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00:00Well, plenty of action on the track, you can catch all the action on paper in the 1998 V8 Supercar TV Guide.
00:08All the rundown of the 98th Shell Australian Touring Car Championship.
00:11Six bucks on Silent News Agent or your closest Shell shop.
00:15We get ready for race two. Of course, Russell Ingle will start from pole, John Bowell position two.
00:20Three is Larry Perkins, four Craig Lowndes.
00:23Markscope made a good recovery from that first corner incident.
00:26He's in sixth alongside Longhurst, Jason Barguana at the Valvoline Commodore with Jason Wright.
00:30The old sparring partners alongside each other.
00:32These, of course, are the finishing positions of race one.
00:34Steve Johnson nine, his father Dick in tenth.
00:36Clint Seton back in eleventh and John Fork in twelfth.
00:39Seton's just made an engine change too, so he might be looking for some more speed this time around.
00:42Jones and Ellery back there, Mark Larkham in the line of tenth, Ford and Terry Finnegan really in the wars in heat one.
00:47Good effort there by Ellery too, come from twentieth up to fourteenth.
00:49Darren Pate seventeen, Paul Romano eighteen, Tanner nineteen and Tratt top privateer in twentieth.
00:55Also in trouble on heat one as well, Rod Nash, Mel Rose up there too, Chris Smirt.
01:00Steve Reid back at twenty-five, Greg Crick twenty-six, Paul Wheel twenty-seven and Peter Doolman twenty-eight.
01:05Back toward this huge field now, Kevin Heffernan, Danny Osborne, Mick Donagher and right at the back, Gary Courtley, Melinda Price.
01:13Alright, we're getting set for a start.
01:15A little bit of an added extra here.
01:16We're going to have Russell Ingle's telemetry on screen brought to you by Triple M.
01:20This will show you how it is at the start of a race rather than during the race.
01:24We'll hold it up for a short time just to the first corner to see what happens on the line, off the line and down into turn one where it is so frantic.
01:33We saw plenty of action there.
01:35This should be interesting, Murph.
01:36Yeah, it will be.
01:37We'll see how Russell holds the RPM on the car and also when he gets away, what he does with that RPM.
01:43We are raising the revs now, bringing him up.
01:45Some of the guys already on the limiter.
01:46There goes Russell.
01:47And he is nearly on the rev.
01:49He's not on the rev limiter.
01:50Six-five.
01:51Seven.
01:52Now he's on the limiter.
01:53Seven-five.
01:54And away he goes.
01:55Great start, too.
01:56Great start.
01:57Look at that rocket fly.
01:58Jason Bargwana on the grass.
02:00Oh!
02:01John Bauer slotted into second, too.
02:04Jason Bargwana, he'll be disappointed with that.
02:06He lost a lot of positions.
02:07There's carnage in the first turn.
02:09It looked like Tander, I think.
02:12Oh, Tander went off.
02:14Bargwana, it was.
02:15You can see him in the walls off the line.
02:17Managed to get back on the tarmac, then he spun around again after turn one.
02:20Trying to muscle his way through it.
02:22It just didn't work.
02:23So, close competitive stuff.
02:25We're only a few hundred meters into heat, too.
02:27And look at them all over the back of each other.
02:29Russell England, you can see that on the onboard triple-M telemetry.
02:32Holding on the rev limiter.
02:34Bang, dropping the clutch.
02:35And a great start, too.
02:36Very important around Winton Motor Raceway.
02:38Bauer in second.
02:39Then we go back.
02:40Larry Perkins, Craig Lowndes sitting in the back.
02:42Craig Lowndes sitting in the fourth.
02:43It looked like Dick Johnson has already got past Stephen Johnson.
02:46Back in ninth or tenth position.
02:48Here they come now.
02:49Lowndes right on Larry Perkins.
02:50But we'll see if there's a payback here in this race.
02:53For race one.
02:55I think not.
02:56I think Craig's just quite happy to get the points here.
02:58And then go as competitive and as close to the front as he possibly can.
03:01We've got some smoke coming off Acar.
03:03Someone's got a tyre rubbing somewhere.
03:04Steve Johnson, by the looks of things.
03:06As Clint Seton did a quick engine change.
03:0848 minutes.
