by 
14th
April, 2002
Rd Two
Ambrose
slays HRT, but Skaife ultimate survivor
Mark Skaife and the Holden Racing Team empire still
reign over the V8 Supercar series tonight, but not before the fiercest
attack on its impenetrable fortress yet.
Skaife easily won the second of two 150km showdowns at Phillip Island
Raceway this afternoon to claim overall victory on the day.
But he can be beaten, and Ford's Marcos Ambrose proved it.
 Perhaps
the Tasmanian recalled the words of AFL coach Leigh Matthews last year,
when he said of the unbeaten Essendon club "if they can bleed, we
can kill it." HRT do bleed - no signs of haemorrhaging, but
they were susceptible - and Ambrose slayed them to win the opening race.
"We showed that we can take the battle to the very best teams in
this championship and come out on top," said Ambrose. "I
have kept saying that these HRT guys could be beaten and it's great that
we have managed to do that today."
But the jubilant Stone Brothers Racing garage came crashing back to
earth in the second race when Ambrose became involved in an ugly
altercation with Max Wilson, damaging his steering and forcing him into
retirement.
"The collision with Max not only eliminated both of us, it also
gave our rivals a massive points bonus," he said.
Skaife said he expected to do well this weekend: "We would like to
think we could do well here, we always have so we expected a good
result.
"I've always said the championship is about risk management, I
could have had a dive at Max (Wilson) and Marcos (Ambrose), but I
didn't. The key to this is finishing."
The rain cleared today and the action was red hot early. The duel
between Skaife and Ambrose was intense while tensions further down the
field reached boiling point.
Jason Bargwanna and Greg Murphy had to be physically separated after a
heated debate over who was at fault in a frightening crash at the start
of race one.
Bargwanna was forced wide at high-speed into the tyre wall on the main
straight, the impact hurling his Commodore end-over-end in a spectacular
crash reminiscent of Craig Lowndes' horrific Calder Park start-line
crash in 1999.
Bargwanna walked away from the wreck unhurt, before launching into the
verbal assault on Murphy on the grid for the full race restart.
The usually mild-manned Bargwanna later told Channel Ten "if
somebody is going to try and kill me" then they should expect him
to fight back.
Murphy restarted the race but later copped a complete disqualification
from the results by race stewards.
"It's hard to be anything but disappointed with what has
happened," Murphy said. "Jason continued to move over on
me...you never want to see an accident like that, but it was not my
fault."
The incident shadowed Ambrose's inspired drive. While his pit stop
for tyres was marginally better than Skaife's, it was his pace and cool
temperament under extreme pressure that saw him hang on for victory.
Skaife was awarded second, despite teammate Jason Bright cheekily making
a run on him at the finish line to dead-heat. Bright, however, was
later relegated to fifth for not engaging his speed limiter on his trip
down pit lane.
Race Two
With Ambrose's retirement from race two, the challengers to Skaife were
thin on the ground.
An early safety car saw pit lane become dangerously congested with
compulsory stopers. Skaife led them in and out, and from there was
never headed.
Todd Kelly was an impressive second while Paul Radisich fought his way to third.
"After crashing in practice at Adelaide and not finishing either of
those races, this weekend is a great comeback," said Radisich, who
finished equal third with Ambrose in overall points.
Best-on-track was arguably Cameron McConville, who started the day on
the last row of the grid, having pre-qualified on Friday, and finished
race two in fourth place.
"I'm absolutely stoked," he said. "We made small
changes to the car between races that were definite improvements and
again we called it right to pit early - the guys deserve full credit for
their fast stops."
Bright's bad luck continued in race two, served a black flag when he,
perhaps tactically, lagged behind the safety car while momentarily
leading.
Craig Lowndes also had a forgettable day, punching into Max Wilson's
stricken Falcon, stranded in the middle of the track after the
altercation with Ambrose.
Greg Murphy moved to second in the championship standings despite his
run-in with Bargwanna, though it has allowed Skaife to sneak away and
extend his already imposing series lead to 276 points.
The final verdict: they can be beaten - but probably not stopped.
"The championship is looking pretty good," said Skaife,
"but it is a long series and we've got to keep our heads
down."
|