Ford snatches defeat from the jaws of victory

THE race stewards at Eastern Creek snuffed out Ford's best chance yet of a round victory in the 2001 V8 Supercar Shell Championship yesterday.

Officials took a hard line on any infringements during the day's races, which was a turnaround from their performance during the last round in Adelaide where a number of incidents went unchecked.

And the Ford teams were the big losers as Holden went on to collect the honours in round three.

Craig Lowndes was the initial winner of race one in the Gibson Ford, closely followed home by V8 supercar rookie Marcos Ambrose in the Pirtek Falcon.

However, the elation did not last long as both drivers were stripped of their placings following a post-race inquiry by race stewards.

Lowndes was found to have illegally passed Greg Murphy during a safety car period and was penalised 29 seconds - the equivalent of a stop/go penalty - relegating him from first to 12th in the results.

"I'm annoyed that we could have rectified the problem if we'd known about it.

We were only 12 laps into a 26-lap race, I could have let him pass and then concentrate on cleanly regaining the position on the track," Lowndes said.

"The results don't show it, but the Gibson Motorsport 00 Falcon was the best performer in the field today. The car was quick and the team's pitting strategy was flawless. It's a disappointment to not have these efforts rewarded."Ambrose's contact with Murphy in a battle for track position was also deemed illegal and he was given the same penalty, dropping from second to 14th as a result.

The penalties opened the door for a Holden trifecta with Murphy inheriting the win ahead of the Holden Racing Team pair of Mark Skaife and Jason Bright.

The drama continued in race two, when Murphy jumped the start and was served with a stop/go penalty, which put him out of the running for the rest of the day.

Skaife took the lead after Murphy headed into the pits and controlled the race from there to take victory ahead of his teammate Bright.

Paul Radisich grabbed third to at least keep Ford in the results, while John Bowe had his best performance of the season with a fourth place in both races in his new CAT Racing Falcon.

Lowndes and Ambrose managed fifth and sixth respectively in race two.

Bright picked up enough points with third and second placings to retain his lead in the championship, although Skaife has closed the gap slightly. Steven Johnson and Russell Ingall had forgettable weekends, finishing 14th and 18th in the overall results but remain in third and fourth positions in the chase for the title.

Ford had looked set for a strong performance after qualifying saw them take control of the first two rows and five of the first six grid positions, with Murphy flying the sole Holden flag for the K-Mart team out of fifth position.

The combination of pit stops and a safety car period in race one conspired to ruin the hopes of a number of teams in race one, particularly for Ford Tickford Racing. Glenn Seton and Steven Richards were running first and second before being caught out by the safety car when Paul Romano speared off in the Young Lions Holden.

As a result, they missed the optimum pit window and were shuffled back as far as 17th and 14th respectively.

RACE ONE RESULTS1 Greg Murphy (Holden) 43:29.3712 M Skaife (Holden) +0.9823 J Bright (Holden) +7.6104 J Bowe (Ford) +8.2075 P Radisich (Ford) +8.8056 Brad Jones (Ford) +15.0647 Paul Morris (Holden) +19.655 8 Paul Weel (Ford) +19.9459 Cameron McLean (Ford) +20.213 10 Tony Longhurst (Holden) +21.499RACE TWO RESULTS1 Mark Skaife (Holden) 41:24.0192 J Bright (Holden) +9.4593 P Radisich (Ford) +15.2414 J Bowe (Ford) +18.0585 C Lowndes (Ford) +19.0196 M Ambrose (Ford) +20.5887 G Seton (Ford) +22.2908 Todd Kelly (Holden) +27.9049 C McLean (Ford) +31.88710 Garth Tander (Holden) +34.229DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP1 Bright (HRT Holden) 9402 Skaife (HRT Holden) 8903 Johnson (Shell Ford) 7164 Ingall (Castrol Holden) 7135 Kelly (K-Mart Holden) 6336 Murphy (K-Mart Holden) 6247 Lowndes (Gibson Ford) 6238 Ambrose (Pirtek Ford) 6089 Seton (Tickford Ford) 59610 Richards (Tickford Ford) 552Next round: Hidden Valley, Darwin, May 12-13