03:09It took Scotty Owen, Tony Murphy and the crew to slot that new engine in.
03:13He was struggling in heat one, wasn't he?
03:15Right back in 11th place.
03:16He couldn't make a dent in the top ten.
03:18So maybe the boy's lacking a bit of grunt.
03:20Have a look at this field.
03:2136 cars streaming their way around this three kilometre.
03:25Just got a quick shot there of Mark Warner.
03:27He is right in the back of the pack.
03:29So a lot of work to do from him there.
03:31Scape sits in fifth position ahead of Longhurst.
03:34Then we've got Brian Dick Johnson, Steve Johnson and Clint Seton.
03:36That is your top ten.
03:37Romano on the inside of Tander.
03:39Mark Larkham going to fly through.
03:41It's going to be tight here.
03:42Oh, there's contact too.
03:44Tander.
03:46Oh.
03:47Oh, Larkham.
03:50Got sandwiched.
03:51No way to go.
03:52Completely airborne.
03:53All four wheels off the ground as he got the squeeze between those two cars.
03:56Oh boy.
03:57That's Larkham right at the back of the pack.
04:00Look, he's carrying a lot of dirt.
04:01The speed's scooped up in the front spoiler.
04:03I wouldn't be surprised if that car's pretty damaged underneath.
04:06The steering especially, I think, might have been damaged in that one.
04:09I mean, Tander sort of closed the gap, didn't give enough room.
04:12And really, oh, that's a hard one to call again.
04:17But he had nowhere to go then.
04:19He saw the Commodore coming back in front of him.
04:21Nowhere.
04:22And cruncho.
04:23Terry Finnegan on the outside of them both.
04:25Did get airborne too.
04:26That ripple strip helped that, didn't it?
04:28Here's a different angle.
04:30Real domino effect, wasn't it?
04:31You watch when Larkham, he goes off to the other side.
04:34There's Finnegan coming around.
04:35And oof, now Finnegan gets it.
04:37Right off the ground.
04:38The whole thing jumped right off the ground.
04:39Anthony Tratt lucky to squeeze through without any damage there too.
04:41But Larkham's car, that took a pretty hard hit.
04:43Anthony Tratt did well to avoid it.
04:44He went right around the outside as well as we get back to it.
04:47Here's Larry Perkins who sits in third position at the moment.
04:50Whoa, I heard something there.
04:52Sounded like some pretty big contact.
04:53He's not third any longer.
04:54Lowndes is through into third.
04:56He's back in fourth.
04:57Now Scaife is here right on Perkins' hammer.
05:00Then Longhurst Bright is the next one to come through ahead of Dick Johnson.
05:03Steve Johnson and Glenn Seaton.
05:05It is very tight.
05:06Back through ten.
05:09What a traffic jam.
05:10Look at the smoke belching from the back of Larry Perkins' car.
05:12Look at the damage on the rear right.
05:14Yeah, I think I caught a bit of a glimpse there.
05:17He's got a fair bit of dent in the right rear of that car.
05:20So, you know, I think Lowndes and Perkins may have come together there at some stage.
05:24So as this big traffic jam sorts itself out, the order is Engelbauer.
05:28There are the cars on screen right now.
05:29Lowndes and a watching brief in third.
05:32And we are watching John Bowspeed.
05:34This is a great view of what happens.
05:36See, he's not using the clutch either, Mark.
05:38Right, Lowndes up changing.
05:39He's just backing off the throttle, pulling him through again.
05:42So it's different to what we've seen in the past.
05:44Straight up, just back off the throttle, straight through the gearbox.
05:47And on the down changing, he's using the clutch.
05:50All right, big down, big rev on the throttle.
05:52Down three gears at once or two gears.
05:54He's all over the back of Russell this time, which is a bit of a surprise.
05:57I expected to see Russell pull away.
05:58Russell saying, number one, that his tyres didn't come on until late.
06:03J.B. said he was having big problems with the setup of his car.
06:07He said he was very happy to get second the way it was.
06:09But he's all over the back of Engel this time around.
06:11And now Craig Lowndes.
06:12He's narrowing straight in behind these two as well.
06:14So he's looking pretty good at this stage.
06:16The Commodore's looking very sharp.
06:17Synchro and proto on board camera.
