2005 Bathurst 1000

[motorsportnerd]

The annual Bathurst 1000 endurance classic for V8 Supercars - round 10 of the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship - is on this weekend.
With qualifying held yesterday and the top ten shootout to be held today, so far my predictions are going OK (see the "Bathurst 1000 Predictions" thread in the Australian cars section). I predicted 8 of the top ten drivers to contest today's shootout for pole position. The top ten at the end of qualifying were:
Lowndes/Muller 1st, Skaife/Kelly 2nd, Ambrose/Luff 3rd, Tander/Kelly 4th, Murphy/Weel 5th, S. Richards/Dumbrell 6th, Jason Richards/Wincup 7th, Ingall/Youlden 8th, Seton/Canto 9th, Jim Richards/Courtney 10th.
The two I got wrong were Radicish/Morris who will start 20th, and Bowe/Jones who have had car setup problems and will start 26th.
Jason Richards was the big surprise in qualifying - 7th fastest. And Jim Richards, the oldest bloke in the field at 58, showing that an "old" bloke can mix it with the younger guys - but then this old bloke is also the most successful driver in the race with 7 Bathurst wins to his name. Keep in mind also that "Richo" as he's known hasn't qualified a V8 Supercar for two years. Last year he was the co-driver with his son - and unfortunately hit a kangaroo. Jim will be hoping he doesn't even see a kangaroo this year.
The other surprise was the Britek Motorsport Falcon of Steve Owen/Matthew White, which was 14th and looking good for a while to make the top 10.
The times are super fast this year - Lowndes did a 2m07.1322. The Castrol Commodore with Steven Richards at the wheel has clocked 302 km/h on Conrod straight - finally and officially breaking the 300km/h barrier on the longest straight on the circuit.
If todays shoot out is dry, Greg Murphy's qualifying lap record of 2m06.8 is under serious threat.
However, the forecast isn't good - so it may be a wet shootout.