Advice: The points tables for most series covered by Elsewhere In Racing are available here. Individual series are linked to their corresponding points table after each report.

  V8 Supercar

Classy Ambrose Champion, As Skaife And Ingall Clash

Marcos Ambrose went into the final round of the championship in the lead, but his recent form was not what you want heading into such a finale. With his closest rival Greg Murphy winning two of the last three rounds, and his other rival also winning since Ambrose's last victory, it looked as though defeat could be snatched from the jaws of victory for Ambrose.

Almost bizarrely, it was the exact opposite that happened. Ambrose took two dominant race wins to clinch the championship, while his two rivals ended up having disastrous weekends. A slow car, making contact with another car in race one and then a back problem saw Murphy's title charge end before the start of race tw. Meanwhile Skaife jumped the start of race one before racing back up the order, but his title chances were over when Ambrose made it to half distance in race two. But Skaife's weekend got worse again when he was involved in contact with Russell Ingall late in race two, which ended up with Skaife losing his temper, points and dollars.

And so it was Ambrose who took Ford's first V8 Supercar title since Glenn Seton in 1997 as the first season of Project Blueprint came to a close. Along the way he took six round victories from the thirteen rounds, with his teammate Russell Ingall also scoring two along the way. Not only did Ambrose's title end Holden's stranglehold on the title, it also broke HRT's five year reign on the title as Stone Brothers Racing claimed their first driver's title.

The weekend's event was originally scheduled to be a single 400 km race, but it was deemed that this would be too stressful on the drivers, and so the event was changed to a two race format, a 150 km race with a compulsory tyre stop on Saturday, with a 250 km race with a compulsory stop for tyres and a compulsory stop for fuel on the Sunday. All this set things for an exciting finale to decide the 2003 V8 Supercar champion, with Marcos Ambrose, Greg Murphy and Mark Skaife the three remaining contenders.

A novelty for the weekend was qualifying, with no traditional qualifying session taking place. Instead, there was a full field one lap shootout, with the order they took to the track determined by a lottery style draw with names and positions drawn by lucky fans. Whatever effect this had on the results is unclear, but regardless of this it was an all HRT front row, Mark Skaife ahead of Todd Kelly, with Jason Bright third ahead of championship leader Marcos Ambrose. The other championship contender, Greg Murphy, had been struggling all weekend despite showing strong speed at the previous four rounds, qualifying in fourteenth.

Race one began with Skaife and Ambrose making great starts, Skaife leading Ambrose, Kelly, Bright and Max Wilson through turn one on lap one. Unfortunately for Skaife his start had been a little too good, his car rolling ever so slightly as the lights sat on red and then went out, immediately being hit with a drivethrough penalty. Meanwhile there was action at the right hander at the bottom of Corporate Hill, as a chain collision on entry ended up with Steve Ellery and Simon Wills spun and a couple of cars forced to take avoiding action. Steve Ellery's wild ride continued at the start of the next lap when he went off at turn one at 200+ km/h after getting on the dirty line, sliding sideways through the gravel at high speed before gently nudging the tyres, resuming almost unscathed but a long way behind the field.

Skaife came in on lap two to take his penalty, dropping him from first place to thirtieth. This moved Ambrose into the lead, just where he wanted to be. Another driver heading to the pits to take a penalty was Garth Tander, after tapping Steven Johnson into a spin at turn two. Now leading, Ambrose began stretching a lead as Kelly fell into the grips of Bright. An early move was Russell Ingall, up to tenth after five laps after starting in eighteenth. Despite the tyre torture Eastern Creek wreaks on tyres, some drivers had already taken their compulsory tyre stops five laps into the 39 lap race.

Lap eight saw Bright move into second as Kelly ran wide at the right hander at the bottom of Corporate Hill, Kelly continuing to struggle a little after the pass. Lap ten saw Ambrose become the first of the leaders to make his tyre stop, Murphy following from sixth place on the next lap, Wilson from third on lap thirteen and Lowndes on lap fifteen. When Murphy resumed from his stop he ended up smack bang in the middle of a pack of Fords. Lap seventeen saw one less Ford in the pack after Murphy spun Glenn Seton at turn five. Having hit him on the rear bumper, it was no surprise when he was given a drivethrough penalty soon after, dropping Murphy from just outside the top ten to 26th. This meant that, at this point at least, Ambrose was almost within sight of claiming the title.