06:19Looking out the back of our race leader, Russell Engel, with John Bower.
06:21Applying the pressure.
06:22Lowndes now closes right up on the back of the shell forwards.
06:25That's the order.
06:26One, two, three.
06:27Back and forth.
06:28An escape.
06:29Longhurst bright.
06:30The two Johnsons.
06:31Dick in front of Steve.
06:32And Seton back in 10th position.
06:34Well, that Mobil 1 Commodore has pulled in about, I don't know,
06:3650 or 60 metres in the matter of half a lap.
06:38It's amazing how much he's caught up.
06:40So I don't know what's going on here.
06:42But Russell's definitely not pulling out or making an impression there.
06:46Well, that was a slow one around there.
06:48126.39 for Engel.
06:49Bower was much quicker, yeah.
06:50And look at Lowndes.
06:51Lowndes was the quickest of that time around.
06:53Over half a second quicker than Bower.
06:55Maybe a slow lap there for Russell.
06:57We'll monitor his progress.
06:58Doesn't look like the car is outwardly in any trouble.
07:00No.
07:01For someone who has never driven in this circuit before,
07:03Craig Lowndes has taken to it quite nicely.
07:06There he is.
07:07He sits in third spot at the moment.
07:08We're looking at the shell helix camera.
07:11The back of John Bower's car.
07:16This is on the new part of the circuit.
07:18It's a big up and back mission, if you like.
07:20Big U-shaped section.
07:21Now they're coming towards the old section.
07:24It's quite an impressive performance from Lowndes in this opening lap.
07:27We know we were down there in the pits after heat one.
07:29A lot of the Bridgestone tyre runners weren't happy with the rubber.
07:32They couldn't get it to work properly for them.
07:33But the car looks pretty competitive here.
07:35At the moment, it looks very...
07:36Oh, seat's off!
07:37Oh, his bad luck continues.
07:40He's not having a good year in 1998.
07:42A reigning champ.
07:43And the face is susceptible, but...
07:46Oh, not a good run.
07:48Sedo's not having a good run at all.
07:50He was going alright, sitting in 10th position behind the two Johnsons.
07:53But as he comes through the Motorsport S's now, we'll pick up...
07:56As he goes across the start-finish line, we'll be able to pick up where he goes.
08:02Computer timing. Here's the replay.
08:04Oh!
08:05Traffic jam going into that corner.
08:08They're all fighting for the same bit of road.
08:10And, uh...
08:11He's lost up the rear brakes.
08:12Nothing to happen. It did look like...
08:14Here we go.
08:15There's nothing down the inside. No room at all.
08:17Should see some smoke in a minute.
08:18There we go.
08:19Wow.
08:21So...
08:22Oh, look at that!
08:23How did he miss Stephen Johnson?
08:27How did Steve miss him?
08:29Oh, how close was that?
08:30Now, something's happened there.
08:31Because on our timing monitor, Stephen Johnson has disappeared.
08:34He's way back in 12th now.
08:35Bright is in 8th.
08:36John Faulkner is 9th.
08:37And Stephen Ellery is up into 10th.
08:39So that's great stuff for Ellery.
08:41Well, judging by that, I guess Stephen must have taken some evasive action.
08:44Yeah.
08:45Dropped a few positions, avoiding seating, and that's put him down the order.
08:48But Ingle...
08:49He's not pumping it out of a bow.
08:50He's hanging it right behind him in this battle for the lead.
08:52Just half a second between Ingle and Bauer.
08:54Lowndes sitting back there in 3rd position still.
08:58Sort of consolidated those three, too.
08:59The gaps have sort of, uh...
09:01Opened up a little bit, but remained constant.
09:03So no one's making any impression at this stage.
09:06Middle of the top 10.
09:07Things haven't changed.
09:08Schafer's still 5th.
09:09Loughhurst, 6th.
09:12There is Craig Lowndes, who sits 3rd in the Mobile One HRT Commodore.
09:16There's your two.
09:17Up front, Bauer and Ingle, as it was in Race 1.
09:21Lowndes is doing an impressive job here.
09:23We saw this at Blankside, too, where the car really wasn't the fastest thing on the track.
09:26But he gets out there and he keeps mashing up these points.
09:28Oh, we had a big...
09:31skid there.
