Despite having spent the vast majority of his life in the country, this would be Thexton's first attempt at racing at Pukekohe Park Raceway.

Although given his failure to qualify at the vast majority of the 2003 championship rounds, whether he'd be able to race at all this weekend remained in question.

In inclement conditions, Max Wilson leapt off the line exceptionally well and challenged Skaife for the lead through turn one.

A few hundred yards behind them, Jamie Whincup, Mark Larkham, David Besnard, Anthony Tratt and Cameron McConville had tangled and struck the fence.

The safety car was deployed and multiple drivers (including Murphy and Ambrose) peeled in to complete their mandatory stops.

Bright rapidly fell down the pack thanks to visibility issues brought on by a fault windshield wiper as Craig Lowndes assumed the lead.

This proved extremely effective as, when race leader Murphy had completed his pitstop, Skaife was right behind him in what was a net second place.

The battle was close, with Skaife nudging the rear of Murphy's car at the hairpin on lap 21, almost sending the Kiwi into a spin.

At the same time, Skaife tripped up on the oil left by Johnson's expired engine and conceded the lead back to Murphy.

Damage to David Thexton's front bumper suggested that Tander had fallen victim to the mobile chicane.

There was chaos at turn one when Steven Ellery was sent into a spin, scattering the field, who all miraculously avoided t-boning the Supercheap Auto Falcon.

Despite entering the Pukekohe round with a chance of capturing his maiden championship, a string of poor results for Ambrose meant the gap between him and his title rivals had closed significantly.

Skaife, initially 167 points behind Ambrose preceding this round, had more than halved the gap to the championship lead.

Murphy was now only 24 points behind Ambrose, and with a string of wins in recent rounds, including the Bathurst 1000, he was looked at favourably to vanquish the Stone Brothers Racing driver in the championship finale.

Bright would take the spoils while Murphy was left to scrape podiums together in a grueling duel between him and championship rival, Ambrose.