Ford's Mark Winterbottom has closed the gap at the top of the V8 Supercar championship, winning race one of round four at Barbagallo Raceway today.
Winterbottom, who qualified on pole, led virtually from start to finish in the first of the weekend's three 50-lap races to jump from fourth place to third in the championship standings.
He beat Holden teammates Mark Skaife and Garth Tander to post his second race win of the year.
Series leader Rick Kelly was sixth in his Holden but keeps the overall lead ahead of Tander.
The race featured a spectacular second lap crash involving four cars, with the Fords of Jason Bright and Shane van Gisbergen and Michael Caruso's Holden out of play early.
Bright, Caruso and Greg Murphy were involved in the initial contact, with Bright and Caruso fanning and losing control either side of Murphy and spearing into the sand traps.
Caruso's car collected van Gisbergen on the way, knocking him out of the race.
Ford's Jamie Whincup produced a huge drive after a nightmare qualifying session.
Debuting a new car, Whincup struggled to gather any speed and was eliminated early in the three-stage qualifying session, ending up 22nd on the grid.
But last year's championship runner-up powered his way up to seventh by race finish, and will carry that grid position into race two tomorrow.