09:32One of the cars coming off.
09:34Just beyond our commentary box.
09:36There it is.
09:37The Wins Commodore.
09:38Another Wins Commodore.
09:40There's Darren Pate.
09:41Darren Pate it is, yeah.
09:42Oh, he's just not having a good run.
09:44And it's not coming out of there in a hurry.
09:46He's trying to drive it out of the sand.
09:49He'll be stuck now.
09:50He's not going to go anywhere.
09:51Which is actually in a reasonably sort of precarious position as well.
09:54Just on the outside of Turn 1.
09:55Turn 1.
09:56We've seen a bit of action happen there.
09:58So it is Ingle, Bauer, Lowndes, Perkins, Schafer, Loughhurst, Dick Johnson, Wright and Faulkner.
10:03Ellery still in your top 10 also.
10:07Replay of Pate spinning off.
10:11What do you make of that, Murph?
10:13I think he's gone in a little bit hot.
10:14And he was behind his teammate too.
10:15So hopefully he wasn't trying to do anything desperate.
10:17He had a big squeal of rubber there, didn't he?
10:19I think he's gone in a bit hard, obviously.
10:21And locked up the brakes.
10:22And he's gone.
10:23So there's that shot from our cherry picker.
10:26Way above Winton.
10:28Shows the order.
10:29Russell Ingle defending with John Bauer.
10:31John Bauer you can see him working away on the wheel.
10:33Working very hard.
10:34In the shelf board.
10:35The times there look absolutely identical.
10:38Nearly nine hundredths of a tenth of a second.
10:41I mean that's pretty close.
10:42The gaps remain pretty constant.
10:44The Dunlop tyres are working pretty well today, boys, aren't they?
10:47Very well.
10:48Bridgestone have got a bit of work to do.
10:49They've proven to be a bit of a handful in the last few races.
10:53Onboard telemetry from the shell Falcon, John Bauer.
10:58As he tries to find a way past Russell Ingle, our race leader.
11:01Here you are, John Bauer.
11:04Just received word that Steve Johnson is just cruising around.
11:08Heading towards the pits is the word we get.
11:11Not sure whether he's sustained some damage out there, Mark.
11:14Yeah, could well have done.
11:15It may have been an incident where Glenn can spin and see Stephen coming through.
11:21So may have done some damage to the car.
11:23We'll find out after.
11:24Meanwhile, this is a great battle here between Mark Scaife, Tony Longhurst.
11:27Look at Longhurst down the window.
11:28He's waving his hand down the window.
11:30And Dick Johnson putting on a great display.
11:33He's really showing some turn of speed this weekend.
11:35Well, Tony was pretty pumped up after the heat, wasn't he?
11:38Falkner's gone.
11:39Right out in the dust.
11:40Oh, look how dry it is down here.
11:42I wouldn't want to be coming around that corner right now.
11:45Onto the new section.
11:47Enormous cloud of dust coming up from John Falkner.
11:49He gets it back on the track.
11:51This battle continues between Scaife in fifth, Longhurst in sixth, Johnson in seventh.
11:55As bright Falkner as he was in ninth.
11:57Would have lost a few positions there the next time he comes across the start finish line.
12:00Ellery moves his way up to the top ten as well.
12:02Well, it is happening action aplenty, that is for sure.
12:06Johnson all over the back of Tony Longhurst.
12:09We'll see how it shows up on your home of motorsport right after this.
12:22Welcome back to Wyndon.
12:23You're watching race two, round five, the Shell Australian Touring Car Championship.
12:27Russell Ingle is well in control.
12:29The lights go on.
12:30He's letting some back markers know that he's coming on through
12:33because he's got John Bower right on his tail and pushing him nice and hard.
12:36Lap nine of 15.
12:38Synchron proto in-car camera.
12:39Look at Ingle working real hard.
12:41He won the first race.
12:42In fact, he won the round here last year and is well on the way to repeating that effort.
12:48Yeah, and he's getting pretty close to Craig Lowndes' history of wins this year.
12:51Lowndes has won the most races with five.
12:54That victory, I think, once put Ingle to fourth.
12:57So he's snapping right up the heels of Lowndes in race success as well.
12:59You can see him look down at the floor there, Greg.
13:01Making an adjustment to the chassis.
