V8 Supercars.com.au (Apr 14, 2003) - Torrential rain has brought an abrupt end to today's second round of the V8 Supercar Series at Phillip Island, the race red-flagged on lap 56 with the field having followed the safety car for seven laps.

Having been run under dry conditions for the majority of the race, fans were denied an exciting shootout to the end when the rain arrived, with many of those cars caught out on slick tyres spearing off the track and bringing out the safety car.

Craig Lowndes, who waited until the last available lap to make his compulsory pit stop which was just moments prior to the downpour - and correctly selected wet weather tyres - was awarded the race ahead of Team Brock's Jason Bright, also on the same strategy.

It was Lowndes' first win since partnering Mark Skaife in the Holden Racing Team Commodore to victory in the 2000 Queensland 500.

Bright, who leaves Phillip Island leading the Championship, was lucky to make it to the finish, having tangled with Marcos Ambrose when the rains
came and damaging the steering on his Commodore - the damage enough to worry the Bathurst winner if the race resumed.

"The car was wounded alright, it just wouldn't turn left and if the race resumed I was going to be in trouble," Bright said.

"To finish second is a great result considering when we arrived at Phillip Island we didn't have a good car, but my team worked hard and we just kept getting better and better."

A stewards enquiry into the clash between Bright and Ambrose later determined the incident was a racing incident.

Kmart Racing star Greg Murphy, who was on the same strategy as Lowndes and made the same decision for tyres having suffered a speed deficiency for much of the race, finished third ahead of Garth Tander in the GRM VY Commodore.

Murphy said that although he would have preferred the race to restart, giving the renowned wet weather driver the chance to chase Lowndes over the remaining laps, he thought the decision to fly the red flag correct.

"I could tell you what I really wanted, but to be completely honest it was probably the right decision - the conditions would have been too treacherous for a safe race," Murphy said.

"I'd been hoping for rain as my car was too slow in the dry, so we intentionally waited until the last moment to pit and guessed on wets. We would have liked to have had a crack at Lowndes, but it wasn't to be."

Like Lowndes and Murphy, Tander and the GRM team elected to wait until the last possible moment to make his compulsory tyre-stop and "picked it right".

"My new VY Commodore is improving all the time and our strategy was 100 per cent right," Tander said.

"Fourth is a good result and shows we are heading forward with our program."

Holden Racing Team duo Todd Kelly and Mark Skaife were fifth and sixth respectively, with Castrol Perkins Racing's Steven Richards and Bright's TB team-mate Paul Weel following - seven Commodores finishing inside the top 10.

Holden Commodore drivers occupy the first seven spots in the V8 Supercar Series points after two rounds, with Bright leading on 357 points ahead of Skaife (351), Kelly and Richards (336), Murphy (315), Weel (297) and Tander (288).