The penultimate round for season 2007.
The Formula Ford support race was exciting, especially if you’re an Ash Walsh fan as I am. Sadly it came down to the last quarter lap between Josh Scott and Ash Walsh but neither managed to see the checkered in front. Walsh managed to finish sixth, but gave away more points to his championship nemesis, Tim Blanchard.
Six races to go in this years V8 Supercar Championship and thirty-four championship points between the top four contenders. Symons Plains is far from the easiest track in the championship, even though it’s small and appears simple. The hairpin, which used to be the first corner off the line until the pit area was shifted from the inside of the circuit to the outside opposite end to the hairpin, is easily the slowest corner in Australian V8 Supercar racing. A great place to pass or take advantage of an opponent’s mis-cue, but also a spot to come undone under brakes. At least for qualifying and race one, weather was fine and bright. It rarely is when this round rolls up.
The V8’s started out in the following order: 
Few surprises in qualifying, except for Stone Brothers Racing. Both James Courtney and Russell Ingall failed to make the top ten, indeed, neither made it into the top twenty. How the mighty have fallen since the days of Ambrose for Stone Brothers. The Toll/HSV car 16 of Garth Tander performed very well to take poll position and looked to be the real threat prior to race one. And so it was at the end. Little changed throughout race one despite a safety car period when James Courtney punted Shane Price off at the hairpin. Of note was Tander’s tactic of holding the field well back behind the pace car just prior to the pack being released to restart racing. Holding back allowed Tander to virtually control the restart, accelerating seconds prior to the pace car peeling off but not exceeding the necessary gap between himself & the pace car before it crossed the line into pitlane. A smart move, albeit a risky one. It paid dividends as Tander managed to gap the field and negate any potential threat from Jamie Whincup in second place.
Race one ended looking like this: 
With the championship points table now all important on a race-by-race basis, after race one it looks this way: 
Races two and three tomorrow from 2:00pm in all states, apparently. That means if you’re in Queensland, South Australia, Northern Territory or WA, steer clear of V8 Supercars_dot_com_dot_au or the Livetiming site. Racing Tasmania means if you’re not on AEDST (Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time), what you get to see was recorded at least one hour prior.