Skaife made his stop on lap eighteen, having climbed up to fifth just beforehand due to a combination of consistent quick laps and other drivers having already pitted. Meanwhile Bright stayed out as he continued to lead since Ambrose's stop, finally pitting on lap twenty, Kelly following suit three laps later. When all the stops were over Ambrose returned to the lead over fifteen seconds ahead of Bright, Steven Richards, who had pitted early while running fifth, Kelly and Ingall, who had moved up well from his poor starting position. The fight for third saw Kelly take it back from Richards at turn two on lap 28.

Ingall's charge had been mirrored by Skaife, who was back up to eleventh place by lap 30 of 39 and continued to press on, while Murphy had a minor off and lost a couple of places. Up front the order remained unchanged, as the leaders wound down the closing laps, Ingall closing on Richards for fourth before taking the place on lap 35 at the right hander at the bottom of Corporate Hill after Richards ran wide almost identically to Kelly earlier in the race. That was how it stayed at the front, Marcos Ambrose taking a comfortable win ahead of Jason Bright, Todd Kelly, Russell Ingall and Steven Richards, with Skaife's late race charge bringing him up to eight place by the chequered flag, finishing just behind Wilson and Lowndes.

Murphy's day was finally over, finishing in 24th place after he struggled all race with a car that simply wasn't fast. Skaife and Murphy's troubles meant that Ambrose had almost clinched the title - all Ambrose needed to do to make it certain was to make it to half distance of Sunday's race and finish in 31st place. This became that much easier when David Krause withdrew and reduced the field to 31 cars. But there was one more twist yet to come. While participating in a promotional drive for one of the series' sponsors, Greg Murphy slipped a disc in his back and was forced to withdraw from Sunday's race.

Somewhat surprisingly, though this ended his chances of winning the title, this didn't greatly affect his chances of finishing second. As it stood this was likely to be his worst round for the season, and so he would have needed to finish in the top four in Sunday's race to improve his overall points score. Nevertheless, this meant that Skaife was now the only driver that could beat Ambrose for the title, and even that required Skaife to win or finish second, and Ambrose DNF before half distance.

As if this wasn't enough, rain loomed on the horizon, threatening to fall before the race was over. The race began with Ambrose making a great start as he led teammate who had Ingall jumped to second, Bright in third with Kelly fourth and Richards fifth. Ambrose immediately began to open a lead as Richards and Lowndes fought for fifth, Skaife next in the queue but not close to the dicing duo in front of him. Lap nine saw the battle between Richards and Lowndes intenify, Lowndes diving down the inside into turn four. Richards didn't want to give in and kept turning in, with inevitable contact occurring, spinning Richards down to fourteenth place. It appeared the contact was around the middle of the car, just like Richards' incident at Bathurst, though Lowndes' move was less desperate. Just like the incident at Bathurst, there was no penalty issued.

Lap ten and Kelly's fourth place run ended when he retired after his power steering failed, moving teammate Skaife up to fifth place, before Paul Morris took fifth from Skaife two laps later. Lap eighteen saw Ingall and Bright make their fuel stop, followed a lap later by Lowndes, with leader Ambrose pitting a lap after Lowndes, Skaife pitting a further lap on as he came out behind Wilson, who he had been ahead of before the stops.

Lap 25 and the safety car was out on the track, after Steven Johnson had an engine let go as he entered turn one, causing Ellery, Paul Weel and Johnson himself to spear off at turn one and end up stuck in the gravel. With less than two thirds of the 64 lap event remaining, almost the whole field came in to take pit stops, which for most of the cars completed their compulsory requirements. This saw the order shuffled around, Ingall now the leader but radio problems meant that he failed to pit and so still had a pit stop to come, while second placed Morris made a stop under yellow but it was only his first stop, so he was in the same trouble as Ingall.

