Holden's Garth Tander went into round eight snarling and came out smiling, snatching back the V8 Supercar championship lead from Mark Winterbottom as disaster struck his Ford rival at Winton.
Tander won the round on a countback after he and Ford duo Jamie Whincup and Will Davison were all tied on equal points - each driver winning one of the three races over the weekend.
Tander's race three win gave him the round victory for the higher finishing position in the final race, with Whincup second and Davison third overall.
But for Winterbottom, it was a nightmare weekend with two horror races erasing the 122-point lead he held coming into the round at the north-east Victorian track.
Holden Racing Team's Tander now leads the championship by 12 points from Winterbottom, for whom bad luck and driver error book-ended a brilliant race two drive.
After a punctured tyre wrecked race one for Winterbottom yesterday, he fought back to finish second in today's race two and earn a front row grid spot for race three.
But catastrophe struck the Ford driver again after he got a flying start and led the race.
He locked a brake and drove off track, then collided with Holden driver Todd Kelly as he tried to get back on, leaving his Falcon heavily damaged.
Winterbottom limped home 10th for the round and both Tander and third-placed Whincup reeled in his championship lead.
Whincup is now within 74 points of second place going into the two endurance rounds at Phillip Island and Bathurst.
Tander had gone into the weekend fired up by Winterbottom's pre-race comments that Holden teams needed to stop whingeing and start working rather than complain about Ford's dominance this season.
For Tander, how the weekend unfolded was particularly sweet after his car was given a pounding in race one and was lucky to finish with a broken steering rack and rear bar.
He is confident his Commodore now has the speed it needs to compete with Winterbottom, who proved when he was actually racing at the pointy end how quick his Falcon is.
"It was a shame Mark wasn't in that last race so we could gauge how well we were going against his speed - but you've got to stay on the track," Tander said.
Winterbottom was philosophical, putting his hand up to accept blame for his race three error.
"I'm disappointed I made a mistake, not because I lost the championship lead," he said.
"I've lost my yellow jersey in the mountain climb stage.
"Let's see how we go when we get to the Mountain (Bathurst)."
Winterbottom's Ford Performance Racing teammate Steven Richards also had a tough weekend.
He was involved in a spectacular race two crash which took out Holden drivers Mark Skaife, Russell Ingall, Jason Richards and Michael Caruso inside the first lap.
None of the drivers were hurt and stewards are investigating the crash.
But Skaife and Jason Richards were unable to take part in race three, while Steven Richards, who went on to finish race two, also had problems in race three and failed to finish.
The V8 series now has a six-week break, with round nine at Phillip Island from September 11-14.