13:03Yeah, just an adjustment to the roll bar, I think.
13:05Just having a look down and making a bit of a change.
13:07The tyres are changing throughout the whole race.
13:09So, therefore, he's got to make adjustments to try and get the most grip out of that car for the whole time.
13:13You were saying before that Wyndon's a very technical circuit.
13:18What do you mean by technical circuit?
13:19Well, it's one of those circuits that has got so many different corners on it
13:22and you've got to apply yourself very differently to most of them.
13:25But it's very hard to get such a clean lap around here
13:29because you're working so very, very hard all the time.
13:32It's just one of those places we call technical
13:35because it is very hard to get a fast lap around.
13:38Just got a shot there.
13:39This is the whole field coming on through.
13:41There's Garth Tander.
13:42He's doing well.
13:43He's not that far out of the top ten at all.
13:45His team-mate, Jason Barguana, has regrouped
13:47and he's been going very well after those couple of dicey incidents early in the race.
13:51There's Glenn Seet now, reigning Shell Australia touring car champ.
13:55Now, Hossack is in 11th position in the Winds Commodore.
13:57That's great.
13:58Tander and Ellery are 12th and 13th.
14:00Here's the privateers coming on through.
14:02Chris Smerdon at the head of a big bunch.
14:04That looks like Mark Larcombe in there, is it?
14:06So Larcombe's been able to continue.
14:08That's Rod Nash.
14:09The X-Way down to Commodore.
14:11Doing a great job.
14:12It's a huge bunch of cars here.
14:14I'd say Mark would be really struggling now with that incident in the early lap.
14:20It did some damage maybe to the wheel alignment of the car or whatever.
14:23Doesn't seem to be running too quickly.
14:25Well, as you can see on screen there, there's a phone number for you to call.
14:28The Northern Territory Holiday Centre.
14:30We are heading to the Territory in July.
14:32July 19th will be the second last round of this year's Shell Championship.
14:36It's the first time we've been to the Territory,
14:38and if you're thinking about heading up, call 1-800-621-336
14:42and start organising your holiday, your trip.
14:44Right now, a lot of people from the southern states are heading up there.
14:47There's a lot of excited people at the top end, and it should be great.
14:52Well, they're not going much closer than this, guys.
14:55Bowie is still giving Russell a real hard time,
14:57and Falcon's showing a lot of speed today, especially in the second race.
15:02Through the motorsport S as they come.
15:05Well, we were talking before, when it was the other way around,
15:07when John Bower was in front, whether Russell would be able to get past.
15:10I don't think Russell's going to let JB past.
15:12It should be a pretty tough ride.
15:14Syntrome on board camera.
15:17Looking out the window of Ingle's car.
15:20That's what he's seeing in his rear-view mirror.
15:22Lights on. John Bower breathing right down his neck.
15:24And he's only got to make the slightest mistake and Bower will be in there.
15:28The type of place, this is the type of place,
15:30if you make one little mistake,
15:32as I think one of the drivers was saying the other day,
15:35it can upset so many more of the corners.
15:37You have to be right on, and so tight,
15:40and each corner is so close to one another,
15:42you make one mistake, you get out of line,
15:44it's going to cost you dearly for the next corner.
15:46You know, when Russell Ingle made the move on John Bower in Race 1,
15:49exactly what you were just saying then, Greg,
15:51Russell said, I saw John and he got a little out of shape,
15:53he was going in there with a nice slide,
15:55and he said, I'm in, this is my chance.
15:57Open the gap. Yeah, open the gap and I'm through.
15:59And JB said, I couldn't do anything about it,
16:01I'm trying to gather it all up.
16:02Look at Russell now, he's guarding the inside line.
16:04JB doesn't have the speed to be able to get up alongside
16:07and create a move there, but he'll try and double up now.
16:10Force Russell narrow, then look for the...
16:13Obviously not enough room to do it all.
16:15Oh, he made a mistake!
16:17I was just going to say,
16:19you were looking at absolute pressure driving there.
16:22One little mistake, and Bower would be in there.
16:24Look at that Ingle, he just went a little bit too hot into that corner.
16:27I don't think he touched a metre.
16:29I think Russell just overcooked it,
16:31like we saw with Jason Barclay or Jason Wright in the first race.