Next up was Ambrose, both stops completed, ahead of Paul Dumbrell with only one stop completed, John Bowe in fifth who made the most of an early pit stop for tyres on lap six to charge his way up the order on a clear track followed by Bright, Skaife and Lowndes all having made both stops. Meanwhile the weather appeared to be closing in, rain appearing inevitable before the end of the race. The race returned to green on lap 31, Bright passing Bowe at turn two before taking Dumbrell a few corners later to move up to fourth while Ambrose passed Morris to move to third and close on his teammate Ingall's bumper. Lap 32 and Ambrose passed Ingall at turn two to retake the lead, Bright duplicating the move to pass Morris for third.

Skaife, who was harrassing Lowndes, made a late lunge inside at turn four on lap 32 as they both passed Dumbrell. Lowndes' car twitched, after what appeared to be contact from Skaife, allowing Skaife to take the place from him. As they completed lap 32, leader Ambrose effectively clinched the title, but that didn't mean he was about to start cruising, as he opened the gap once more over Bright and Ingall in second and third, Bright claiming second from Ingall on lap 33 at the same corner Skaife had 'passed' Lowndes the lap before. Meanwhile Skaife continued to move forward, taking fifth from Bowe on lap 33 and fourth from Morris on lap 36 as Ingall was the next on his list, as Wilson having his own charge up the order, up from tenth at the restart to fifth after lap 39.

Skaife quickly moved onto Ingall's tail, but with the weather continuing to move closer, Ingall was hanging on as much as he could so that if it fell before the close of the compulsory stop window he could take advantage of it, and so Skaife wasn't finding it easy to make his way through. This all ended up coming to a head on lap 42 at the right hander at the bottom of Corporate Hill. Skaife finally saw an opening to take third and got inside Ingall as they took the corner. As they exited the corner the side-by-side duo made contact as Skaife ran wide, forcing Ingall onto the exit kerb, the two then separating slightly.

This is where things deteriorated. Though Skaife was not in contact with Ingall and travelling in a straight line, it was a line that was angled slightly towards the edge of the track. Ingall, with his car as wide as he could be while still being on the kerb, fought to get his car back on the tarmac as the cars ran side-by-side, driving his car back to the left as he began to move back off the kerb, getting back on to the tarmac and heading towards Skaife's car. As Ingall reached the end of the kerb the two cars made contact again, with Skaife now slightly ahead. Skaife wasn't willing to give an inch and continued to give Ingall no room to the track unless Ingall backed off, which with the cars side by side didn't seem a likely proposition.

As Ingall finally came off the kerb, both left side wheels touching the grass as they went kerb-grass-tarmac to return to the circuit, Ingall continued to move to ensure he had racetrack to drive on, as at the same time he lost a little bit of ground after putting the left side wheels temporarily through the grass. With Skaife's momentum taking him left, and Ingall's to the right, combined with Skaife moving just ahead of Ingall, it all combined to set Skaife into a spin, heading sharply off to the left and hard into the wall. Skaife got the car moving again but then parked it soon after on the other side of the track, his chances of beating Murphy to second place now over, having needed a top four finish to do so. Not surprisingly, this incident brought the safety car out, with Ingall being one of a handful of cars to pit as they made their second compulsory stop.

But it didn't end there. Having parked his car, Skaife got out of his car and waited. What was he doing? Waiting for Ingall to return, so he could give him a piece of his mind. Skaife waited and waited as Ingall made his stop and then cruised back around, Ingall not helping things as he gave a one-fingered salute to the HRT pit crew as he exited the pits. As Ingall made his way out of the right hander, Skaife threw his helmet to a marshal, walked back to the edge of the circuit, pointing and yelling at Ingall's car. Ingall, seeing Skaife waving at him, veered towards him, Ingall later saying he feared Skaife was about to throw something at his car. When Skaife returned to the pits, he then went to the SBR pit bay, and gave Ingall's team boss his point of view personally. Needless to say, both drivers were called to a meeting with the stewards after the race.

Now the order was Ambrose, Bright, Wilson, Bowe and Lowndes, with Ingall down to 20th after his stop. The field returned to racing on lap 47, Ambrose, Bright and Wilson making a break at the front, with Lowndes all over the back of Bowe for fourth as a train formed behind them as the weather was now very close. Lap 48 and rain began to fall very lightly, before it started to fall a bit heavier on lap 49. As it continued to rain the drivers stayed out on track until the end of lap 53, when as the rain began to fall much heavier most of the field pitted for wets.

