Well it's a good thing Oran Park provided some cool V8 Supercar racing since the Busch race at Michigan was a total bore. If it wasn't for the battle between Denny and Matt I think I probably would have fallen asleep. As it was I switched it on mute and was listening to some music instead...but that didn't matter (fortunately) once 3pm rolled around.

Oran Park was host to round 9 of 14 in the Australian series and also was the final sprint round before the two enduros at Sandown and Bathurst. Qualifying saw the 'ton up boy' Todd Kelly celebrate his 100th start in style by sticking his #22 HRT Commodore on the pole. His teammate, Mark Skaife, had a potential pole lap ruined when he pushed a little too hard and spun causing Toll HSV driver, Garth Tander, to take avoiding action (which destroyed his shot at pole). Garth obviously was upset since he called the 5 time Champion's error someone who "ran out of talent and lost it in front of me." Kudos must go to Lee Holdsworth in the #33 for starting in fourth, his best qualifying performance of his career so far.

But Skaife got his revenge in race one (of three) by jumping past Todd and slotting in behind, ironically, Garth going into turn 1. Those guys settled in as the pacesetters until Garth had a steering failure and went straight on at turn 3 on the fourth lap. That left Skaife in front with a hard charging Rick Kelly behind him. That would be how they finished as the Ford brigade finished third through seventh...but their day would come on Sunday.

Sunday dawned and, like in Michigan today, the weather played a huge part in both the races. Of course, this being V8 Supercars and not NASCAR, there was no worries about a delayed start since we use something called "wet weather tyres"...which must yet to be invented in the States or something I suppose *shrugs*

Anyway, in a plume of spray, the Holden duo had a shocker and it was the Ford Falcons of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes who took advantage of that by storming to the front. Unfortunately for Jamie, a collision with Jason Richards (who had closed down the 11 second gap by half distance) damaged his front left suspension and forced him to retire from the race. That left Jason out in front but his tyres went away as Craig sailed on past and scored the win. Todd Kelly wound up second, Mark Winterbottom in third and Lee Holdsworth posted fastest lap on fastest lap to end up in fourth...and that was a warning for everyone when race 3 started.

The track dried by then, but as the cars started their warmup lap, the rain came down again. This ruined a lot of drivers race as many elected to start on slicks and pitted for wets so they had to start from the pitlane. Lee had no such concerns since he was on the right tyres and pulled away to have over 40 seconds in his pocket when he finally pitted for tyres. That meant he had enough time to make his stop and get back out still in the lead. And that was it really...although behind him, chaos was the order of the day as the "red mist" set in and drivers were smashing into each other trying to gain as many spots as possible. In the end, Holdsworth won from Tander, Russell Ingall, Whincup and Steven Richards in fifth. That win meant that Holdsworth won the overall round, from Steven with Craig rounding out the podium.

Lee Holdsworth piloting his #33 machine at Barbagallo (and in the dry) earlier in 2007

All in all, Garth kept his Championship lead over his teammate, Rick Kelly, but it's now just six points as we head for Sandown in a few weeks time.

If you want to check out some highlights, here's a link to the videos from the V8 site.

And, if you're like ccr and only came here to perv on the grid girls...I'm sorry to say that since it was a wet race they weren't anywhere to be seen. However, here's a link for you anyway with some pics of them from the first round of the year in Adelaide (now don't come back and say I don't give you anything).