Bright and Frosty deliver FPR first Sandown win.

By Matthew Agius

Big names fell in this afternoon's eighth round of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series as Ford Performance Racing's Jason Bright and Mark Winterbottom of the took out the Betta Electrical 500 Melbourne at Sandown Raceway in what was the year's most memorable race so far.

The first driver to cross the line, Bright, led home the Toll HSV Dealer Team car of the brothers Todd and Rick Kelly, with 2005 Sandown winners Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup coming home in third for Team Betta Electrical.

However the race saw several huge entries fall from grace on the demanding track that is Sandown Park. Mark Skaife and Garth Tander - the dominant drivers of the Holden Racing Team - were forced out from the lead when the steering in the lead HRT Commodore broke just over forty laps from the finish. In doing so, Garth Tander's championship hopes were literally dashed as usual teammate Rick Kelly and Ford's Craig Lowndes opened up an even larger buffer in the championship.

The race started badly for polesitter Tander, getting swamped by Jamie Whincup, Max Wilson and Mark Winterbottom and causing him to drop several dozen laps trying to catch the run away leader in Whincup. The Team Betta Electrical driver was able to gap the field as Wilson struggled to keep pace of those drivers attempting to pass him, indeed there was a long train of cars banked up behind the Brazilian for several laps.

Garth Tander passed Max Wilson on lap seven, and proceeded to hunt down and overtake Jamie Whincup shortly after exiting turn one. Tander then pumped out the fastest lap several times.

The race began settling down into a rhythm shortly after the chaotic start, some cars endured costly mechanical failures - heavyweights Paul Dumbrell and Russell Ingall had to pit several times.

Sticky brake pedals were experienced in both Stone Brothers Racing Falcons. The Caltex Falcon went off track numerous times before its first pit stop, but then after Ingall changed with Luke Youlden, the team

Team Betta Electrical pitted under green flags - a bizarre strategy, as Craig Lowndes eventually went a lap down after taking over from Jamie Whincup. However this sparked one of the drives of the year. A veteran of the Sandown circuit, Lowndes charged through the field, recovered his lap and eventually began carving through the field.

After two third's race distance, Mark Skaife having taken control of the lead Holden Racing Team Commodore went straight ahead at turn four after green racing resumed after a safety car. According to the HRT, steering onboard the car was damaged, enough so to force Skaife to halt racing and pull into the team's garage.

At the front of the field, Rick Kelly had inherited the race lead, but was battling with Ford Performance Racing's Jason Bright for first position. Surprisingly, Team BOC's Brad Jones was circulating in third place twelve seconds behind. At the approach to the end of the race, the rain came. Forecast for later in the afternoon, light precipitation began sprinkling only thirty laps from the end.

On the 138th lap, race leaders Rick Kelly and Jason Bright switched places at the final turn of the circuit, as the Caterpillar Falcon ducked down the inside of the Toll HSV Dealer Team Commodore and claimed the lead before the control line.

Craig Lowndes caught and passed Brad Jones for third place on lap 140 at turn one, then proceeding to hunt down Rick Kelly for the second spot on the podium - eleven seconds ahead.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering Falcon was lapping three tenths of a second faster than Kelly, but was caught in traffic, barely twenty-five laps from the finish. At the very front, Rick Kelly had clawed back the slim margin Jason Bright had opened over him. Well behind, Cameron McConville's Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore began belching smoke out of its rear. At the hands of Greg Murphy, the car had risen from twenty-fourth on the grid to fourth, before power steering issues halted the pair's charge, ten laps from the race finish, and it looked as though the #51 entry's mechanical issues had caught up with it.

Jason Bright reopened the gap to one second over Kelly just nine laps out from the end. Whilst Lowndes was forced to hold down third, although a brief scare for the Team Betta Electrical crew saw Lowndes slide off the road after locking a left front tyre at Dandenong Road corner.

With just four laps remaining, Rick Kelly continued to harass the Caterpillar Falcon, so much so that the pair was drag racing down the main straight on lap 159. The same thing happened down the back straight on lap 159. Blocking hard, Bright made huge efforts to keep first place, reminiscent of Mark Skaife battling with Jason Richards in 2003. The final lap was heart in mouth stuff, Bright holding off Kelly just enough to maintain a literal nose-to-talk finish and deliver FPR their most emphatic race win to date.

