MEDIA RELEASE 14 August 2005



Caltex Racing's Russell Ingall has taken his first win of the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series and his first ever victory at Oran Park after a determined drive in Sydney.

Ingall beat home Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing) and in the process reclaimed second place in the 2005 title chase to his Stone Brothers Racing team-mate.

Ingall took second place in the day's opening race to Steven Richards, before passing Ambrose in the second race to take the chequered flag and the winner's trophy.

The Enforcer enjoyed a mistake-free day as he celebrated Ford's third-straight win at the track and the Blue Oval's seventh win in the last eight rounds in Sydney.

Ford and Holden have now won four rounds each, squaring the chase for the Manufacturer's Championship.

"A great day for me, the team and Ford who marked their 80th anniversary in Australia this weekend," said Ingall.

"It's incredible to think that before this weekend I'd never finished higher than fourth at Oran Park. We well and truly knocked that on the head today.

"The car was awesome to drive, especially in that second race. It wasn't too bad in the first race, but the boys waved the magic wand over it before race #2 and it was strong throughout the 150km journey.

"It was pretty interesting in the second race when I was up behind Marcos. It's important to always win, but we were both pretty sensible in the sense that we weren't going to take each other off. I knew I had to earn the position and it was a good clean pass – he didn't hand it over to me.

"It's a great result for the championship. We're back into second and although there's still a pretty big gap, I'll give it everything to keep the fight going.

"Marcos does seem to have some type of force field around his championship lead. However, he's not doing too much wrong right now to give me a better look in.

"Now to the endurance races beginning with Sandown and Bathurst. I'm looking forward to those races and driving with Luke Youlden who has been very good in those races over the past few years."

For Ambrose it could very well have been victory. However, after his compulsory pit stop in race #1 he was judged to have broken the 40km/h pit lane speed limit and was given a drive-through penalty. The same offence and penalty was handed to Team Betta Electrical's Craig Lowndes. Both teams later argued the penalty and even thought both cars' on-board telemetry showed neither had broken the limit, they had to accept the judge of fact's radar gun.

Ambrose charged back through the field to finish fourth, setting up his challenge for the final race.

Overall he extended his championship lead to 106 points.

"When one slips away from you like that, you just have to cop it on the chin," said Ambrose.

"I must say that I'm delighted for Russell and an awesome result for the team and Ford. It's great once again for Ford to dominate in Sydney.

"It was a great comeback in race #1, as it showed that we had the car to beat. However, our on-board telemetry system that is controlled by the championship's technical department showed that we did not speed. The same was found with Craig's car. I'm just glad it didn’t cost us more today.

"Russell's car was just too good in that second race. We split our pit stop strategy with my car stopping earlier than his. Once he stopped his car was just awesome and it wasn't a matter if he would pass me, but when it was going to happen.

"This was an important round for the championship. I have come away with a stack of points and now can go into Sandown feeling pretty comfortable. Ideally Warren Luff and I can combine to get another good result and that will allow us to attack at Bathurst."

The V8 Super Series next goes racing over the weekend of September 9-11 for the Betta Electrical Sandown 500. Last year Ford claimed a 1-2-3 result.

Oran Park – Overall Results

1. Russell Ingall – Caltex Racing – Ford Falcon BA

2. Marcos Ambrose – Pirtek Racing – Ford Falcon BA

3. Greg Murphy – Super Cheap Auto Racing – Holden Commodore

4. Rick Kelly – HSV Dealer Team – Holden Commodore

5. Steven Richards – Castrol Perkins Motorsport – Holden Commodore

6. Craig Lowndes – Team Betta Electrical – Ford Falcon BA

7. Jason Bright – CAT Ford Performance Racing – Ford Falcon BA

8. Cameron McConville – Valvoline Racing – Holden Commodore

9. Paul Radisich – Team Kiwi – Holden Commodore

10=. Jason Bargwanna – Orrcon Steel Racing – Ford Falcon BA

10=. Max Wilson – Wow Racing – Holden Commodore

Championship Standings after 8 of 13 rounds

1. Marcos Ambrose – Pirtek Racing – Ford Falcon BA 1346pts

2. Russell Ingall – Caltex Racing – Ford Falcon BA –106pts

3. Steven Richards – Castrol Perkins Motorsport – Holden Commodore –123pts

4. Craig Lowndes – Team Betta Electrical – Ford Falcon BA –277pts

5. Todd Kelly – Holden Racing Team – Holden Commodore –281pts

6. Mark Skaife – Holden Racing Team – Holden Commodore –332pts

7. Greg Murphy – Super Cheap Auto Racing – Holden Commodore -338pts

8. Garth Tander – HSV Dealer Team – Holden Commodore -382pts

9. Jason Bright – CAT Ford Performance Racing – Ford Falcon BA -422pts

10. Steven Johnson – Westpoint Racing – Ford Falcon BA –428pts

Go Ford. Go "The Enforcer". I still hope that Ambrose comes first and Ingall second at the end. Another Stone Brothers 1 2.

lets hope they win at the mountain!!!

If they win at Bathurst the amount of s**t I'll give to the holdung wankers at work will be in the Guinness World Records.

I think they should put Russel and Ambrose in the same car to cement the win.

Another proud day for the blue oval. Bring on the mountain.

Hopefully it will be Fords turn finally to be king of the mountain this year. And as for Ingall he would be my favourite ford driver, he has such true emotions, seeing him with tears in his eyes this weekend after a derserving win made my heart melt. He derserved it after Shanghai problems.

a big pitty about Amrboes and Loundes drive through penalities that should of been. Ambrose was really in top form, 9 second lead over Craig when it happened!

Apparently both teams had proof to say they didn't speed, although stewards did want to know about it.

ambrose is a nob, he doesnt give a f**k he is going to nascar.

GO LOWNDES

but seriously well done to ingall awesome to see him beat Marcos.

i loved the way ambrose just forced his way past rick kelly on last lap of first race. obviously both ambrose and lowndes came into the lane too hot as that is the only place they could have sped. obviously their car telemetry will show they didn't speed IN the lane but speed limiter only works when it is activated.

good to see skaife in the sand again. perfect w/end - ford win, skaife off.

also lowndes showed what a true professional he is during the 2nd race while trying to get by murph accidently gave him a nudge at turn two forcing him to run wide, but instead of continueing past he backed off to let murph back in realising it wasn't a fair move. well done lowndsey. can't imagine it would've happened had it been the other way around.

I find it interesting that the only two cars deemed to have sped in pit lane were the two leading Fords. Apparently it was a volunteer operating the speed gun and volunteers are usually fans of one make or another (love motor racing and what better way to watch it than to be involved). I wonder which brand that volunteer supports . And I found it funny that Skaife blamed his bad start on the officials not showing a 5 seconds to go board just before the start. Well there were 31 other cars on the grid (none of them were 5 time champions) who all managed to get good, if not brilliant starts.

what i also find interesting about the pit lane speed thing is the judge of fact is a bloke with a speed gun at the exit(correct me if i'm wrong) so how do they know when the car crosses the line on pit entry and when to start timing them. surely there is a more high tech method than a bloke with a speed gun. what happens when the pit lane is full when everyone pits at the same time. the first car would block the line of sight of the next guy and surely the operator can only focus on one car at a time. if this is the case and lowndes and ambrose both have data to say they didn't speed during the lane then maybe the system needs looking at especially when the points are so tight these days. other sports have third umpire. why not motorsport?

also on skaife, i thought he was meaning the 5 sec warning came from his team. then he thought he should have been exempt from a jump start penalty as he already had a bad start??