Ugly scenes mar Bathurst V8 race

Mark Skaife celebrates his - and Holden's - Bathurst 1000 victory. Cameron Spencer / Getty Images

BATHURST - Mark Skaife won his fifth Bathurst 1000 and Holden its seventh in a row yesterday after one of the most incident-filled races in the long history of racing over Mt Panorama.

As many of the V8 Supercar superstars fell by the wayside over 161 laps and almost seven hours of high-speed racing, New Zealander Jason Richards emerged into the limelight.

The 29-year-old Nelson-born driver finished second just a few car lengths behind Skaife in the Tasman Motorsport Holden he shared with Jamie Whincup. Third were Steve Ellery and Adam Macrow in the first Ford.

Greg Murphy's race ended with 15 laps to go when he and championship leader Marcos Ambrose came together on the entrance to the cutting towards the top of the mountain. They were vying for fifth position after a safety car period and the rest of the field poured into the blocked track.

Ambrose and Murphy had a shouting match and there was doubt who was to blame but both were out of the race.

Earlier Ambrose's chances had been reduced when he and co-driver Warren Luff had drive-through penalties for not wearing the compulsory safety balaclavas.

Richards had led the race with 30 laps to go but Skaife got past him 10 laps later and when the mayhem of the Murphy-Ambrose crash had been cleared away, the former champion had the quicker car to the finish.

He had put in the quick laps, including a new race lap record, when they were needed and co-driver Todd Kelly, on his 26th birthday, kept up the pace during his stint at the wheel.

"I can tell you number 26 is one I will never forget," said Kelly, whose younger brother Rick had won the past two mountain races.

"You just cannot put it into words. It is so big and still sinking in, it will probably take three days.

"I almost teared up and the last 10 laps I did not know what to do, where to look or where to go."

Richards, whose previous best at Bathurst was 11th with Team Kiwi, showed that his third placing in the Sandown 500 was no fluke. He is quickly establishing himself as a hot property in the driver market.

Of the other New Zealanders, Craig Baird was eighth, Team Kiwi's second car, with John Faulkner at the wheel, was 10th, Mark Porter and Kayne Scott 11th and Matt Halliday 12th.

Paul Radisich's 43rd birthday was an unhappy one. Team Kiwi combined with Paul Morris Motorsport for the race and Morris drove the first stint. On lap 27 Alain Menu spun in front of him and Morris crashed heavily out of the race. Radisich never got to drive.

Race favourite Craig Lowndes, who had dominated practice and qualifying, led early but hit the wall and damaged the suspension on his Ford on lap 19. He got back in the race but his chances were extinguished when his windscreen was shattered by the wheel of Paul Dumbrell's crashed car an hour into the contest.

Jim Richards never got to start his 34th appearance. His team-mate, James Courtney, started the race and hit the wall after eight laps, damaging their Holden beyond repair.

Richards' son Steve had only slightly better luck. He completed his stint, but Dumbrell crashed the car.

Tony Longhurst, who replaced Simon Wills after the Dynamik team ownership changed following the Sandown 500, was an early casualty of the track conditions in the warm-up for the big race. The car crashed out after a couple of hours in what was Longhurst's farewell race.

New Zealand drivers dominated the Carrera Cup Porsche support races. Aucklander Fabian Coulthard won the two completed races and was leading the other on Saturday when it was abandoned because of a crash.