Lowndes moved into second at the end of lap one, and chased down leader Mark Winterbottom, taking the lead on lap three before pulling away from the field, eventually winning by ten seconds.

Winterbottom took a comfortable second, while Russell Ingall, who had started tenth and was up to sixth by the end of lap one, took third place from Will Davison at the exit of the turn 11/12 esses on the final lap, Davison finishing the race with Team BOC's Jason Richards right on his tail.

Another last lap move saw Steven Johnson and Garth Tander, who had started 12th, move up into sixth and seventh as they passed the SP Tools car of Shane van Gisbergen. Fabian Coulthard finished just behind them, with Jamie Whincup right on his tail in tenth.

Whincup had another up and down race, starting well and looking set to gain a place or two at turn one. But an understeering Paul Dumbrell forced Whincup onto the grass down to 16th, before Whincup started his recovery.

After starting eighth, Sprint Gas's Jason Bargwanna looked set for a good finish, but despite moving up to fifth in the turn one melee, he fell back from that point onwards, finishing the race down in 17th place.

After a drubbing in last year's inaugural Manufacturers Challenge, Ford hit back at Holden this year, winning the battle 1856 points to 1574 in a reversal of last year's result.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     30:02.1388
 2.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +   9.9224
 3.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +  18.2999
 4.  Will Davison          Holden   +  19.3395
 5.  Jason Richards        Holden   +  19.6016
 6.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +  23.5968
 7.  Garth Tander          Holden   +  23.9157
 8.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +  24.3015
 9.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +  24.8138
10.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     +  25.1699
11.  Steven Richards       Ford     +  29.4561
12.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +  30.4600
13.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +  33.6642
14.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +  38.5661
15.  Marcus Marshall       Ford     +  39.7821
16.  Alex Davison          Ford     +  43.6618
17.  Jason Bargwanna       Holde    +  44.7509
18.  Michael Patrizi       Ford     +  45.2480
19.  Tim Slade             Holden   +  45.9948
20.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +  47.1850
21.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +  48.0366
22.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +  49.1248
23.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +  50.6533
24.  David Reynolds        Holden   +  56.0776
25.  Jack Perkins          Holden   +  59.6080
26.  Dale Wood             Holden   +1:00.6883
27.  Dean Fiore            Holden   +1:01.2457
28.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +   1 lap

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make     Laps
     Jason Bright          Ford      12
     James Courtney        Ford       8