It was Ford Performance Racing's first round victory in V8 Supercars since Phillip Island in 2003, but easily its most important. Having finished twice on the Bathurst podium in 2003 and 2004, FPR has cemented itself as endurance racing masters with an amazing victory on home territory, the team's Broadmeadows factory just across town.

It was Jason Bright's first ever Sandown win, after having made the podium with Alan Jones on debut. It was also the first Sandown and round win for Mark Winterbottom - the 2003 Konica Series champion having jumped to FPR from Larkham Motorsport at the right time in his career.

"It was a long time coming, I've said for a while now I would give up a bit of the bad luck to win one of these two. We came into this year with the wrong kind of bang in Adelaide and we've been on the pace since then," said Jason Bright.

"It's awesome. Last year I was battling for survival to turn up at Indy and this year I win the race. I've had two podiums this year, it's been awesome," added Winterbottom.

"It was really good to get away with this one and now it's off to the mountain."

"There were a few rounds that I considered to have slipped away from us this year. Mark is having a great year in the Championship and we knew we would be a strong combination here."

For the Toll HSVDT pair of Rick and Todd Kelly, second place at Sandown was enough to secure second place in the championship for the former, whilst Todd Kelly grabbed his second podium finish of 2006.

"I was a little disappointed, as we have been sitting around in or around the top three for most of the year and haven't cracked it for a win. When Brighty got by me I had been playing around with the brake bias to try to protect the rears (tyres), and I just caught one (front tyre) on that corner and Brighty jumped past me," said Kelly.

"It was a great move by him - a little bit aggressive - and I didn't want to fight him too much for it, and in the end I couldn't do the same to him. Todd has done a lot of the car set up over the weekend, and he has really helped us out. I was a little bit worried coming into this round, never having driven with Todd in a race team.

"I though we might lose focus and muck about all weekend, but it has been really good. So we head to Bathurst with a lot of confidence and ready to have a red hot go at it."

Unable to defend his 2005 crown, Craig Lowndes was still happy with his podium finish alongside Jamie Whincup after a bizarre scheduled pitstop strategy relegated the #888 Falcon one lap down.

"It's really pleasing to finish on the podium today considering the situation we were in after the first pit stop, we went down a lap and the boys told me to just push on to try to work on the gap," said Lowndes.

"The car had good pace and was well balanced in the middle stage which allowed me to make up quite a bit of ground, and a safety car period, which had worked against us at the start of the race, then worked back in our favour. It became quite hard to pass on the lead lap, the top car were separated by a number of backmarkers and I was becoming quite frustrated in my attempts to pass some of them."

"We pushed hard but in the end there were still around 6 or 7 cars to Rick (Kelly) and it was then a matter of recording a strong bag of championship points and maintaining third place on the podium. Jamie did a fantastic job to start the race and really held his own out there, I'm pleased to be going into Bathurst with a such a strong teammate sharing the driving duties."

For the second consecutive round, the FirstRock Home Loans Falcon finished fourth outright, with Steve Johnson claiming the position from Brad Jones in the dying stages of the race.

"It was a tough day, Sandown is always tough but the car was great, it was a good day," said Johnson.

"I was determined to nail Brad before the end if I could and we did, so I am very happy. We are in good shape for Bathurst."

"Been a fantastic weekend for us, all weekend we had no dramas, the team really gelled, it's a great result," said Johnson's co-driver Will Davison.

"During my stint it was a bit frustrating because the backmarkers were unbelievable, really terrible, they just didn't seem to see the flags so you had to be very careful, but otherwise I am very pleased."

Team BOC were the biggest standouts today, as the lowly minnows, in many ways the Minardi of V8 Supercars, took it to the big guys today, the fifth placed John Bowe and Brad Jones conceded fourth to a hard charging Steven Johnson near the end of the race, but nonetheless, the pair will take encouragement from Sandown going into the forthcoming Bathurst 1000.

"I'm a bit disappointed to have made that small error in the closing stages of the race. The Team BOC Falcon was really good this afternoon and I can't thank the crew enough for their work this weekend. Their strategy and pit work were the difference today."

"I think our pace here this weekend shows that we are moving forwards with the car, not backwards. We were a bit upset yesterday afternoon but this more than makes up for it."

The aftermath of the Sandown 500 sees Craig Lowndes lead Rick Kelly and Garth Tander in the championship. The next round of the series will be contested at the legendary Mount Panorama at Bathurst for the Supercheap Auto 1000.