Wet and wild: Goulburn Wakefield best yet

Cars running off tracks, high speed turns, and a side-by-side duel that enthralled those watching; the race had a touch of everything.

The showpiece event was made more exciting by bad weather that caused a countless number of cars to run off the track at high speed turns one and two, and culminated with a one-on-one battle that lasted the entire race.

Of the 38 cars across six divisions, 29 finished. So great was the speed differential, tailenders were lapped as early as loop five, causing an array of high speed traffic jams as the leaders fought their way through the field.

The race was cut short by 10 laps due to the record number of safety car periods, a by-product of vehicles firing off in the extremely wet conditions.

There were still four cars on the lead lap when the chequered flag came out on circuit 123, and victory went to Sydney youngsters Jake Shelley and Michael Shaw in a Mitsubishi Evo 9.

In second place, just nine seconds in arrears, were fellow Sydney drivers Dylan and Dave Thomas in another Evo 9. Third was 2010 race winner David Raddatz in his MX5 Mania Mazda MX5, with new co-driver Nic Cancian. Cancian had taken the flag first, after he and Raddatz drove a magnificent race, but they received a 90 second time penalty for overtaking under a yellow caution flag, and were subsequently relegated to the lower end of the podium.

Another driver to receive a penalty was the defending champion Steve Anslow in his 6-litre Chev V8 powered Mazda RX7, with Raddatz former co-driver Shane Otten.

The Anslow-Otten combination also looked like winners at times, and like five others had led the race. They finally finished fourth after they received a 45 second penalty.

Canberra driver Nathan Jess, a two-time winner of the race, and his Melbourne codriver Matthew Thompson were also front runners in the tiny 1000cc motor cycle powered Future Racer.

The pair was among the frontrunners and battling for the win with the leading pack until lap 115, when Thompson spun into the turn two gravel trap.

Luck plays a big part in motor racing - for Shelley went off in the same incident. The difference was the Evo driver got out of the gravel and mud while the Future Racer became stuck and required a tow-tractor, a factor which triggered the ninth and final safety car of the day.

The safety car then gave Shelley the opportunity to stay in touch with the leading pack.

The Sydney father-and-son team of Craig and Adam Burgess, in their highly modified Nissan Skyline GTR, was another in with a chance of winning.

The duo led the 2011 event until a gearbox broke, but this year looked stronger and seemed the car to beat. With great pace, the duo ran at the front for a while, before retiring on lap 22 courtesy of a broken rear axle. Of the six categories, there were no finishers in division 1

Division two was won by Shelley and Shaw, and division three by the mighty Mini Cooper JCW driven by Victorians Henry Draper and Linda Devlin. Division four went to Michael Hall/Chris Gough (Mazda MX5), while another Victorian father-and-son team, Phil and Declan Kirkham, won Division 5 driving a Ford Fiesta XR4. Mark Morsillo and Elliot Wright, in their Triumph TR7 V8, won the sixth and final division.