Photo: V8SC media

Tander lifts V8 Supercar 2007 title

By

Toll HSV Dealer Team withstood the amazing highs and lows of the year to triumph over a gallant Jamie Whincup in the closest finish in the history of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at the Dunlop Grand Finale at Phillip Island today. By winning the first two races of the weekend and finishing in fourth in the last race, Garth Tander has won the V8 Supercar Championship Series title. He finished on 625 points, while his main rival, Jamie Whincup finished on 623 points. Whincup finished third in the first two races, second in the last race.

In an incredible finish to the Series, Tander found himself in all sorts of situations in the final race including being sandwiched between his two TeamVodafone rivals Whincup and Craig Lowndes to survive the intense pressure. It also gave Holden the coveted Manufacturer’s title and Toll HSV Dealer Team the prized Team’s Award for 2007. In all it was a clean sweep for the Red team.

“Look it certainly hasn’t sunk in,” Tander said. “Obviously a fantastic result considering how low I felt on Sunday night at Tasmania and to fight back from those lows to come back from a bad qualifying to win two races and set ourselves up so we could manage the third race if we needed to.”

“It’s a fantastic effort by our team all year but this weekend we dug ourselves out of the biggest hole post-qualifying. Absolute elation and I just quite believe it right now. I’ve said since basically since winning Bathurst that I wanted to win the Championship. That is why I moved to the HSV dealer team. They’ve won two Championships in the three years that I have been there. We will sit back and reflect but it feels pretty good right at the minute.”

Tander admitted that he was feeling as anxious as his racer wife Leanne who watched on in agony from the team garage as the final of 37 races unfolded. “We stayed out a lap too long in the final race and got caught in the sandwich between Jamie and Craig. It was high speed chess from there on. It was about managing the situation,” Mr Tander said. “I didn’t realise that we still had it if Craig elbowed his way by. When the boys said don’t worry about it, just cruise to the end it was a pretty good feeling I can tell you. They told me straight away when Craig got by. I knew that if Jamie got to the front it would be curtains for us but Todd held on and saved my bacon.”

Whincup was an amazingly gracious second, perhaps knowing his time will come. “It was a tough race. The heat of the battle got to me a little bit,” Whincup said. “Today we had great pace and were able to race hard. I was able to catch Todd near the end and I tried really hard but that was my race. I was tapped out. I did the best I could but it was not quite enough. We did the absolute best we could and got beaten by the better man on the day.”

For the record Kelly won the final race and finished third for the event. It was a brilliant race from Kelly who was only overshadowed by the Championship scenario.