Richards heads FPR 1-2 in race 3

The FPR duo ran 1-2 apart from a brief period during the compulsory pit stops, the result giving Ford Performance Racing a 1-2 finish overall for the round, Richards again ahead of Winterbottom.

Third in race three and third for the round was Garth Tander, who showed consistent pace as well as managing to hold off the challenge of the Team Vodafone cars behind him.

For Team Vodafone, their frustrating weekend continued with Whincup dropping from fourth to ninth on lap 33 just after a restart, when he went around the outside of Tander in turn one.

Tander appeared to either fail to see Whincup or deliberately drove wide, the two cars making contact, with Whincup's two left-hand side tyres coming off the ground and then ran wide, while Tander continued on unscathed.

Lowndes, who then moved into fourth, looked like finishing his weekend off well but disaster struck halfway around the final lap when his engine failed in a cloud of smoke, failing to record a finish or score any points in the final race. The only good news for the team was that it moved Whincup up one place to eighth.

So instead of the two Team Vodafone cars in fourth and fifth, it was Super Cheap's Russell Ingall and Jim Beam's Will Davison. Not far behind Davison was Rick Kelly, just ahead of James Courtney, a remarkable effort for Courtney after starting 24th and completing over half the race with a sick-sounding engine.

Whincup was next, with Shane van Gisbergen and Greg Murphy completing the top ten, with less than five seconds covering the next five cars.

After his strong recovery in race two, Mark Skaife's fortunes took another turn for the worse in race three. Running sixth on lap 6, he pitted, only to be hit hard from behind by Jason Richards on pit entry.

The contact saw Richards retire on the next lap, and while Skaife continued, it caused damage to the boot and rear bumper of his car, affecting the aerodynamics provided by the rear wing and diffuser, the wing sitting effectively flat to the oncoming air.

The contact also caused water to temporarily pour from the rear of the car as it had split the tank for cooling the brakes. What looked set to be a strong top-ten finish for Skaife ended out of the points in eighteenth position.

Winterbottom's three podium finishes saw him extend his lead over Tander in the championship by six points to 58. Whincup's dramas over the weekend has seen him fall 68 points behind Tander, with Rick Kelly completing the top four, another 68 points further back, 194 points behind Winterbottom.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Steven Richards       Ford     52:15.1404
 2.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +   2.8240
 3.  Garth Tander          Holden   +   3.5895
 4.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +   6.8423
 5.  Will Davison          Ford     +   9.4320
 6.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +  10.9606
 7.  James Courtney        Ford     +  12.3523
 8.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     +  13.0390
 9.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +  13.4614
10.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +  14.4724
11.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +  15.1466
12.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +  15.5234
13.  Paul Morris           Holden   +  16.1618
14.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +  17.3389
15.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +  18.3376
16.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +  19.1648
17.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +  21.2292
18.  Mark Skaife           Holden   +  26.6036
19.  Michael Patrizi       Ford     +  28.1074
20.  Marcus Marshall       Ford     +  29.5485
21.  Andrew Jones          Holden   +   1 lap
22.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +   1 lap
23.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +   1 lap
24.  Kayne Scott           Ford     +   3 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make     Laps
     Craig Lowndes         Ford      41
     Andrew Thompson       Holden    28
     Shane Price           Holden    16
     Jason Bright          Ford      14
     Jason Richards        Holden     6