Perkins came charging out of Pit Lane having just switched onto the option tyre, so there was no time for them to warm up. He was right in front of the main battle pack of Lowndes, Dumbrell and Winterbottom as the three were catching Jason Richards (who was first on the road, but yet to make a stop and on dying rubber). Going down into turns one and two, Perkins decided to hold the line and race for position, despite the fact that Richards had just passed him, putting him down a lap. Craig Lowndes was forced to go around the outside of turn two, but Perkins closed the door. It could have gotten very messy, very quickly, but Lowndes backed off and lost the postion he'd just taken from Dumbrell. For the next few laps, Perkins continued to race for position as his tyres came good. He kept blocking Lowndes, and Winterbottom was able to catch up. Channel Seven caught a transmission from Lowndes, who was livid that Perkins was fighting despite pretty much having lost the right to do so. No blue flags were shown because of an error in race control that meant the timing monitors weren't working properly. Eventually Perkins got by Dumbrell and returned himself to the lead lap, but his stupidity jeopardised the races of Dumbrell, Lowndes and Winterbottom, all of whom could have been taken out in the first two corners.
