Photo: HRT

Race one to Tander

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Holden has taken first blood in the Sprint Gas V8 Supercar Manufacturers Challenge at Albert Park with the factory Toll Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander blitzing the field in today’s first race.
Tander secured pole for the red side earlier today with a scintillating lap in the top 10 shootout, and then led from start to finish in this afternoon’s shortened contest – the race called after just 13 of 15 scheduled laps.

A melee between leading Ford drivers Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards gave Tander over a four second lead at the end of lap one and he was never headed.

Even on a restart after the end of a Safety Car period on lap 12, Tander leapt away from the field, comfortably driving to the chequered flag.

Team-mate Mark Skaife finished fine fourth for Holden, with Ford’s Will Davison and the HSV Dealer Team’s Rick Kelly filing out the podium positions.

Holden scored 678 points to Ford’s 504 to take a convincing lead in the inaugural Manufacturers Challenge. There are two races remaining, one Saturday afternoon, the final Sunday.

Garth Tander was delighted with his win: “My Toll HRT Commodore was fantastic today and our team have done a great job of matching it to the track conditions for qualifying, the shootout and Race 1. I looked in the mirror at turn one and could see a bit going on behind me – it was a bit like Eastern Creek Race 1 all over again. From there we were able to look after the car as much as we could. The Safety Car didn’t surprise me; we had a big lead and there were tyre bundles scattered all round the track. When it disappeared I was able to get away again, but apparently the race ended then … I didn’t know about it, the guys had to radio me to tell me to stop. We thought there were still two laps to go!”

Mark Skaife meanwhile was more outspoken: “It was on for young and old today right from the start. There were guys where they shouldn’t have been and it was just madness, especially amongst those Ford blokes. But with all those dramas we were able to get through, avoid the carnage and have a good run. The Toll HRT Commodore’s very good and I’m happy with our result today. As the third Holden behind Garth and Rick we actually lose a spot on the grid for tomorrow’s race, but we’ll do the best we can from there.”