Yellows were waved on the opening lap after Shane van Gisbergen hit the wall over the back section of the circuit with both Russell Ingall and Dean Fiore striking glancing blows on the now limping Ford with Todd Kelly and Jason Bargwanna ending up spun backwards to the field in the ensuing chaos.

At the restart on lap 49 Whincup led from Tander, Courtney, Lowndes, Caruso, Steven Johnson, Mark Winterbottom, Rick Kelly and Paul Dumbrell.

Whincup pulled clear to claim his fifth race win of the year ahead of Tander, Courtney in the first Ford, Lowndes, Caruso, Johnson, Winterbottom, Rick Kelly, Dumbrell and Lee Holdsworth.

Qualifying was marred by a heavy collision with a wall by Andrew Thompson, his second consecutive street circuit crash after damaging his car sufficiently at the 2010 Clipsal 500 to miss the entire meeting.

[1] Garth Tander secured pole position after a last minute effort by Race 7 polesitter Jamie Whincup fell afoul traffic.

Behind Whincup was Michael Caruso in a strong performance in the Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore with Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes completing a clean sweep of the top five for Holden.