Field narrows to five

Of the six rounds of the championship so far, five have been reverse grid races. On reflection, not much real excitement occurred but no harm was done either, although a few disgruntled team owners might disagree.

The championship started in March and is, as near as dammit, halfway through a season which will end in December.

So who's winning and who's losing? Well, from a field of 31 drivers who started, the field has been whittled down to five who have realistic chances of winning the title.

On the evidence so far, no one from and including Steven Richards, who is running sixth, can now win. That leaves Garth Tander, Craig Lowndes, Rick Kelly, Russell Ingall and Mark Winterbottom, in that order.

Richards is more than 250 points behind the leader and it is hard to conceive that each and every one of the five drivers ahead of him will have the disastrous weekend necessary to bring them back to the field. Richards has been consistent without being brilliant in a Holden which hasn't been as bullet-proof as others Perkins has produced.

But at least he is streets ahead of three other Holden stars who, for some weeks, have been talking about Sandown and Bathurst as if they were the motor racing equivalent of Lourdes. Skaife's disaster in Adelaide where he didn't score a point was always going to come back to haunt him. Darwin finished him off. But well before Skaife relinquished his grip, Todd Kelly and Greg Murphy bit the dust.

Kelly has been unlucky that his Holden has suffered from more mechanical problems than Mark Webber's Williams ... and that's saying something. Murphy has never been on the pace and his best result — 10th in Darwin — is indicative of his 2006 season, which sees him lying 17th, one place ahead of Kelly. Both of them are so far off the pace that even a Top 10 finish seems out of the question.

The disappointment for Ford fans has been Jason Bright: prominent in the last three rounds but his first three did the damage. Bright has always had the speed and now has a car capable of winning rounds as well as races but the improvement did not come soon enough. Nevertheless, Bright and his more fortunate teammate, Winterbottom, who is fifth, will be an added bonus for Ford fans as the season unwinds.

Lowndes, as expected, is a genuine title contender from second position, but what do we make of Ingall? The defending champion is fourth without being prominent, under pressure to add some flair to a campaign which reeks of nothing but consistency.

The drivers to beat are Tander and Rick Kelly, first and third respectively.

They both found speed after Bathurst last year and have successfully continued this year to the extent they look to have the fight with Lowndes to themselves.

The two Holden drivers versus the Ford superstar should make for an interesting second half of the season, especially as there are that handful of Ford drivers who look likely to influence results before the grand finale at Phillip Island.