Greg's perfect weekend, Baird's massive smash.

by Adam Forwood

Greg Murphy is living it up tonight after sweeping the three races at Pukekohe's Placemaker's V8 International, whilst countryman Craig Baird is lucky not to be spending the night in hospital after a terrifying crash in the second round of the Australian V8 Supercar Series.

Reigning champ Marcos Ambrose had a difficult start and tangled with Craig Lowndes going into the second turn, slid off track, but managed to regain the tarmac into turn four with minimal loss of track position. Steven Johnson also had problems and failed to complete a lap.

David Besnard's abysmal weekend ended on lap ten when he lost control at the end of the back straight and buried the car in the sand trap. This triggered a mass of pit stops as teams call their drivers in, certain that deployment of the safety car was imminent. It was indeed deployed, but not until lap 14, too late for Jason Bargwanna. New Zealand-born Jason Richards made heavy contact with Bargwanna after passing him at the hairpin, causing damage to Bargwanna's steering, which failed in the high-speed kink on the back straight, heavily damaging Bargwanna's car.

Jason Richards did not escape unscathed, and was black-flagged to repair damage. After a lengthy safety car period to recover Besnard and Bargwanna, the race restarted on lap 23, and Murphy leapt away from Ingall. Murphy had noted that the weather was looking bleak, and his local knowledge proved to be accurate, as rain began to fall.

It was this rain that caused the most spectacular crash for some years. Steven Ellery and Jamie Whincup were caught out by the slippery track in turn seven, both running wide. As Whincup rejoined the track, Baird moved over to avoid him, unaware of Paul Dumbrell on his right. Baird pushed Dumbrell into the pit wall, who bounced off and spun Baird around.

Dumbrell cannoned into turn one's outside wall, causing severe damage, but Baird's impact was truly catastrophic. He spun past the pit exit before going backwards at very high speed into the armco barrier at the end of the pit lane, severing a PA speaker pole and completely destroying the back section of the car. To cap things off, McConville lost control in his attempt to avoid the carnage and hit the wall, causing moderate damage.

While McConville's car is repairable, Dumbrell's is in bad shape, while Baird's is certainly a write-off. Thankfully, neither driver was injured.

With such carnage, a red flag was inevitable. During the stoppage, the rain increased, and the new, 16-lap race would be run on wet-weather tyres. Strangely, both Triple Eight cars had problems restarting. While Steven Ellery got going with some help, Lowndes' car wouldn't fire, and it was pushed off by marshals.

The wet weather made no difference to Murphy, who had a great restart to preserve his lead. Ingall struggled, though, sliding sideways and conceding ground. Paul Radisich was having a good run on home ground, and battled valiantly to hold fifth from Ambrose before conceding it on the back straight.

While Murphy ran comfortably in front, there were some fierce battles behind him. Skaife ran very close to Ingall, nearly making contact at the hairpin. A lap later, Steven Richards tried the outside line on Skaife at the same corner, but couldn't make it work in the wet. Ambrose, the fastest car of the top five, took advantage of the conflict to close the gap to Richards.

The hairpin proved to be Skaife's undoing. Richards got past him on the next lap, and Ambrose, ever the opportunist, followed him through. He ran wide through turn seven, though, and lost time to Richards.

Passing was always going to be difficult on a track that was drying, but still wet off line, and the top five remained in their positions for the remainder of the race. After stumbling last year, Murphy proved that he is still the master of Pukekohe, under any conditions, by completing the sweep of all three races. He had an added incentive for this race, though: his hotel manager had promised that if he won, he would have the $3200-per-night penthouse suite for the night.

While Jason Bright spoiled Murphy's perfect record last year, he was rapt to take his fourth win in what is probably Pukekohe's last V8 Supercar race. SBR can also be happy with Ingall's second place, while Ambrose keeps the championship lead with a third place finish overall.

Ambrose left Pukekohe to head straight for America, where he will get his first taste of oval racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Brad Jones, Dumbrell and Baird, meanwhile, will take home nothing but bruises, and a massive repair job ahead of the Barbagallo race in three weeks time.

Top ten - race three
1. Greg Murphy Super Cheap Auto Racing
2. Russell Ingall Caltex Racing
3. Steven Richards Team Perkins Racing
4. Marcos Ambrose Pirtek Racing
5. Mark Skaife Holden Racing Team
6. Paul Radisich Team Kiwi Racing
7. Jason Bright Ford Performance Racing
8. John Bowe Team BOC
9. Garth Tander HSV Dealer Team
10. Paul Weel Super Cheap Auto Racing