Adelaide - hour five report

Newly crowned series champion, Allan McNish, has fought off yesterday's back injury to continue to lead Adelaide's Race of a Thousand Years.

Australian stand-in driver Brad Jones has yet to drive the #77 machine which has had an untroubled run with McNish and Dindo Capello behind the wheel.

"When I was first in the car, my back hurt a little, but it seemed to go away once the race started," McNish said. "At the moment, I feel reasonable. I knew I had won the championship after 25 laps, but I put it to the back of my mind and concentrated on pulling away and winning the race."

After five hours, the Rafanelli Lola of Mimmo Schiatarella, Didier de Radigues and Norman Simon held second spot, but struck trouble just after the turn of the hour.

Aussie star Jason Bright also suffered a spin just after 9:00pm, finishing in the tyre barrier. It is still unsure whether the #12 Panoz will be able to make it back out onto the track.

Karl Wendlinger, Olivier Beretta and Dominique Dupuy are only one hour away from taking the (US) $450,000 three-out-of-four bonus for the GTS victory while Dirk Muller is also tantalisingly close to a win and the GT championship aboard the Dick Barbour Porsche GT3-R.

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RESULTS - FIVE HOURS

PROTOTYPE DIVISION 1. Allan McNish, Audi 190 laps

2. Mimmo Schiatarella, Lola 180 laps

3. Allan Heath, Lola 171 laps

GTS DIVISION 1. Karl Wendlinger, 4th outright Chrysler Viper 169 laps

2. Ni Amorim, 5th Chrysler Viper 169 laps

3. Stephen Watson, 10th Chrysler Viper 160 laps

GT DIVISION 1. Dirk Muller 6th outright Porsche GT3-R 168 laps

2. John Graham 9th Porsche GT3-R 160 laps

3. Anthony Lazaro 11th BMW M3 159 laps