Sunday could not have been anymore different to the rest of the weekend. Where fine weather had been present on Friday and Saturday, Sunday dawned with nothing but overcast skies, with promise of rain coming from the Bureau of Meteorology. So on went the wet weather boots in preparation for the morning warm-up and then the race.

The rain ultimately caused a delay to the start time, due to the heavy surface water on the track. For Kmart Racing, this was a blessing in disguise, allowing the team to complete the installation of a new engine to Greg Murphy's car without penalty or loss of race time (Kmart car 51 has now used one of its two free engine passes).

17 minutes after the scheduled start time, the race begun under Safety Car conditions in an effort to disperse the water from the track. One lap down and the safety car peeled off, letting the field loose under full green conditions.

Lap 7 saw the first major incident of the race, with Steve Ellery into the wall at turn 1, the wet track conditions causing the car to slide off the track. The shunt was hard, with the tyre barrier being pushed aside and the car impacting the concrete wall behind. "It was certainly a hard hit and I am thankful I did not get hurt," Ellery said, "the Super Cheap Auto Racing Falcon hit the concrete barrier so hard it moved back."

This incident prompted the return of the WPS Safety Car to the circuit and brought a few cars into the pits for the first of the day's stops. When the jumble settled, the top ten read Marcos Ambrose, Steven Richards, Jason Bright, Mark Skaife, Rick Kelly, Garth Tander, John Bowe, Greg Murphy, Paul Morris and Russell Ingall, ready for the lap 14 return to green flag conditions.

The restart brought about the usual chaos with Bowe and Murphy coming into contact at turn 9, spearing Bowe off, this time without the damage to the tracks barriers. Murphy ended up the worst off, having to pit due to a punctured tyre, relegating him back to 31st.

By lap 22, Rick Kelly was showing superior pace to the rest of the field having passed Skaife, Bright and S Richards in eight laps. With storms building to the south of the circuit, the top ten stood at Ambrose, R Kelly, S Richards, Skaife, Bright, Tander, Max Wilson, Craig Baird, Morris, Paul Weel.

At the end of lap 31 Skaife and R Kelly both came in, to complete one of their compulsory pit stops. With a slick stop, Kmart Racing put Kelly out on front of previous race leader Ambrose, 7th and 8th on the track, with Skaife behind Ambrose in 9th.

Todd Kelly was the first to have completed both of his compulsory pit stops (laps 6 and 30), putting him within reach of younger brother Rick, Ambrose and Skaife as the corrective order unfolded.

On his lap 32 the Castrol Perkins car of Paul Dumbrell was garaged for repairs effectively ending his race, the car ended up being 18 laps down on the field when it ventured back out. On the same race lap Brad Jones spun his OzEmail Racing car 21 which pushed him from 15th to 21st.

Skaife spun off the black stuff with considerable flare at turn 8 on lap 44, making this the second bad event for HRT car 2. The ensuing safety car conditions triggered a series of final pit stops, including that of race leader and second placed, R Kelly and Ambrose, while the tow truck retrieved Skaife from the sand trap; he rejoined in 26th position.

A cross-threaded wheel nut on the FPR Falcon's front-right wheel caused a lengthy delay during his stop, with Lowndes emerging from the stop 45 seconds later. The damage to his overall track position, however, was minimised because of the Safety Car conditions.

The bad weekend that OzEmail Racing were having only got worse, when on the last lap of the safety car period Jones looped car 21 on the slippery surface without assistance, relegating him to the back of the queue.

After three laps of green racing, Ambrose ran wide at turn two's hairpin on lap 51 which dropped him back to 6th behind R Kelly, Tander, T Kelly, S Richards, Murphy and Lowndes.

Castrol Perkins driver, Tony Longhurst, and WPS' David Besnard touched at turn 9 on lap 55, resulting in Longhurst spinning off and causing Besnard to pit for a replacement front left tyre.

By lap 57, R Kelly had pulled over a 10 second lead on the rest of the field and Lowndes had moved past Murphy, S Richards and T Kelly. Todd ran off between turns 2 and 3, and his re-entry saw him impact with Ambrose on the exit of the corner, spinning off onto the grass once more. Upon re-entering the track for the second time, Jason Richards was left with nowhere to go but into the back of Kelly and out of the race.

For his untidy re-entry, Kelly earned himself a drive through penalty, one of only two issued during the race distance; the second being issued to Cameron McConville for an overlap at the end of a safety car period.

The superior speed that Lowndes' FPR car 6 had been showing in the wet conditions made for an intriguing battle between himself and second placed Tander after the Safety Car released the field, which allowed R Kelly to again pull a sizeable lead.

With conditions worsening the battle between Tander and Lowndes became ever more interesting as the track surface became more slippery, with Lowndes attempting to pass at every opportunity. After a 6-lap battle, that clearly illustrated the FPR car to be faster, Lowndes finally made the pass stick, slipping under Tander into turn 4 and holding off the return pass at turn 10.

Similar to that of last December's Main Event, the safety car returned to the circuit on lap 67, due to the dangerous amounts of water lying on the tracks surface. With more than 75% race distance completed, lap 69 then saw Race Control make the decision to red flag the race, declaring Rick Kelly the winner ahead of Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander.

Final Results:

P1	15	Rick Kelly	Kmart Racing
P2	6	Craig Lowndes	Ford Performance Racing
P3	34	Garth Tander	Repco Valvoline Cummins Team
P4	11	Steven Richards	Castrol Perkins Motorsport
P5	51	Greg Murphy	Kmart Racing
P6	17	Steven Johnson	Shell Helix Racing
P7	1	Marcos Ambrose	Pirtek Racing
P8	10	Jason Bargwanna	Larkham Orrcon Racing
P9	021	Craig Baird	Team Kiwi Racing
P10	888	Max Wilson	Team Betta Electrical
P11	29	Paul Morris	Sirromet - Life, Style, Wines
P12	20	Mark Winterbottom	Larkham Orrcon Racing
P13	50	Jason Bright	PWR Performance Products
P14	9	Russell Ingall	Caltex Havoline Race Team
P15	5	Glenn Seton	Ford Performance Racing
P16	44	Simon Wills	Holy Grail Wines/Alphawest
P17	23	David Besnard	WPS Racing
P18	12	John Bowe	Ozemail Racing Team
P19	22	Todd Kelly	Holden Racing Team
P20	88	Paul Radisich	Team Betta Electrical
P21	18	Warren Luff	Shell Helix Racing
P22	2	Mark Skaife	Holden Racing Team
P23	21	Brad Jones	OzEmail Racing Team
P24	7	Tony Longhurst	Castrol Perkins Motorsport
P25	33	Cameron McConville	Repco Valvoline Cummins Team
P26	75	Anthony Tratt	Toll Racing
P27	45	Dale Brede	Holy Grail Wines/Alphawest
P28	14	Mark Porter	IMS - Hydralink
P29	16	Paul Weel	PWR Performance Products
P30	8	Paul Dumbrell	Castrol Perkins Motorsport
DNF	3	Jason Richards	Tasman Motorsport
DNF	31	Steve Ellery	Super Cheap Auto Racing

Click here for the practice and qualifying reports.