Holden counts cost after car crushing Clipsal.

Stone Brothers' Racing's Marcos Ambrose kicked off his V8 title defence with resounding victories in both 250k legs of the Clipsal 500 at the weekend, while many of the balance of the teams will be counting the cost of what appeared to be a crash-fest in Adelaide.

Estimations of a damage bill for the weekend is in the hundreds of thousand of dollars as the likes of HRT's Todd Kelly, Perkins' Engineering's Tony Longhurst, both Garry Rogers Motorsport VY Commodores, Dick Johnson Racing and Larkham Motorsport's Mark Winterbottom among others, all suffered major impact damage across the three days. All that, and the teams are left with a little over a week to make the necessary repairs before heading off to Sydney for round two at Eastern Creek!

The Holden Racing Team this time wasn't able to maintain its amazing run of success at the Adelaide event after five consecutive victories since the Clipsal 500 began in 1999. Todd Kelly's massive race one lap two crash at turn eight ruined car #22's chances, while Mark Skaife finished seventh and 17th, dealing with a pinched nerve in his back in race one and limping home in a damaged car in race two.

HRT is fully focused on bouncing back at the Eastern Creek round in less than a fortnight and is confident of having the car speed at the Sydney circuit to pressure Ambrose and the other early-season pacesetters, after being more than competitive there in the last round of 2003.

If the on-track performance wasn't a true indication of HRT's performance, the off-track abilities of the team were well and truly highlighted in Adelaide. Following Todd Kelly's high-speed clash with the concrete on Saturday afternoon, it was a remarkable effort to have the car not only on the grid Sunday, but also competitive.

Work began on the car at 5.00pm on Saturday, shared between 4 specialists from HRT's chassis partner Dencar and the car #22 crew. Once the technicians from Skaife's VY Commodore had completed the servicing of that vehicle, they too joined the rebuilding process on Kelly's car, finally finishing at 5.30am Sunday when the crew travelled back to the team hotel for a shower and change, before returning to the circuit for the day's racing!

12 1/2 hours to replace the left side of the vehicle, the left-hand front suspension ALL the rear suspension and the various other components of a $30-40,000 crash!

That team spirit and dedication transferred itself to the all-important pit stops, where the HRT cars were able to gain track position through fast and efficient turn-around in the compulsory pitstops.

The Holden Racing Team's was unable to optimise the best car set up in qualifying when for the first time in many years, both "red" cars qualified outside the top ten. As previously mentioned the Kelly crash further set back the weekend, while in race one a recurrence of an old racing injury in Mark Skaife's back, pinched the sciatic nerve leaving him with a numb right leg. This problem also surfaced in 1999, leading to Mark crashing out of the race that year so for Mark to complete half Saturday's race with this impediment and still come seventh, was a great effort.

Kelly managed vital points with a tenth place finish on Sunday with a car that was good and straight but lacking the suspension set-up following the crash. Skaife had a drama filled day, with two spins and finally contact with David Besnard's Ford after Besnard turned in on him in a corner. While the Ford driver received a drive-through penalty for the incident it was of little consolation to Mark and the Team as the collision damaged the steering of the #2 VY Commodore resulting in a long pit stop for repairs and a slow run to the flag to ensure a points finish.

The V8 Supercar points system has one key element change this year whereby if you do not finish a race, you receive no points - hence HRT's determination to ensure Todd's car was repaired and, Skaife's Commodore finished Sunday's 250k leg. Skaife therefore sits tenth after the first round, 66 points away from Marcos Ambrose with Todd Kelly in 17th.

It will be vital to finish the upcoming Eastern Creek meeting as it is a one-race round and a non finish there and zero points could virtually ruin your season. Those already with an "0" on the score sheet include Craig Lowndes in the FPR Falcon, Tony Longhurst, Steve Ellery and both team Dynamic Commodores.

In Adelaide, Ambrose could not have wished for a better start to his title defence with comprehensive wins in both races but - apart from his SBR team-mate Russell Ingall's 3rd in race #1 - is not receiving a lot of support from his fellow Ford teams! Holden drivers fill positions second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth after round one, with John Bowe the only other Ford representative in ninth.

Marcos Ambrose raised this concern in Sunday's post race media conference.