Murphy's only blemish over the weekend came in the top ten shootout that made a potentially great lap into merely a goo done that earned him a second row start for the first race of the weekend on Saturday.
Murphy's mistake opened the way for Craig Lowndes to grab a rare pole position for himself and 888 Racing. this set up a drag race of the front row of the grid with Ford's other hero driver Marcos Ambrose from Stone Brothers Racing. This highlighted the on track rivalry between Ford teams, even though SBR supplies engines to 888 Racing. Neither driver was prepared to give way into the opening left right complex and Lowndes came off second best spinning onto the grass and rejoining in last place. this suited Murphy who got a run on Stephen Richards in the Castrol Commodore after Richards appeared to hesitate to and move wide to make sure of avoiding the spinning Lowndes.
Ambrose's lead was short lived as Murphy tagged onto the back of the Pirtek Falcon. In a move that had more psychological importance than tactical Murphy took the lead and immediately took his compulsory pit stop. Ambrose and Richards were still arguing over the lead until they tangled at the hairpin when an overtaking move went wrong. Ambrose lost spots and Richards spent time in the pits getting quick repairs to damaged front bodywork. Murphy had shown that he was the fastest car on the track before all this and did not really need any help. So when the field sorted itself out from the pit stop shuffle Murphy was in a lead that he never relinquished for the rest of the weekend.
"I don't know what it is about this place - every time I get here everything just seems to click into place. said Murphy after his victory in race one.
The other SBR Falcon of Russell Ingall took up the challenge and kept Murphy honest but Ingall just could not make the pass. The SBR crew kept on adjusting the car and he seemed to be able to get closer to the back of Murphy's Super Cheap Autos Holden but second was the best Ingall could manage.
