Mark Winterbottom wins 'Qualifying Race' at Albert Park Photo credit Ford Performance Racing
Mark Winterbottom has won the opening race of the non-championship Australian Grand Prix event, the MSS Security V8 Supercars Challenge at Albert Park.
SP Tools Racing's Shane van Gisbergen initially got the jump on front-row starters TeamVodafone's Jamie Whincup and Winterbottom, but the Orrcon Steel FPR pilot quickly dispatched of van Gisbergen on the first lap and held on to claim victory with Whincup just 0.45s adrift in second.
Van Gisbergen came home third with Will Davison (Trading Post FPR), David Reynolds (The Bottle-O Racing Team), Craig Lowndes (Team Vodafone), Rick Kelly (Jack Daniels Racing), Garth Tander (Holden Racing Team), Tony D'Alberto (Tony D'Alberto Racing)and Todd Kelly (Jack Daniels Racing) rounding out the top 10.
The race's unique ‘drop zone’ format involved three cars per lap between laps three and eight being removed from the race, but not before a lap two crash eliminated both Jason Bright (Team BOC) and Michael Patrizi (Tekno Autosports) when contact between Steve Owen (V.I.P Petfoods) and Patrizi at the exit of Turn 10 spun Patrizi's Commodore into the path of Bright.
As a result of the incident, the race reached its maximum time cut-off two laps short of the scheduled distance. This removed the need for Race Control to deploy another Safety Car after Lap 9 to close the gap between the ten remaining drivers.
The results of the race set the grid for Race 2.
Qualifying race result:
| 1 | Mark Winterbottom | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | 11 | 28:23.6468 |
| 2 | Jamie Whincup | TeamVodafone | 11 | 28:24.0967 |
| 3 | Shane Van Gisbergen | SP Tools Racing | 11 | 28:27.5085 |
| 4 | Will Davison | Trading Post FPR Ford | 11 | 28:28.3417 |
| 5 | David Reynolds | The Bottle-O Racing Team | 11 | 28:29.8571 |
| 6 | Craig Lowndes | TeamVodafone | 11 | 28:30.2446 |
| 7 | Rick Kelly | Jack Daniel's Racing | 11 | 28:32.9743 |
| 8 | Garth Tander | Holden Racing Team | 11 | 28:33.2731 |
| 9 | Tony D'Alberto | Tony D'Alberto Racing | 11 | 28:34.7413 |
| 10 | Todd Kelly | Jack Daniel's Racing | 11 | 28:35.1381 |
| 11 | Michael Caruso | Fujitsu Racing GRM | 8 | 22:38.9487 |
| 12 | Lee Holdsworth | Irwin Racing | 8 | 22:39.5060 |
| 13 | Greg Murphy | Pepsi Max Crew | 8 | 22:40.3628 |
| 14 | Tim Slade | Lucky 7 Racing | 7 | 20:41.9052 |
| 15 | James Courtney | Holden Racing Team | 7 | 20:44.5098 |
| 16 | Alexandre Premat | Fujitsu Racing GRM | 7 | 20:46.7417 |
| 17 | Russell Ingall | Supercheap Auto Racing | 6 | 18:44.8369 |
| 18 | Fabian Coulthard | Lockwood Racing | 6 | 18:45.2528 |
| 19 | Steven Johnson | Jim Beam Racing | 6 | 18:45.5564 |
| 20 | Steve Owen | V.I.P. Petfoods | 5 | 16:46.8924 |
| 21 | Karl Reindler | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | 5 | 16:47.0411 |
| 22 | Taz Douglas | Team iSelect | 5 | 16:47.2416 |
| 23 | Dean Fiore | Jim Beam Racing | 4 | 13:53.5366 |
| 24 | James Moffat | Team Norton DJR | 4 | 13:54.5482 |
| 25 | Jonathon Webb | Tekno Autosports | 4 | 13:56.9255 |
| 26 | David Wall | Wilson Security Racing | 3 | 9:07.0262 |
| DNF | Michael Patrizi | Tekno Autosports | 1 | 2:12.5962 |
| DNF | Jason Bright | Team BOC | 1 | 2:12.8358 |
