The death of privateer racer Don Watson after a crash at Caltex Chase on Thursday cast a shadow over the whole meeting.

On Sunday there was drama even before the race when both Lowndes and Gardner came into contact with walls during the morning warm-up. Trouble on the warm-up lap caused Schembri to start from the pit lane and McConville from the rear of the grid.

With steady rain falling, Brock got the jump at the start but ran wide at Hell Corner letting Seton through to lead up Mountain Straight. Skaife was leading by Griffin's Bend and hung onto the lead at the end of lap one from Brock, Perkins and Seton.

The sun appeared on lap 5 and Perkins, fastest man in the wet, hit the lead on lap seven. His tyres began to overheat in the drying conditions and Brock was leading by lap 10.

It was raining again by lap 22. Many cars had just changed to intermediates and now had to call back into the pits for wets. Garry Jones crashed his Corolla at Forrest's Elbow on lap 25 which brought out the pace car. That didn't stop the Mathews Peugeot hitting the Corolla and putting both cars out of the race. No sooner was the pace car pulled in than it was out again to cover Brett Youlden, stuck in the sand at Caltex Chase.

Brock, Seton, Longhurst, Seton, Bowe, Perkins, Bond and Johnson all took turns in leading until the pace car came out again at 1.31pm. A Peugeot 405 had lost a wheel at Hell Corner and was considered to be stuck in the sandtrap in a dangerous position. During the pace car intervention Wayne Russell was too eager to catch the field after a pit stop and went straight ahead into the fence at Griffin's Bend.

The pace car was off the track just after 2.00pm, but was back out again 10 minutes later when Kevin Burton hit the wall at Tooheys Turn. Racing resumed at 2.23pm with Brock in the lead and trying to run away. Wayne Gardner was chasing him until he spun on oil dumped by Terry Finnigan's failed engine in the BP Cutting. Gardner was out and so was the pace car, again.

Johnson was left in the lead from Brad Jones. His third flying lap was a 2m14.14 - a new lap record and fastest lap of the race - but Brad Jones hung on to be only 5.4 seconds behind at 125 lap mark. In fact he began to close on the leader - the gap being a mere 2.6 seconds when Jones finished his stint.

On lap 128 the leaders made their last pit stops, Dick Johnson leading in, but Craig Lowndes taking the Commodore back onto the track slightly ahead. Next time around Bowe dived under Lowndes at Hell Corner.

Brock hit the fence at Castrol Curve on lap 139 and came to rest in the middle of the track. This brought the pace car out again, for which all six contenders were grateful. The four slow laps helped their marginal fuel situations.

At the green Bowe tried to break away but Lowndes went with him. Going up Mountain Straight on lap 148 Bowe put the Falcon in the middle of the road entering Griffin's Bend to block an inside pass - but Lowndes just drove around the outside of him.

A lap later Lowndes was baulked by a slow car in Murrays Corner and was slow onto Pit Straight. Bowe jumped at the chance and squeezed inside the Commodore at Hell Corner. Gradually Bowe pulled away, but Lowndes now had to worry about Perkins and Longhurst close behind.

At the end Bowe won by 5.7357 seconds - the closest finish in the history of the race. Perkins hung on to beat Longhurst by less than a second and the first four places were covered by less than 12 seconds.