KEY POINTS:
It was another Ford versus Holden match-up in the desert yesterday, as four past Bathurst winners made a special trip into Iraq to boost the morale of Aussie troops - and went head-to-head in a Bushmaster infantry vehicle against a light armoured vehicle.
After a high octane weekend of racing in Bahrain, V8 Supercar drivers Craig Lowndes and Jason Bright from Ford, and Holden drivers Rick Kelly and Greg Murphy, visited the Tallil Air Base in Iraq's south, 310 kilometres south east of Baghdad.
"Meeting all the troops has just been a huge eye-opener for me," said Lowndes.
"My wife Nat wasn't too keen on me going for obvious reasons but I was keen to come here and really see first-hand what it's all about.
"When you see it back at home on the news it's nothing like what it's like close up."
Rick Kelly and Greg Murphy, driving the 'Bushy', took the honours in a hard-fought and exciting race.
"It's been one of the most bizarre days I've ever had in my life, I reckon, and it will be hard to beat," said Murphy.
Kelly called it the "the highlight of the year".
But the assembled soldiers saved their biggest cheer of the day for when Miss V8 Supercars Cherie Mitchell was introduced.
The majority of the soldiers at the event have spent the last five months in Tallil and have about one month left of their deployment.
