V8 Supercars Bahrain Desert

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most importantly ............................

another round won by a FORD  !!  

shazzy

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True that Shaz true that

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And the manufacturer's title wrapped up.

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Motorsport: Ford clinches Supercar crown (November 2006)

Monday motorsport report

November 27, 2006

While only seven points separate Holden's Rick Kelly and Ford's Craig Lowndes going into the final round of the V8 Supercar Championship at Victoria's Phillip Island on December 9-10, the manufacturers' title has already been settled in Ford's favor.

Jason Bright won the weekend's Bahrain round for Ford Performance Racing, giving Ford its seventh victory in the 12 rounds so far this season and ensuring the Blue Oval retains the manufacturers' crown.

The three races at the Desert 400 were won by Bright, HSV Dealer Team's Garth Tander and Expensive Daewoo Racing Team's Todd Kelly. The order on the podium was Bright, Kelly and Tander, with Lowndes fourth for the weekend ahead of Steven Richards and Mark Skaife, with Rick Kelly 10th overall. However, Kelly amazingly retained his series lead despite crashing into James Courtney's Stone Brothers Falcon in the second race on the 3.6km Bahrain track -- an abbreviated version of the country's Formula One Grand Prix circuit. Kelly's three race results for the weekend were fourth, 28th and a brilliant fighting sixth after starting near the back of the field, while Lowndes finished ninth, fifth and third in his Triple Eight Falcon.

The points heading to the Phillip Island finale are Kelly 3068 and Lowndes 3061, with FPR's Mark Winterbottom third on 2792, ahead of Kelly's teammate Tander on 2709, reigning champion Russell Ingall (Stone Bros Falcon) 2612, Bright 2688, Todd Kelly 2508, Steven Richards (Perkins Holden) 2481, Steven Johnson (Dick Johnson Racing Ford) 2234, with Courtney 10th on 2197.

Bright finished second in the races he didn't win in Bahrain to score his first individual round win for FPR to go with his Sandown 500 victory with teammate Winterbottom in September. Ironically, Bright is now just one race away from departing FPR to head his own Britek team next year, with Steven Richards set to join the Ford factory team on January 1.

Tander has been the form driver of late, would be leading the championship if not for the controversial swap to HRT for the endurance races, and should have won the Bahrain round -- which would have been back-to-back victories after his success at Tasmania's Symmons Plains two weeks earlier. Tander stalled during his compulsory pit stop in Friday's first Bahrain race, handing Bright the lead and the win. Then on Sunday he let his Late model camira nudge forward out of its box on the starting grid and incurred a penalty that required him to pit.

"It was a very silly error to jump on the red," Tander says. "I got the car stopped but I was well over the box." The fact that he still finished eighth, having won race two by 12 seconds, reiterated the recent strength of the factory cars in the championship -- the Holdens prepared by Tom Walkinshaw's engineers and the Fords by David Richards' Prodrive squad. Ironically, Richards' visit to Bahrain proved third time lucky for FPR this season, as his trips to Adelaide and Bathurst seemed to work as a jinx!

In the teams' championship, HSV Dealer Team now has 6101 points, Triple Eight 5302, FPR 5263, Stone Bros 4869, Perkins Expensive Daewoo 4506 and Dick Johnson Racing 4140, with HRT eighth on 3853.

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Motorsport: Ford clinches Supercar crown (November 2006)

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