Skaife and HRT lead the way

A COMPLETE domination of the opening round of the Shell Championship Series by Holden Racing Team hotshot Mark Skaife begs the question: can HRT be stopped in 2001? The close racing that was expected between the frontrunners simply did not eventuate when the V8 Supercars took to the Phillip Island circuit on Sunday.

Skaife made a clean sweep of the weekend events, taking maximum points with victories in both races as well as the bonus points on offer for pole position in the Top 10 qualifying shootout - he actually qualified third fastest to make it into the shootout.

"After a pretty close qualifying session, I didn't foresee the races panning out as they did. We were flexible on the pit strategy and the team made great calls for me," Skaife said.

"It's the best start we could have got and that's really important for us to make a strong start to the season." Craig Lowndes continued his pre-season form to grab second place on the podium.

Super-fast pit stops by the Gibson Motorsport team allowed Lowndes to leapfrog the opposition after starting from seventh on the grid, finishing third in race one and second in race two.

"It really is a great credit to the Gibson guys as the pit stops really helped me make up track position in both races. There are going to be a lot of pit stops in the new formats in the Shell Series this year, so we have put a big emphasis on them," Lowndes said.

The high-profile Ford recruit managed to silence his detractors, for the time being at least, beating home his replacement at HRT, Jason Bright, in what is actually a two-year-old car.

"The car isn't perfect just yet, but we are new to everything in Ford so we are looking forward to finding more speed and improving as the year progresses," Lowndes said.

Bright acquitted himself well on his return to the V8 formula, qualifying second on the grid and producing two solid drives to finish second and fourth, giving him third place overall for the round.

K-Mart driver Greg Murphy turned around a poor qualifying result to finish the day fourth in the championship after starting from 13th on the grid.

The expatriate New Zealander provided plenty of heart-stopping action for the fans, engaging in a dice for fifth place with former teammate Steven Richards for much of race one.

Rookie Marcos Ambrose was the surprise packet of the weekend, hounding some of his more fancied rivals before slow pit stops dropped him to fourth and fifth in the races and fifth overall on the day.

HRT's championship defence could not have started better, reversing any chance of a trend after a disappointing performance at the grand prix support races.

A blinding start enabled Skaife to escape any first corner melee and he was ahead by two seconds at the end of lap two. From there he just disappeared into the distance, helped by a fast pit stop to control the race with a 14-second margin over second place.

He was able to ease off in the last few laps and conserve his tyres, crossing the line just over 11 seconds ahead of Bright.

It was a similar story in race two, with Skaife leading the pack after Bright let him through at the first corner. The margin wasn't quite so soul-destroying as in race one, with Lowndes holding the gap at around four seconds for most of the race.

Skaife's only problem for the entire weekend was an unlucky seagull that couldn't escape the path of the HRT Commodore as it blasted down the main straight at over 250km/h, the collision shattering the windscreen.

"I saw two of them fly out from behind the armco and one was smart enough to get out of the way, but the other one didn't even see me coming.

"It was a bit hairy as the windscreen was beginning to cave in a bit towards the end, but it didn't affect me too much," Skaife said.

While the HRT juggernaut looks to have lost none of its shine since last season, the same cannot be said for a number of the other leading outfits.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport team of last year's runner-up, Garth Tander, and Jason Bargwanna had a weekend they would rather forget.

Tander never recovered from power steering problems in race one and could only manage 15th overall for the round. Bargwanna fared only one place better, well off the pace in 14th position.

Favoured to lead the Ford resurgence, Paul Radisich dropped from fourth to 12th in the space of 30 seconds when a wheel wouldn't come off during the pit stop in race one.

Radisich never looked comfortable for the rest of the day, getting caught up in the mid-pack traffic jam and unable to make an impression on the final result.

Radisich has got the speed and ability to run at the front of the pack but it's speed in the pits that will win races this year, and that's where his crew was lacking at Phillip Island.

Ford's fortunes in 2001 may rest solely on the shoulders of Lowndes if it is to wrest control of the series from the Commodore teams and in particular end HRT's reign of four championships in five years.

The teams now have two weeks to play the catch-up game before hitting the streets of Adelaide for the Clipsal 500.

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP 1. Mark Skaife (Holden Racing Team - Commodore) 288 2. Craig Lowndes (Gibson Motorsport - Falcon) 238 3. Jason Bright (Holden Racing Team - Commodore) 235 4. Greg Murphy (K-Mart Racing Team - Commodore) 201 5. Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing - Falcon) 200 6. Steven Richards (Ford Tickford Racing - Falcon) 191 7. Todd Kelly (K-Mart Racing Team - Commodore) 163 8. Russell Ingall (Castrol Perking Racing - Commodore) 156 9. Steven Johnson (Shell Helix Racing - Falcon) 153 10. Glenn Seton (Ford Tickford Racing - Falcon) 150