I'm surprised FPV or Falc haven't already started this thread. So here goes.
The Australian V8 Supercar Championship is at Hidden Valley Raceway near Darwin this weekend.
After qualifying, Jason Bright (PWR Commodore) was quickest. The entire field of 32 was seperated by just 1.6 seconds, with the top 28 within 1 second, such is the competitiveness and closeness of the field in this championship.
In the top 10 shoot out Mark Skaife took pole. The top 10 on the grid was
1st Mark Skaife HRT Holden Commodore VY
2nd Todd Kelly HRT Holden Commodore VY
3rd Jason Bright PWR Holden Commodore VY
4th Marcus Ambrose SBR Pirtek Ford Falcon BA
5th Russell Ingall SBR Caltex Ford Falcon BA
6th Steven Richards Castrol Perkins Holden Commodore VY
7th Rick Kelly K-Mart Holden Commodore VY
8th Max Wilson Triple 888 Ford Falcon BA
9th Simon Wills Team Dynamic Holden Commodore VY
10th Jason Bargwanna LMS Ford Falcon BA

The first race was won this afternoon. It looked like Mark Skaife would win right up until the very last corner. Marcus Ambrose took advantage of Skaife leaving the door open and attempted to pass. Skaife was having none of it and they collided. Skaife ran off the circuit and rejoined to finish 13th. Ambrose ran wide, lost two places and drove down the finish straight with bent steering to finish 3rd. Russell Ingall took advantage of the collision between Skaife and Ambrose to win, with Todd Kelly second.
Skaife was rather unimpressed by the collision. He assumed that as the championship leader, Ambrose would play it safe and take second. I don't think he expected Ambrose to attempt a overtaking move on the last corner. I haven't heard Ambrose's comments on the incident yet, but TV footage on the news tonight (no live coverage of race 1) showed that Ambrose was well passed the B-pillar before the two collided. Thus, by V8 Supercar rules, it was a fair pass and Skaife should have yielded.
So, Skaife has now had run-ins with both Stone Brothers Racing drivers (he and Ingall had a coming to together in the last round last year). I don't think either Ambrose or Ingall will be on Skaife's Xmas card list this year.
Final results of race 1 were:
1st Russell Ingall SBR Caltex Ford Falcon BA
2nd Todd Kelly HRT Holden Commodore VY
3rd Marcus Ambrose SBR Ford Falcon BA
4th Jason Bright PWR Holden Commodore VY
5th Steven Richards Castrol Perkins Holden Commodore VY
6th Rick Kelly K-Mart Holden Commodore VY
7th Jason Bargwanna LMS Ford Falcon BA
8th John Bowe BJR OzeMail Ford Falcon BA
9th Paul Radisich Triple 888 Ford Falcon BA
10th Max Wilson Triple 888 Ford Falcon BA

Races 2 and 3 are on tomorrow. No doubt there will be plenty said in the next couple of days about the Skaife/Ambrose crash.