16:34He will not be happy with himself.
16:36Well, three laps remaining, and he will be kicking himself.
16:39JB, that was full-on pressure.
16:41Well, Russell didn't let JB pass, did he?
16:43JB thought that he might pass.
16:45These are faster slaps in the race,
16:47only 0.02 of a second between Bower and Russell.
16:50They've gone all the way so far.
16:51Russell running over the kerbs here,
16:53the shutter from underneath the car.
16:55Now we've got a bit of traffic coming up here.
16:57This may be another opportunity for Ingle and Bower
16:59just to get caught up in this.
17:00It's Peter Doolman.
17:01Peter Doolman.
17:02Oh, now JB's been caught.
17:04You can't go around the outside, Russell.
17:06Oh, JB, where are you going?
17:10Gives Peter a bit of a shame on the rear bumper.
17:12It's time to get out of the way, son.
17:14I've got someone breathing right down my neck.
17:15Here he comes, down the back straight once again.
17:17Ingle looking for any opportunity.
17:19Lights on on both cars.
17:21Absolute maximum pressure driving.
17:23Through this tight left-hander, John Bower's looking good,
17:25but here comes Russell Ingle.
17:27He's on the way back.
17:28He's not happy.
17:29Lap 13 of 15.
17:30Still time to do it.
17:32And Shell Helix Ford looks very good at the moment.
17:34Very balanced.
17:35JB will be very happy with the car.
17:37And I don't think Russell Ingle is going to be able to do anything about it.
17:39They made quite a few changes from Race 1 to now.
17:42John Bower said he was struggling big time in Race 1.
17:45There is your privateer situation.
17:47Chris Smerdon leads that way
17:49as we're looking at our overall race lead.
17:51Bower's looking comfortable.
17:53He's got a nice little buffer there.
17:54Both these Fords, both the Shell Falcons doing very well.
17:57Dick Johnson sent the fastest lap of that last lap around as well,
18:01so he's going very quick,
18:03obviously just a little bit further back in the pack.
18:04The really good part about this, though,
18:06and you can talk about the Falcon and the Commodore as a race package,
18:09but the strength that John is finding now
18:11is the relationship that he's built up with Lee Guy, his chief engineer.
18:15They really feel like they're starting to understand the car
18:17and the communication between them is so good
18:19that they find they're just tuning it right up to its maximum.
18:22You listen to John's throttle control through that section of the track there,
18:25the fast sweeper.
18:26It's a very, very tricky corner.
18:28You've just got to keep that car so balanced,
18:30otherwise you really make a mess of it
18:32and you can upset the hairpin afterwards.
18:35Keep the car as balanced as possible.
18:37It's been a few years since JB's had a win here at Winton.
18:401995 was his last win when he won both races that year
18:44before the three-race format came in.
18:48He's really showing a bit of dominance here.
18:50That's really impressive. We haven't seen that for a while.
18:55Down this long straight.
18:57This is part of the new section of the Winton circuit.
19:00Craig Lowndes there. He has to tackle the traffic now.
19:03Larry Perkins in behind him.
19:05The escape is still handling the pressure very well from Longhurst.
19:08And in behind him, Dick Johnson,
19:11who has had a great race right from the start
19:13when he worked his way past his son, Stephen, very early on.
19:16He's been charging real hard.
19:18He is in seventh position at the moment.
19:20Paul Romano. We've got to give Romano a plug.
19:22He's in eighth. That's an outstanding effort.
19:24Ahead of Jason Wright and John Corker in tenth.
19:27It's another great result from Romano. He's done a great job.
19:30Last lap for our race leader, John Bower.
19:33Boy, if he can make a points haul here this afternoon,
19:35that's going to be very important to his championship position.
19:38Keep in mind, Bower sitting back in fifth position
19:40when he came into this round.
19:42Craig Lowndes, Russell Engle, Larry Perkins and Mark Scabe ahead of him.
19:46It's a big and capitalised on this day of Winton.
19:48It's going to make a big difference to his championship position.
19:51Well, for how many years has J.B. been consistent
19:53and always challenging for the top three in the championship?
19:56God just knows how to win this thing.
19:59He just keeps piling up those points.
20:01This is on board with Dick Johnson at the moment
20:03around the top end of the circuit.
