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Skaife's Sandown 500

© Philip Northeast

The Holden Racing Team's Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly overcame rain, hail and a crash when they drove their ailing Commodore to victory in yesterday's Sandown 500.

The 500 km V8 Supercar endurance event returned to its traditional home of Melbourne's Sandown raceway for the first time since 1998.

"The race has a lot of history and as well as being a good 'tune-up' for Bathurst, it's great race in its own right," Skaife said before the race.

A spectacular hail storm disrupted the second half of the motor race.

The driver of the Super Cheap Auto Falcon, Luke Youlden, said "the hail was so slippery - I just kept my head down and concentrated on staying on the road. Even after the safety car was called onto the track there were cars going all over the place".

The number 8 Castrol Perkins Commodore slid off the icy track at the Dandenong Rd corner delaying race restart while safety crews repaired the tyre wall.

Surviving the hail storm was not the end of Skaife and Kelly's problems.

The Holden Racing Team said that they hoped the race would be stopped because of the hailstones and the damage to the tyre wall. They said that the electrical problems in the Skaife/Kelly car were due to a failing alternator and they were not sure if their car would make the end of the race.

The track safety crew repaired the tyre wall and swept the hailstones off the track and the race resumed on lap 127. The delay forced the race to be shortened from 161 to 141 laps

"From the last Safety Car we were switching things off because the volt alarm kept coming on. I was like an auto electrician, playing with circuit breakers and unplugging things," Skaife said.

After the event the stewards fined Holden Racing Team $7,500 because in the closing laps of the race the rain light was not on while the car had wet weather tyres fitted. The team admitted the breach.

Towards the end of the race the Team Dynamik Commodore of Jason Richards and Simon Wills closed the gap to Skaife's leading Holden.

On the second last lap Richards tried to overtake Skaife's Holden and the two cars and both ran off the track. Skaife managed to get his Commodore back on the track and keep the race lead while the Team Dynamik car ended the race bogged in a sand trap.

"I had to turn the windscreen warmer off and I couldn't see because it was so fogged over… I saw two lights coming at me and then I had to block Jase (Richards) whenever I could," said Skaife.