Quote Originally Posted by #3 Tasman Bloke
Race 2 today was won by Garth Tander, in the HSV DT Commodore. Race 3 was more controversial this weekend. Rick Kelly won from his older brother Todd, Mark Winterbottom (Frosty) came 3rd, and Jason Bright and Russell Ingall came 4th and 5th respectively, but when Craig Lowndes gave Brighty a touch up, he lost ground and a position to Russell. However he took a shortcut after Ingall gave him a little push, however even after Campbell Little told him LET INGALL PASS Ingall gave Lowndesy the smallest push, thus blasting the 888 Falcon across the corner. After that Lowndes got a black flag and came 14th just behind one of the WPS cars. Tander was 2nd in the 3rd race when he hit the wall.
Championship Standings (Top 3) after Surfers Paradise
1. Craig Lowndes Falcon BA 2601 points
2. Rick Kelly Commodore VZ 2571 points
3. Mark Winterbottom Falcon BA 2248 points
So there you go. I'd say the favourite will be Rick Kelly to win the championship. Why? Because Symmons Plains is good with the HSV DT (Tander winning last year), Bahrain (Tander winning there as well, will get good support from Kelly) and Phillip Island
I personally think Rick will chuck it away, lowndes can handle the pressure. he just needs some help from Jason Not so Bright, and Russell Ingall to get out of his way. Ford will not be happy if what happened at Indy happens again.

Lowndes had the pace over Rick at PI last year going by fastest lap times he was 3 tenths quicker than Kelly , he just had a bad last race. Lowndes qualified P1 and Rick was P6

At Symonns Plains Lowndes finished 4th in the points 4 points behind Rick Kelly for the weekend, which is meant to be a Holden track. Rick qualified P4and Lowndes P9 for the first race. Lowndes is a better racer than Kelly IMHO.

So with 31 points advantage, personally I cant see Lowndes losing if he gets consistent top 5 finishes. I think he will do better than top 5 though.

Only time will tell ?