Four drivers would make their Bathurst 500/1000 debuts - Jay Verdnik, Andrew Thompson, Shane van Gisbergen and David Reynolds.

Last car out, Mark Winterbottom drove a smooth clean lap and took pole position over Skaife by 0.1067 seconds.

Cameron McConville's car had an engine failure heading up Mountain Straight and he retired at Griffins Bend.

On Lap 118, Dean Canto slid wide and crashed at Reid Park causing another safety car period.

Earlier the #1 Toll HSV Dealer Team car was retired with persistent brake fluid problems.

Lap 134 saw the retirement of the #26 IRWIN Racing Britek Motorsport, Alan Gurr was at the wheel, crashed upon the restart.

[2] Paul Morris spun the #67 Team Sirromet Wines into the wall at The Cutting, causing the safety car to be deployed.

On Lap 148, rain was falling lightly on top of the mountain and five cars all fell victim to the wet conditions.

With only two laps remaining Race Control decided against deploying the safety car; instead telling crews to warn drivers.

Thirteen laps to go, Winterbottom continued to maintain the large lead that his teammate Richards built up throughout the race despite choosing to not change to wet tyres on the rain drenched track, until he ran off at The Chase, nearly rolling the car in the gravel trap, which relinquished his lead to Lowndes, with Johnson, Murphy and Courtney all passing him as a consequence.

[3] In the final laps, Craig Lowndes, Steven Johnson, Greg Murphy and James Courtney were fighting for the win.

[2] The final hour was considered to be one of the best finishes in Bathurst 1000 history until 2014, when the race win was determined by a last lap pass.