Ambrose triple, Ingall and Skaife battle.

by Andy Stobart

Ever get the feeling of d?j? vu?

The final race of the V8 Supercar Series in 2004 started so many similarities with the noteworthy events of exactly a year ago at the same venue it was unreal. There was a thunder storm off in the distance; Marcos Ambrose was leading the race; the electricity failed in the media room; then to top it all Russell Ingall and Mark Skaife were battling for the same piece of race track and Ambrose celebrated his win in the rain. This was 2003 revisited.

Through all of the action, Marcos Ambrose completed a dominant end to his season, finishing the final race of the day exactly where he finished the first and second, with a fine first place.

With lightening evident off in the distance, race three of the V8 Supercar Series was cleanly away at the start, all save for the Orrcon Racing Winterbottom Falcon, whose gravel placement brought out the safety car before the first lap had met its conclusion.

Lining up behind the WPS liveried Audi was Ambrose, Radisich, Lowndes, Steven Richards, Mark Skaife, Max Wilson, Steven Johnson, Russell Ingall and Cameron McConville at the thick end for the restart, whilst the #20 Orrcon car returned to the track to rejoin the safetycar snake, albeit a lap down.

At the restart Ambrose was on a winner as Paul Radisich did a good rear-gunner act for the new recrowned champion opting for the defensive school of race restarts approach.

By the end of the first lap back under green conditions Ambrose was 1.6seconds to the good, meaning that another race where Ambrose was going to be in a class of his own was in prospect.

Then the duel of the race began. Both Russell Ingall and Mark Skaife, the pairing which caused such a stir with their coming-together at this circuit last year, found themselves exiting the pits from their early stops together, with Skaife ahead of Ingall.

The pair were right on a charge with Ingall poised on the rear bumper of the HRT car, and everyone watching just waiting for some contact to happen. The duos traded fastest laps for a time as they battled over what started as twenty-first position, Ingall almost glued to the rear bumper of Skaife's Commodore really pushing hard the whole time, just thousands a lap quicker than Skaife, then dropping back a mere few inches before attacking again.

Out front, ignored by the television cameras, Paul Radisich in his last drive for Ford and Triple Eight was putting in a sterling effort, keeping his tyres for the long duration and playing a waiting game with the weather to see of the predicted rain would come.

The battle was all SBR vs HRT however. Ingall's position on track was soon good enough to the Stone Brothers Racing driver to take second in the championship but still he persisted with hounding Skaify, much to the delight of the fans at track and at home. Ingall was amazingly well behaved, however. The front nose of his car would every so often give the gentlest of kisses to Skaife's rear bumper, but there was no contact for lap after lap after lap of dicing.

Out front, the #88 Falcon was chased, albeit a few laps down, by Steven Richards in the Castrol Racing Commodore. The Holden left its pursuit of Radisich at the start of lap 26, and the very next lap the Kiwi came in for his new rubber, exiting immediately behind the Ingall/Skaife battle, and right in front of Craig Lowndes FPR Cat Falcon.

The Radisich stop put Marcos Ambrose back in his rightful place, first, for a fine end to his season. He was over twenty seconds ahead of the battling Skaife and Ingall, whilst is was yet more d?j? vu for the dicing Lowndes and Radisich, who were together again just like in race two.

The Triple Eight car closed up to Ingall to join the party, whilst Lowndes was losing touch when he had a massive engine blow with just five laps to go. After this, Radisich was then in a comfortable second place for the championship round and opted for a sensible last few laps.

There was good reason for a cautious approach to the chequered as the rain has started, another feature adopted from 2003. It had looked like missing Eastern Creek, and mere laps previously the skies were clearing, but then the drops started, the wind got up and the circuit started to dampen. Alas, it wasn't to be the downpour of last year and it did dampen the Ingall/Skaife battle for a couple of laps, but the Caltex man was soon back in his groove as the chequered flag neared, although he did back off to set himself up for a lock-up in front of the Stone Brothers Racing pitwall in celebration.

Marcos Ambrose ended his year in emphatic fashion and in the post-race press conference he made reference to the fact that his Stone Brothers Racing team has no personnel changes for next season, unlike so many others in the series. Ambrose has plenty of time to celebrate his win, and is getting married in January.

With Russell Ingall taking second in the championship Queensland-based SBR will definitely be the ones to beat when the show gets back on the road. The countdown to the 2005 season starts here.

Top ten race three
1. Marcos Ambrose
2. Mark Skaife
3. Russell Ingall
4. Paul Radisich
5. Todd Kelly
6. Cameron McConville
7. Paul Morris
8. Steven Richards
9. Jason Richards
10. Garth Tander