Holden Commodore 2006 News

Helped by the exceptional driving of his Triple Eight Ford teammate Jamie Whincup, the pair won the first Bathurst following the death of nine-time winner Peter Brock early last month.Lowndes reached the pinnacle of his career 10 years after his previous victory with Greg Murphy in a Holden Racing Team Commodore.It was a win that Lowndes steeled himself to pull off to pay the ultimate tribute to Brock, who carefully guided and moulded the 32-year-old into one of the most accomplished drivers in the world.But minutes before the 1000km race blasted away, Lowndes was so choked up with emotion that Roland Dane, the team principal of the Brisbane-based Triple Eight squad, gave him the option of standing down from starting and letting Whincup take the helm for the opening stint.Lowndes rejected the offer and started the race which was marred by a succession of crashes and a record number of 10 safety cars.Thirty-seven of the 161 laps were run under yellow-caution conditions.Lowndes and Whincup were chased hard by the eventual runners-up, brothers Todd and Rick Kelly in the Toll/HSV Holden.Former Formula One test driver James Courtney pulled off an ironman performance in the Jeld-Wen Ford he shared with Glenn Seton, finishing third after doing a double stint.Courtney fought a cramping left hand over the final 10 laps to keep the Stone Brothers Ford ahead of his more accomplished teammate Russell Ingall, who was a fighting fourth with Luke Youlden.It was a day when $1 million-a-year driver Lowndes earned every cent of his pay packet, along with the much more conservatively paid Whincup."It was always going to be special to be the first one to have their name on that trophy," Lowndes said as he fought back tears in reference to the Peter Brock Perpetual trophy commissioned in the last few weeks following the legendary driver's death."It was always going to be emotional and we knew the press would focus on the Brock side of it so the best way I could pay my respect was to put my name on the trophy.""In many respects I think this weekend will hold as the No. 1 result for me."Whincup, who starts contract negotiations next week, may have just raised his value considerably, particularly as he blistered across the top of the mountain in the second sector consistently quicker than Lowndes.And it was Whincup who flung the Triple Eight Ford into the lead, sneaking underneath Todd Kelly on lap 110 just after a restart.The Triple Eight crew performed faultless pit stops in a race that lasted a few seconds short of a marathon seven hours.The worst of the string of crashes was by Team Kiwi Racing's Paul Radisich who was trapped in his mangled Commodore for 20 minutes before being freed. On lap 73, Radisich ran off the road and head-on into the wall near the GMC bridge.Rescue teams cut a whole in the roof of his car to extract Radisich from the wreck. He was lucky to escape serious injury.Pre-race favourite Mark Skaife, starting from pole, crashed out on the first lap.The Holden Racing Team driver was struggling for pace and was running off the racing line on the climb up the mountain when rookie Jack Perkins smashed into him from behind.

The Falcon drivers battled from sixth on the grid, steered cleared of continuing carnage around them, and sprinted home in the final seven-lap dash to take the chequered flag.

Less than 20 laps have been completed in the past hour with two separate safety car periods for crashes to Michael Caruso and Paul Radisich.

Skaife choked as soon as the starting flag dropped, with a slipped clutch that saw him drop to the back of the field before the first corner.

Circuit: 6.213km1. M Skaife / G Tander (Holden Racing Team Commodore) 2mins:07.4221secs.2. J Bright / M Winterbottom (CAT Ford Performance Racing Falcon) 2:07.7292.3. R Kelly / T Kelly (Toll HSV Dealer Commodore) 2:07.7919.4. J Richards / A Jones (Tasman Motorsport Commodore) 2:08.0657. 5. S Richards / P Dumbrell (Jack Daniel's Racing Commodore) 2:08.5399. 6. C Lowndes / J Whincup (Betta Electrical Falcon) 2:08.5403.7. D Canto / L Holdsworth (Repco Valvoline Cummins Commodore) 2:08.5841.8. G Murphy / C McConville (Supercheap Auto Commodore) 2:08.6663.9. R Ingall / L Youlden (Caltex Racing Falcon) 2:09.0987.10. S Johnson / W Davison (FirstRock Home Loans Commodore) 2:09.5437.

Skaife, who drove the last of the flying laps, finished in 2min 07.422sec to earn his fifth Bathurst pole, just one behind all-time leader Peter Brock, who has six.This year's trophy has been named in honour of Brock, who died last month in a crash during the Targa West rally near Perth, and Skaife remembered him after his super lap."Everybody from 'red land' is so supportive and hoping the red team brings home a special victory for Peter, if that happens," Skaife, who will drive tomorrow's endurance race with teammate Garth Tander, said.The front row of the grid tomorrow will be left empty as a mark of respect to Brock, who won the Bathurst 1000 a record nine times.Skaife was third fastest in this morning's practice session at Mount Panorama, with Todd Kelly and Jason Bright nipping ahead of him in the early hours.But Skaife, who is defending the title he won at Bathurst last year, said he wasn't expecting to move too quickly this morning, but knew he would be hard to beat later in the day."I needed to work very hard on the first sector as yesterday I didn't do a good job there," Skaife told Channel 10."But it was a great lap, and good enough to be there (in position one)."This is the best race track you'll ever drive around, and this afternoon, the ambient temperature is right up and the track temperature is up, so that's as fast as you're going to go."Toby Forage is editor of FOXsports.com.au

