Skaife comfortably wins race 1

Skaife took the lead after the compulsory pit stops and never looked back, taking victory by nearly seven seconds over pole sitter Rick Kelly.

Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes completed the podium in his Ford after taking the place from Skaife's teammate Todd Kelly in the closing laps, Kelly just holding off Lowndes' teammate Jamie Whincp at the flag.

At the start, Todd Kelly took the lead from brother Rick with Skaife and Steven Richards tucking in just behind. It was the calm before the storm, as turn five saw chaos as contact between Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison sent Winterbottom into a spin. Winterbottom was then collected by Russell Ingall, who had Jason Bright run into the back of him while elsewhere Greg Murphy broke his steering.

The safety car made an appearance as the mess was cleaned up, Winterbottom, Ingall and Bright out with Murphy's car only returning to the track to make sure the repair had been successful for race two. Davison continued relatively unharmed apart from some minor body damage.

The race restarted on lap six of 42, with most of the leaders soon filing into pit lane for their compulsory stops. Skaife and Tander pitted at the end of lap six, Todd Kelly and Steven Richards on lap 7 and Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes on lap 8.

The order shuffled, Skaife now ahead of Rick Kelly, Todd Kelly next ahead of Craig Lowndes, with Steven Richards in fifth just ahead of Garth Tander.

After pressuring Steven Richards for several laps, Tander finally got through on the exit of turn one when Richards ran wide. Whincup snuck through as well but Richards passed him back, only for Whincup to make the move stick just over a lap later.

At the front, Skaife extended his lead over Rick Kelly, while the battle for third between Todd Kelly and Lowndes, and fifth between Tander and Whincup grew more and more intense by every passing lap.

Just when it seemed the order would remain unchanged, Whincup sneaked inside Tander at the hairpin with four laps remaining to take fifth and begin his pursuit of the dicing duo ahead.

Lap 41 of 42 saw another move as Lowndes out-accelerated a slightly sideway Todd Kelly from the hairpin, and despite the two cars clashing as Kelly turned into Lowndes' car at the next turn, Lowndes kept the place to move into third behind Skaife and Rick Kelly.

A post-race hearing saw Will Davison penalised for the contact with Mark Winterbottom. Despite Winterbottom partly contributing to the incident by closing the door on Davison as he began to move alongside, Davison chose to admit he had driven in a reckless manner.

Davison was excluded from race one and given a fine of $5,000 fine, suspended until the end of the year.

Pos  Driver                Car                   Laps
 1.  Mark Skaife           Holden Commodore VE    42
 2.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE    42
 3.  Craig Lowndes         Ford Falcon BF         42
 4.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE    42
 5.  Jamie Whincup         Ford Falcon BF         42
 6.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE    42
 7.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon BF         42
 8.  Max Wilson            Ford Falcon BF         42
 9.  Dean Canto            Holden Commodore VE    42
10.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE    42
11.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon BF         42
12.  Paul Morris           Holden Commodore VE    42
13.  Steve Owen            Holden Commodore VZ    42
14.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VZ    42
15.  John Bowe             Ford Falcon BF         42
16.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon BF         42
17.  Simon Wills           Ford Falcon BF         42
18.  Andrew Jones          Ford Falcon BF         42
19.  Shane Price           Holden Commodore VE    42
20.  Cameron McConville    Holden Commodore VZ    42
21.  Jack Perkins          Holden Commodore VE    42
22.  Fabian Coulthard      Holden Commodore VZ    42
23.  Alan Gurr             Ford Falcon BF         42
24.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden Commodore VE    42
DNF  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE     8
DNF  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon BF
DNF  Russell Ingall        Ford Falcon BF
DNF  Jason Bargwanna       Ford Falcon BF
DNF  Jason Bright          Ford Falcon BF
EXC  Will Davison          Ford Falcon BF