Winterbottom dominates race 2

Despite not making the best of starts, Winterbottom showed the way from the end of lap one onwards, apart from a mid-race break during the compulsory pit stop phase, winning by ten seconds.

James Courtney finished second despite making contact with Will Davison at turn one that saw Courtney move ahead as he exited from his pit stop, with the two Jim Beam Falcons of Davison and Steven Johnson nose-to-tail in third and fourth 13 seconds behind Courtney.

Right on Johnson's bumper was Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes, who made a remarkable recovery from his race one dramas to finish fifth after starting 30th, closing down the margin in the title race.

At the start, Winterbottom was beaten to turn one by Toll HSV's Garth Tander, who forced Winterbottom wide allowing Tander's teammate Rick Kelly through to second, both Toll HSV drivers making great starts.

But Winterbottom showed he had the pace as he passed Kelly into the final turn of the lap before retaking the lead from Tander before they had even completed lap one, Tander having to defend from teammate Kelly as well.

The next lap the scene was repeated between the Toll HSV duo, except it didn't end as nicely. Kelly went down the inside of Tander but Tander refused to yield, with the two inevitably making contact.

Second and third before the contact, Rick Kelly resumed in fifth while Tander dropped to 27th. However, at the following sequence of turns Kelly lost more ground and was side-by-side with Mark Skaife through turns six and seven.

Through turn seven Kelly got sideways and hit Skaife, sending Kelly spinning and Skaife off track, Skaife resuming 15th, Kelly in 17th. Despite all the contact made and positions lost, no penalty was issued to any driver involved in either incident.

The good news for the Toll HSV guys was that Jamie Whincup had already been involved in an incident with Lee Holdsworth and had been spun, for which Holdsworth was given a penalty after the race.

Whincup reversed back onto the edge of the track just as Max Wilson went by. Wilson clipped the rear of Whincup's car, which suffered minor to moderate damage, Whincup resuming last.

It probably affected Whincup's speed a little but what affected his result more was a penalty for making an unsafe re-entry, ruling him out of any chance of scoring points as he finished 22nd.

Apart from the incidents the championship contenders were involved in, it was a relatively calm race, apart from a continuing battle between Paul Morris and Todd Kelly which saw the cars bounce off each other a few times.

The most serious of these was when Morris hit Kelly in the rear bumper on lap 15, forcing Kelly to pit as Morris continued on. Despite the obvious contact made, no penalty was issued until after the race was finished.

This penalty was good news for Garth Tander, as it bumped him up a position to 14th, while his teammate Rick Kelly finished the race in 12th.

The championship battle has now closed up, Tander still leading, on 515 points, with his margin over Whincup now extended to 14 points after Whincup's disaster. But Lowndes and Kelly both closed in, both of them on 486 points, just 29 behind Tander.

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