EVENT: Barbagallo Raceway, Perth              WINNER: Steven Richards

Tom Walkinshaw cars filled the top four spots on the grid after the shootout, with Skaife heading the revived ‘Evil Empire’ with his second pole of the season. He now equals Allan Moffat in second place on the history board.

Tander was looking good on his home track. He led away from the start but dropped a couple of spots at Kolb on lap two and then lost another three on his pitstop. Ten laps in, and this one was starting to get away from him.

Todd Kelly had a mechanically induced shocker in New Zealand, and Perth was no different. At one stage the HRT looked set for a one-two but then his gearbox stuck during race two, and then again race two.

Radisich and Todd Kelly lined up on the front row for race two, with Skaife off the rear after winning race one. Radisich looked set for a race win when he started having fuel pump dramas. The first cough invited a hit from Canto in the esses, the next one sent him spinning out of the lead on the last turn.

Just about everybody expected a Safety Car in race two. Tander even thought it could take 10 laps for the first full green lap to be run. In the end, all 58 laps were clean as the drivers proved reverse-grid racing was more about pit stops and strategy than racing. This one was no New Zealand.

Jason Bright was looking pretty good when his front brakes failed to come up to pressure heading into Kolb. He went straight over the sand and into the tyres, coughing up a front-row start for the final.

James Courtney was just starting to come into his own in Perth when an SBR engine went south. It was a rare failure for one of these engines, and gutting because at the time the series rookie was running around sixth for the weekend.

A conservative run from 31st in the reverse-grid race killed the weekend for Skaife. With two race wins for the weekend, many would have expected him to have taken the round, but he had to be content with second overall.

Lowndes was in the thick of it in the final race, first hitting Tander out of the way and then controversially landing Murphy in the sand at turn one. The Tander incident was interesting, Lowndes claiming Tander slowed mid-corner to prevent him doing the switchback. At that stage of the weekend, Tander was in the podium slot that Lowndes eventually took.

Steve Richards played the strategy and numbers game absolutely perfectly in the reverse-grid race, and it gave him enough of a buffer going into the final race for the weekend to have a spot of drama – slipping off the track after Luff dropped sand on the track – and still win the weekend.

DIARY OF DISASTER

Greg Murphy keeps his momentum up as he kicks up the sand at turn one.

There wasn’t much to report from Barbagallo. Normally tales of cars sinking in quicksand could fill numerous annals, but this time there was nothing to report. All 31 drivers behaved, most of the time. Radisich’s cough-induced tap from Canto to lose the reverse-grid race was close to as exciting as it got for body contact. Lowndes hit Tander and then Murphy on consecutive corners, and Bright hit the wall at the back of Kolb after losing front brake pressure. Morris leapt into the air while trying to pass Bargs, and that is about it aside from the normal bumps and bruises. Report over.

RACE FACE

Steve Richards must love Perth. Two years ago he took his maiden pole position here, last year he nailed his first round win in a Perkins Commodore and this year he and his team outsmarted all his rivals for a numerical victory. In some ways it was a classic performance for the man once dubbed ‘The Accumulator’, but that would also hide the fact that he did have enough speed to capitalise on a superior strategy.

He said afterwards it was like the sea was parting for him, and that pretty much defined his race strategy in the reverse-grid race. Many have guessed that reverse-grid races would cost people round wins, but few had thought with half points up for grabs that it could have a positive spin. But on this day, it did.

Richards stayed out longer than all his rivals before his CPS, lapping consistently in the 57s while his team kept an eagle eye for certain trigger points on the timing screen. But they just never seemed to come, he had a clear track and plenty of speed and he worked his way from 30th on the grid to second at the chequered flag.

For Skaife, the race meeting went begging with a conservative run in the middle of the weekend, he went from 31st on the grid to 18th, dropping a heap of points to his rival in black. Richards started the final race from pole, content in the knowledge that should Skaife win, all he needed was seventh. Which is exactly what he got.

As we said, it was a game of numbers.

WHAT’S IT ALL MEAN

Title hopefuls drop like flies

You could be pretty certain under the current and limited pointscore that two bad rounds in the opening 10 would be enough to put you out of the running. On that score, only a few really remain in contention after just three rounds. Todd Kelly the latest casualty while his teammate, Skaife, leads the corrected scores from Winterbottom. Ingall leads on totals.

Clockwise from above: Motorsport might not be a ball game, but you sure need them to compete at the top level. Coming soon to a cinema near you - 'The trucks that ate Barbagallo'! While high-tech equipment is the hallmark of V8 Supercar racing, simplicity also has its place. Team owner Larry Perkins and Barbagallo specialist Steven Richards discuss tactics on their way to the Perth round victory.

Axe to grind Tony Ricciardello Ah, who was the grumpiest? Roland Dane for reading the riot act to race officials before any racing had been done? Tander for getting knocked off the track by Lowndes – "he hit me so hard it lifted the rear wheels off the ground"? Murphy for getting knocked off the track by Lowndes? Tony Ricciardello (above) for being wrongly lambasted by Skaife? Take your pic, but I felt for the part-timer. Blue Hero Mark Winterbottom We’re going with Frosty again, or more specifically the FPR crew on his car. Winterbottom is driving like an accomplished champion, but the real ground was made in his first race CPS – a five-spot jump was a pretty awesome feat in such a tight field. He led Skaife around in the reverse-grid race, and then again lined up to push him hard in the final race before losing a spot to Lowndes. The #5 car wasn’t on the podium, but it was now in the reckoning. Red Hero Steve Owen Steve Owen was really good this weekend. Now fully recovered from his Adelaide dramas, he qualified 18th, which was a best-up in solo races since joining the series at the beginning of last year and pretty good for such a team. Then he battled hard in the middle of all three races, resisting plenty of pressure from the faster guys behind to consolidate his weekend. An honourable mention to Dean Canto for his win in the reverse-grid race.