 by 
30th June, 2002
Barbagallo Raceway, Western Australia
Round 6, Race 2 & 3
HRT wins, but Skaife's record run ends
THE streak is over.
Mark Skaife captured the attention of some 35,000 fans at the VB 300 at
Barbagallo Raceway today, not because he won it but because he didn’t.
And it was a rare mistake from the usually impregnable champion that
allowed his Holden Racing Team stable-mate Jason Bright to pounce on the
round victory, ending Skaife’s prodigious start to the season.
It is Skaife's first round loss since Sandown last year.
K-Mart Racing’s Greg Murphy became only the fourth driver to win a
race this year in this morning's opening 100km encounter to stand on the
second tier of the weekend podium. Stone Brothers Racing’s David
Besnard was third overall.
Skaife’s grip on the championship trophy remains firm still, with a
609-point advantage over second-placed Murphy, despite his first
non-finish of the season.
Lady luck, a good friend of Skaife’s, deserted him. "The
car was good enough to be way higher than that," he said after
finishing fourth overall.
He pushed too hard in a lead battle with Murphy during the opening laps
of race two according to race stewards, who inflicted him with a costly
drive-through penalty.
And as he fought his way back through the field, Skaife slipped off the
circuit – not once but twice. The second incident, running out
of road with a sticking throttle in a battle with Craig Lowndes, left
him stranded in the sand trap as Murphy drove on to victory.
"It's not like we've beaten him [Skaife] with speed, he's just had
a bad weekend," conceded Murphy, who himself was lucky to escape
the Barbagallo quick sand in the final race when an oil spill tripped up
many drivers.
"It was bad luck for him and good luck for us, but we've got to be
able to run head-to-head with him if we want to win the
championship."
Bright won the final race, relieved to put a luckless start to the
season behind him.
"It is good to finally break his [Skaife’s] run and to keep it
within the team," said Bright.
"We haven't had the results this year, it has been the most
frustrating five races of my career. It is good today to have no
problems and finish where we should have been all year.
"The only moment today was in that oil that got Murphy and a few
others. I saw a lot of tyre marks and I was on cold tyres so I
backed off early and still only just got through. It just touched
the dirt on the exit."
Besnard produced one of the best performances of his short V8 Supercar
career. While teammate Marcos Ambrose struggled to recover from
his disappointing qualifying performance – “that is one of the
weekends you really want to forget,” Ambrose said – Besnard was a
consistent performer in the lead pack.
“We have had a goal of improving every race meeting and we are
certainly managing to do that,” said Besnard.
”The team and myself are working better and better together and the
confidence is growing.”
On a tumultuous day in which many of the V8 superstars languished in
unfamiliar back-marker territory, the OzEmail Racing Team was an
inspired success.
Veteran racer John Bowe gave the team its best non-endurance result, a
warmly received third in the second race, while team boss Brad Jones
finished fourth in the final sprint.
“We knew we were making progress but I must admit that we have
exceeded our expectations this weekend,” said a delighted Jones.
“It’s a total credit to some of the hardest working guys in the
category, the team deserve this and with a fifth and seventh this round,
we were one of the strongest Ford teams. We now have John inside
the top ten in the championship and I’m fifteenth.”
Cameron McConville, Tony Longhurst, Cameron McLean and Paul Morris also
surprised many by making strong impressions throughout the day.
Kmart racer Todd Kelly lost an engine and second place in the series
standings to teammate Murphy today, while Bright’s win catapulted him
to fourth in the championship. The TWR stable now holds the top
four positions in the series.
Skaife’s coronation, though, has only been delayed.
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