Ford's V8s finish one-two in Tasmania
Saturday Nov 11 16:35 AEDT
Ford Performance Racing has scored a one-two result in the first V8 Supercar race at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, while Holden's Rick Kelly overtook Craig Lowndes on the championship standings.

Jason Bright snared the win ahead of teammate Mark Winterbottom while Rick Kelly brought the first Holden home in third place.

Kelly's podium place means he now leads the championship by 50 points from Lowndes whose new Falcon suffered mechanical problems and was never in contention.

Lowndes had entered the 11th round of the series with a 30 point lead over Kelly, but the Ford driver could only manage 27th position in Saturday's race - finishing three laps behind the leaders.

With the triple sprint format adopted for this weekend's racing, Kelly is expected to increase his title lead on Sunday, with the HSV Dealer driver to start from the second row and Lowndes forced to the rear of the grid.

Holden have not won the V8 Supercar title since Mark Skaife in 2002.

The Tasmanian round continues on Sunday with two 58-lap races.

The V8 Supercar series has two rounds remaining following this weekend's racing, with the inaugural race at Bahrain from November 23-25 and the grand finale at Phillip Island from December 8-10.

why would lowdnes try a new car in this round is beyond me. leave it for post-season testing.

'whose new car suffered mechanical problems'... yeah, getting t boned and spun 360 degrees is a real mechanical problem.

well done to bright and frosty. lets hope it rains tomorrow and give lowndes half a chance.

after the race and all he went through lowndes still managed a smile. great attitude. just move on. not much you can do about it by dwelling on it i guess.

good to see skaife's year getting better each round. tander is turning into just as big a nob also. never liked him but he's getting worse. must be something about people who drive holdens. how many more accidents will dumbrell cause in his career as well.

looks like courtney will finish in the top 10 in his first year. thats a top effort that could get overshadowed.

It's going to be a tough battle from here on, and f**k i hope it pours down tomorrow as Lowndes is the master when it comes to wet weather.
As been said, it's a little strange to bring in a new car so late into the championship but they obviously have a lot of confidence in it, it was wrong place and wrong time that put him out.
As we've seen he has the ability to climb back, he's not down yet and he knows it.

well that f**k things up nicely for lowndes. god i hope he can get back on top, i couldnt stand seeing kelly win the championship. still, least we won bathurst, id take a bathurst win over a championship any day.

well, i've just got home from night shift - hobart weather (roughly 200 kms from Symmons Plains) is looking crap. rain is definately on the way for here, not sure what it's looking like up there. should be a set of good races anyway!

Arrrghhhh Now lowndes needs to WIN races and not cruise.

Thanks for the weather update sperm guzzler.... Lets hope it buckets down for Lowndes sake.

Not sure if you guys heard or not but Steven Richards is taking Brights spot with FPR next year.

Here comes Lowndes! 14th in the pack moving on up go son!

So how did he end up going?

I didn't see mucyh at all as was working, but if my memory is right he got all the way down to 7th in the third race. Top effort considering ythe incident first lap, first race.