20:05He's coming up on...
20:06Oh, look at Longhurst. He's really making the most of that track.
20:10Fantastic battle between Mark Scabe in fifth, Longhurst in sixth.
20:14Riding with Dick.
20:15He's got Paul Romano, Jason Wright and Corker behind him.
20:18Traffic jams up and down through the circuit.
20:21Look at Tony Longhurst. He's really pumped.
20:24He's enjoying his day's racing.
20:26We saw him speaking with Mark Osler earlier.
20:28He's loving it.
20:29He said it was so action-packed.
20:31Someone's gone bush, back on.
20:33Who was that?
20:34Can't quite see because of the dust just yet.
20:36I think it's one of our Simon Ibizides, it is, in the Simon Zernberg scarf.
20:40Plenty of action with the privateers.
20:43There's not much to go in this one.
20:44Can Dick Johnson do anything about Tony Longhurst?
20:47But it's check and play.
20:49John Mao's going to get there.
20:51So, we thought Eagle was going to dominate today.
20:54It's not the case.
20:55A big cheer from this big Winston crowd.
20:58The crowd appreciates that one.
20:59Obviously, Ford fans out there.
21:01It's been a bit of a drought for them recently.
21:03But Mao getting up there.
21:05Very well deserved win.
21:06Pushed Eagle.
21:07A little bit of a crack under pressure.
21:08The slightest crack in the armour.
21:10And Mao was in.
21:11Great work.
21:12Lowndes hung on for third.
21:13Larry Perkins was back there in fourth.
21:15There's Romano coming across the line.
21:17Paul Romano, well done.
21:18Eighth spot.
21:19A great top ten finish.
21:20Another really good result was Garth Tander
21:23in the Valvoline Commodore.
21:25He came in in 13th position.
21:26And that's only his second ever V8 supercar round.
21:30So, a great effort by him.
21:32But this man is the number one at the moment.
21:34John Mao in the Shell Helix Ford.
21:36He picks up the win.
21:37He's first since 1995.
21:39Ahead of Russell Eagle.
21:40It was a tight battle.
21:41Lowndes, Perkins and Skate.
21:43We have a look next.
21:44Tony Longhurst and Dick Johnson.
21:46That battle went on for a long time.
21:47Romano, Wright and Faulkner rounding out the top ten.
21:54Probably the most important safety aspect of any V8 supercar
21:59would have to be the roll cage.
22:01It has a dual purpose.
22:02Firstly, for stiffness of the chassis.
22:04And secondly, but more importantly,
22:07for the safety of the driver in case of an accident.
22:10Safety and comfort is paramount in any race car.
22:14That's why the seat's so important.
22:16Because if you're not comfortable,
22:17you sure as hell haven't got your mind on the job.
22:21Another life-saving device aboard a V8 supercar
22:24is this onboard fire system,
22:26which can be activated externally by a marshal
22:29or from the cockpit by a driver.
22:31On our Shell Helix Falcons, we choose to run a window net,
22:35which in case of a heavy impact,
22:37the driver stays within the compartment.
22:40These are just a few of the safety features on a V8 supercar.
22:46Well, you'll never see a greater example of pressure driving
22:49than Heat 2 of the Shell series of wins today.
22:51Absolute maximum pressure.
22:52And Russell Engler looked like wilted under the pressure.
22:54John Bower, you really pushed him all the way
22:56and it looked like it worked.
22:57Well, it's always good to win a race,
22:59especially a hard one like that.
23:00So it was good.
23:01He's a terrific driver.
23:02And he just ran wide on the corner
23:04onto the pit straight here, and I got through.
23:06But it's a very difficult track to pass,
23:09and he was doing everything right.
23:10So it's just a good race.
23:11I love races like this.
23:12It's fun.
23:13Your car looks beautifully balanced, I've got to say.
23:15It looks pretty good everywhere.
23:16Is that the way it feels from the driver's seat at the moment?
23:18Well, the first race it was diabolically lively in the rear end,
23:22and that race we made quite a few changes and it was pretty good.
23:25So if we can just massage it a little more,
23:27it might be even better in the next race.
23:29I hope you can do it again in Heat 3.
23:30Best of luck.
23:31Good on you, mate. Thanks.