Skaife holds off Rick Kelly in race 1

Skaife led virtually from start to finish despite an early race safety car period, but never really escaped from the clutches of Rick Kelly following the safety car period, the gap hovering around the one second mark.

But Skaife and Kelly's success came at the expense of Kelly's teammate Garth Tander, who looked set for victory in the opening laps before mechanical problems ended his race early, handing the championship lead Tander had only recently taken back to his teammate Rick Kelly.

There was good news for Ford, with Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup completed the podium, right on Kelly's tail, a great result after qualifying in ninth position, while teammate Craig Lowndes finished seventh after starting 23rd.

Between them were three other Fords, the Ford Performance Racing cars of Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards, ten seconds behind Whincup with Jim Beam Racing's Will Davison just ahead of Lowndes.

Todd Kelly's great qualifying turned a little sour at the start, and his day got worse when forced to queue in the pits, Kelly eventually finishing in eighth as his teammate went on to victory.

A long hold on the grid caused a bit of chaos at the start and at turn two, Todd Kelly dropping to third as Garth Tander and Mark Skaife moved ahead, while further down the order the two Jack Daniel's cars made contact, Shane Price forced to retire soon after while Jack Perkins finished 21st.

Tander was out front and looked on track to extend his championship lead when his left front suspension failed entering turn three on lap three of 46, Tander able to make it back to the pits but he went no further, now fearing a repeat of last season where his championship charge began a nosedive at the same circuit.

Drivers had begun their compulsory pit stops when Paul Dumbrell spun off the circuit at turn eight and brought out the safety car. This was bad news for Todd Kelly, who was running second behind teammate Mark Skaife. Kelly was forced to queue for his stop, dropping to seventh.

After the race restarted the top of the order remained fairly static to the chequered flag, while down the order, Craig Lowndes continued his charge up the order. 23rd on the grid, 17th at the end of lap one and tenth at the restart, he managed to claw his way up to seventh by the end of the race.

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