Besnard and Paul Morris stayed out however and gambled, possibly hoping for a red flag before they fell off the track themselves, moving into the top five for a lap, before realising they couldn't hang on. As Besnard, fellow gambler and Simon Wills and Morris prepared to leave the pit straight to take the pit entry, all three got sideways in a straight line, with Wills spinning two and a half times, Wills and Besnard pitting, while Morris was forced to complete another lap on slicks on a drenched track after not making pit entry. Just after these cars had their moments on lap 54 the safety car was deployed again, so treacherous were the conditions.

Morris came in for wets the next lap but he had to almost crawl back to the pits as his slicks were almost useless on the drenched tarmac, the heavy rain now accompanied by strong winds. Meanwhile second place runner Jason Bright had an off while catching up to the safety car on lap 55. With all the cars now on wets, the safety car led Ambrose, Bright, Wilson, Lowndes and Tander. while Ingall was now up to twelfth, having been already up to fourteenth just before stopping for wets. As the sun began to reappear, rivers of dirty water ran across the track in a couple of places, with water pools at a couple of places as well.

The rain began to ease as the sun continued to shine, but it was the water around the track that was what was worrying the people in race control, and so the race was red flagged on lap 59 of 64, the race results taken back to the conclusion of lap 57. And so Ambrose made it two wins from two races, claiming his first round win since round eight at Oran Park, but more importantly, claiming his first V8 Supercar title in the best way possible. Second was Jason Bright, Max Wilson third, Craig Lowndes in fourth with Garth Tander fifth, with Russell Ingall taking twelfth.

At the end of Sunday's race, Skaife was in third and Ingall fourth in the final standings. But the results (and the points standings) were set for a change. After a stewards' hearing which went for several hours, neither driver came out happy. For the contact between the two cars, both were found to be at fault, Russell Ingall penalised 70 points while Mark Skaife was penalised 30 points.

Both drivers were also found guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute, Ingall for driving his car towards Skaife, and Skaife for ignoring the marshal's requests, as well as for failure to move behind the safety fence. Ingall's penalty was exclusion from both races, his 150 points turning into zero, as well as the maximum AU$15 000 fine, while Skaife was penalised 75 points and given a AU$10 000 fine. On top of that, both Ingall and Skaife were handed a three event suspension, suspended for twelve months on the basis that they aren't found guilty of the same offence.

This cost Skaife 105 points, though he remained in third place. Meanwhile, Ingall's penalty and exclusion cost him a total of 138 points, and dropped him from fourth to seventh in the standings. Ironically, after his exclusion from the weekend's events, Ingall was now able to count the final round as his worst round and so therefore count the 82 points he scored at Hidden Valley that had previously been his worst round, nullifying part of his penalty... It should be pointed out that both drivers are appealing part of their penalties, with Skaife appealing the careless driving charge while Ingall is appealing his charge of bringing the sport into disrepute. The hearing will take place this Thursday.

So another season of V8 Supercar is over. Plenty of thrills and spills, right down to the last round, with plenty of twists and turns in the championship fight as several drivers took time at the top of the standings. One wonders if next year's season can possibly see as much action, intrigue and excitement as there was this year.

Result of V8 Supercar Championship Series, Round 13 of 13, Eastern Creek, Australia:

Race One

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Marcos Ambrose        Ford Falcon BA
 2.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VX
 3.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VY
 4.  Steven Richards       Holden Commodore VY
 5.  Max Wilson            Ford Falcon BA
 6.  Craig Lowndes         Ford Falcon BA
 7.  Mark Skaife           Holden Commodore VY
 8.  Paul Morris           Holden Commodore VY
 9.  Jason Bargwanna       Ford Falcon BA
10.  Cameron McConville    Holden Commodore VX

Race Two

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Marcos Ambrose        Ford Falcon BA
 2.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VX
 3.  Max Wilson            Ford Falcon BA
 4.  Craig Lowndes         Ford Falcon BA
 5.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VY
 6.  Jason Bargwanna       Ford Falcon BA     
 7.  Paul Radisich         Ford Falcon BA     
 8.  Cameron McConville    Holden Commodore VX
 9.  Dean Canto            Ford Falcon BA     
10.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VX