The defending and five-times Bathurst champion continued to flaunt his superior speed in the No.2 Holden Racing Team Commodore with a time of two minutes 06.9764 seconds - narrowly missing Greg Murphy's 2003 record of 2:06.8594.Such is Skaife's early dominance at the event his time was well clear of his nearest rival - Ford's Jason Bright.Sandown 500 winner Bright, in the CAT Ford Performance Racing Falcon, posted a late flyer to slip into second position with a 2:07.0967.Rick Kelly in the HSV Dealer Commodore clocked the third quickest time of 2:07.6780 while Jason Richards in the Tasman Motorsport Commodore was fourth best in 2:07.6922.Richards had missed all of yesterday's practice session when co-driver Andrew Jones slammed into the wall on the second lap of the day and the team spent the entire afternoon carrying out repairs rather than tinkering with car mechanics.Greg Murphy, Russell Ingall, Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards, Dean Canto and Steven Johnson completed the top ten drivers respectively.There are six Holden and four Ford teams in the top ten. The final grid positions for Sunday's 161-lap race will be determined in tomorrow afternoon's top ten shootout.AAP

Holden's Mark Porter and Ford's David Clark have both been taken to hospital after a heavy crash in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar series race.Ambulance crews and paramedics attended to both Porter and Clark at the track for over an hour, the NRMA Careflight helicopter departing the track a short time ago.Officials have yet to comment on the accident. New Zealand born Porter, 31, is based on the Gold Coast and is married with one child.He was scheduled to also contest the main Bathurst 1000 race for the sixth time this weekend in the Team BOC Falcon shared with Dale Brede.Western Australian born Clark, 26, lives in Adelaide and is married with three children.The accident occured on lap 12 of 14 of today's Fujitsu series race.Porter spun sideways near Reid park on the climb up the mountain, stalled and was left stranded in the middle of the track in an area blinded to oncoming traffic.Chris Alajajian put his car sideways and ripped the rear of both his and Porter's car.Then Clark, who also put his Falcon sideways in an attempt to escape collision, crashed directly into the driver's side door of Porter on his driver's side.Police closed the circuit immediately following the accident.Racing resumed after an hour delay with the Bathurst 1000 qualifying session.AAP

The 31-year-old New Zealander was directly hit by Ford driver David Clark at the top of the Mount Panaorama circuit during the Fujitsu series race."Porter clipped the wall, and Dave had nowhere to go and hit the drivers door at about 200km/h as Porter had come to rest in a blind spot," a witness at the scene said.Ambulance crews and paramedics worked with Porter at the scene before a helicopter flew both him and Clark to hospital.Both drivers are reported to be in a critical condition, suffering from serious head, neck and chest injuries.Confederation of Australian Motorsport president Colin Osborne said CAMS and V8 Supercars Australia have initiated support services for the families of both drivers.Porter spun sideways near Reid Park on the climb up the mountain, stalled and was left stranded in the middle of the track in an area blinded to oncoming traffic.Chris Alajajian put his car sideways and ripped the rear of both his and Porter's car.Clark, who also put his Falcon sideways in an attempt to escape collision, then crashed directly into the driver's side door of Porter on his driver's side.Police closed the circuit immediately after the accident, which happened on the 12th of the race's 14 laps.Racing resumed after an hour delay with the Bathurst 1000 qualifying session.Gemma Jones, a reporter for The Daily Telegraph who witnessed the accident on big screens at the event, said: "A third car had nowhere to go, lost control and slid sideways into one of the stricken cars."The impact was enormous due to their speeds. They were doing about 200km/h on that part of the course. It threw the cars in opposite directions."The first marshal to one of the cars appeared to check the driver's pulse. "He was unable to open the doors and motioned to other marshals nearby that he needed the 'jaws of life' to get the driver out."Porter is currently based with the Gold Coast Msport Racing team.He celebrated his 31st birthday only last Monday.He is married with a one-year-old son.Western Australia-born Clark, 26, lives in Adelaide and is married to Leah with three children - Kyle, Ashleigh and Reese.He is making his debut in the Fujistu series this year.Porter was scheduled to partner Dale Brede in Sunday's main race, diving for Team BOC Falcon.The Bathurst weekend was already set to be a sombre affair with memorials and tributes planned for late racing great Peter Brock, who died in a crash during the Targa West rally almost a month ago to the day on September 8.Brock won Bathurst a record nine times and was 61 when he lost control of his Daytona car and hit a tree at high speed.V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane said the accident reiterated the dangers of the sport."Motor sport is an inherently dangerous sport," Cochrane said."It's a terrible accident and our thoughts are with the families and we just hope for a good outcome."We just have to wait and see."With FOXsports and AAP

The Holden Racing Team No.2 Commodore led the time sheets for the majority of the 135 minute split session, holding an advantage greater than half a second until the final flurry of quick laps when most teams bolted on new tyres.Tander had posted the fastest time of two minutes 08.9594 seconds, with Sandown 500 winner Jason Bright (CAT Ford Performance Racing) closing to be within less than one hundredth of a second behind Tander with a time of 2:08.9665.However in the final minute of the session Skaife jumped back behind the wheel and posted a scorching 2:08.1727 to extend HRT's lead back to almost a second.Toll HSV Dealer Team driver Todd Kelly was third quickest in 2:08.9803.Steven Johnson (First Rock Home Loans Falcon) fired into fourth place in the dying seconds with his 2:09.0053 lap.Steven Richards in the Jack Daniels Commodore also found late speed to move into fifth position with a 2:09.0613 - but he then crashed coming down Conrod Straight after the checkered flag.Ford's Craig Lowndes in the Betta Electrical Falcon posted a 2:09.3283 time to be sixth fastest today.Last year's Bathurst runner up Jason Richards had a terrible start to his event when co-driver Andrew Jones crashed their No.3 Tasman Commodore at the top of the mountain on his first lap of the session forcing their car to have repairs throughout the entire session.Another Holden driver Lee Holdsworth also had a lucky escape when his right tyre blew at 260km/h down Conrod straight and he lost control of his Commodore."I was just a passenger but managed to keep it off the wall," said Holdsworth."I was probably doing 260 (km/h) at the time, I was not going full pelt."AAP