The width of his front bumper

After 1000km’s, 5 pit stops, 2 driver changes, a new set of brake pads and over 161 laps of Mount Panorama, it was decided by ½ a second. The 2006 running of the Bathurst 1000 was an emotional affair that celebrated the life of Peter Brock. Before the race there was a parade of Brocky’s 9 Bathurst winning cars and a minutes silence to honour the king of the mountain. However the race did not go as planned for the Holden Racing Team with race favourite Mark Skaife struggling to get off the start line and then being forced out of the race after being hit from behind by a back marker. An incident packed race was punctuated with 10 safety car interventions and the luckiest man must be Jason Richards who went off the road at 300kmh and got seriously airborne but still managed to get back into the race.

At the end it was a classic Aussie V8 supercar race finish with the Ford of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup crossing the finish line just ½ a second ahead of the Holden of the Kelly brothers. The fight for 3rd place was even closer with James Courtney beating SBR teammate Russell Ingall by 1/ 500th of a second or about the width of his front bumper. It was an emotional scene on the podium as Brocky’s protégé Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup were presented with the new Peter Brock trophy as the latest Bathurst 1000 winners. As I write this my young son, Jensen and I still have the Scalectrix slot car track all over the loungeroom floor and I can tell you the competition has been just as intense. I took the pictures you see here of Skaife and Lowndes at the Ferodo triple challenge.