Caltex Racing's Russell Ingal⛦l put in a gritty performance at Hidden Valley Raceway on Sunday afternoon, coming from the rear of the grid to finish 11th in the final race. Ingall provided the only highlight in an otherwise forgetful weekend for the Stone Brothers Racing team.

What looked like a tough round for SBR on Saturday only got wors♊e on 🤪Sunday at the 2.9km Darwin circuit.

Starting from the rear of the grid in Race 2, Ingall found his way through the first lap carnage and was making ground prior to his compulsory pit stop only to loose engine power on lap 15. Ingall pitted for tyres and completed a further lap before retiring to the SBR garag🐓e.

The Caltex Racing Falcon took on a new engine for ra♏ce three and started from the rear of the grid for the𒅌 second time.

An aggressive Ingall carved his way through the field early in the race, gaining 13 positions prior to the compulsory pit st𓂃op window opening on lap five.

Ingall continued to make gro꧂und while the field completed their stops. The Caltex Racing driver moved into the lead on lap 14, then proceeded to take advantage of the safety car period four laps later, making his compulsory pit stop and rejoining the race in 11th position.

Ingall elected to hold position for the rest of the race, bringing the Falcon home in one piece and collecting six championship points in thꦐe process.

"We finally got through a race this afternoon but it doesn't make up for everything," he noted. "We threw away a lot of points today. We had a reasonable car at the end, the best it's been all weekend. Iꦺf we started like that things might have been a bit different.

"We couldn't afford to tear anything up this afternoon. We got through a lot of cars in the first half of the race but we started to lose tyres towards the end. If we were going to pass anyone it was going to be a bit des🐻perate. The team doesn't need another bent car so the Caltex Racing Falcon will go home on all🌺 fours and we will regroup and get ready for the home track."

JELD-WEN Motorsport's James Courtney meanwhile stﷺarted this morning's 42-lap race from 16th on the grid and looked to get away to a fantastic start, gaining several positions.

However, his round ended𒆙 only seconds later when he was the victim of a tag from Steven Johnson at turn two on the opening lap. Courtney was speared into the tyre wall then collected by Shane Price who also got caught up in the first lap carnage.

The JELD-WEN Motorsport Falcon suffered extensive structural damage in the incident and was unable to be 🌄repaired, leaving Courtney 🎶a spectator for race three.

"I had a fantastic start to race two, got past a couple of rows but that's about where it stopped," he explained. "Coming out of the first corner I got tagged from behind. I think Steve (Johnson) was lurking back there. It turned me around into the tyre wall and then I saw ꦐShane Price heading straight for me; there was nothing he could do about it.

"It's been a pretty horrendous weekend for us. SBR has been involved in two incidents th🧸is weekend that have been the result of some pretty stupid driving by others and we've suffered a lot of damage.

"You can race hard and fair with the first six or eight cars; Skaife, the Kelly brothers and so on and you can lea🐼n on each other but give each other enough room. That's good racing. Then you get down the field and you get guys that think that pushing you off the track is good racing. I'm pretty angry. I guess we just have to try and channe💝l that to our home round at Queensland Raceway and turn it around."

"The SBR boys have certainly earned their pay this weekend," summed-up team manager, Ross Stone. "We had a lot of damage to both cars at different stages🤪 and they did a great job pulling it back together. It's been a very hard weekend but that's the way the cards fell. We can only go home and do the work for the next one."