Tander dominates Hamilton streets

Garth Tander has dominated the field in all three races in Hamilton to claim the inaugural Mark Porter Trophy and secure Holden’s first round win of season 2008 and ensuring New Zealand remains a strong hold of the Red Lion.

Tander again showed why he is the current V8 Supercar Champion after only ever giving up the lead during pit stops over the three races and giving little opportunity for passing to runner up for the weekend, Ford’s Steven Richards.

James Courtney made up the podium with a very clean weekend, keeping out of trouble and giving his old Falcon a decent farewell before moving into a new car for round four at Perth.

Chaos ensured early in race three when the safety car made its way onto the track before the end of the first lap when Lee Holdsworth strong weekend came to an end after hitting the chicane awkwardly and spearing off into the wall. Rookie D’Alberto also missed out on consolidating his race two 11th place, when his rear end was caved in by Jason Richards in another first lap incident.

Will Davison’s weekend went from bad to worse, when exiting the pits his bonnet flew up cracking his windscreen and forcing him to drive a whole lap virtually blind. He returned to have it fixed but the race ended for him not long after was forced to retire.

The highlights for the weekend though came from the new Kiwi Brigade with Fabian Coulthard finishing the weekend in the 5th place, the highest finish ever for himself or his team Paul Cruickshank Racing and Shane Van Gisbergen, who again gave the V8 Supercar faithful and glimpse of what is to come with some superb passing moves on the likes of Mark Skaife and making up 16 places in race three to finish 10 for the race.

Tander however, was the dominate force and was very happy to confirm Holden’s domination of the New Zealand and sort some unfinished business in country after last year missing out on the round win in Pukekohe in somewhat unusual circumstances.

“It was three very good races, there was gaps and then it flowed and then there were safety cars and it’s a new circuit and it is quite easy to make mistakes here, so I was just trying to concentrate and look after the car as much as I could,” Tander said.

“We have seen all weekend cars being damaged by the chicane and the curbs so I just wanted to look after the car and tyres in case there was any late safety cars. As it turned out in two out of the three races we had late safety cars and I needed that little bit of a spurt to get away from Richo so we could bring it home.

“It’s a fantastic result for us and fantastic for Holden, eighth in a row here in New Zealand and also a bit of revenge on New Zealand after last year so I had a fair bit of motivation to get this one.”

Steven Richards was equally happy with his performance and return to the podium, with his last visit coming in Tasmania last year.

“I’m pretty happy, it been a while between drinks for pole position and we made the most of the differing conditions yesterday and Garth definitely had very good pace off the restart better than us,” Richards said after the race.

“We went a little bit backward in the last race with set up, but overall pretty pleased all things considered. I think we made a big step forward in our championship chase and that’s the main thing, to get some points on the board.

“We made a change for the last race and it definitely hurt the car a little bit, but toward the end of the race we definitely had as good a race pace as Garth. But at the start the car was bouncing around on the bumps a fair bit and was giving the old brain a bit of a rattle and we were struggling to keep up early.

Hamilton was also a happy hunting ground for Courtney, who put the controversy of past rounds behind him to drive a controlled and clean round, a fact that he was pleased with at the end of the day.

“It was a good result. We have had good speed all year but it has been an up and down start to the season and now it is good to have a clean weekend and let someone else have the bad luck.

“So it’s good to get some strong points under our belt and now we can work on what we have found from this weekend.

“I guess when you are in the front you don’t have to be as aggressive to get through. In the past I’ve been coming through from further back and you have to have calculated aggression and at times things have gone wrong.

“But with a clean qualifying and starting near the front you don’t have to get involved in any mayhem and you can just concentrate on doing smooth, quick, clean and consistent lap times.

“And look what happens at the end of the day it was probably the easiest weekend I have had for as long as I can remember.”

The V8 Supercar Championship now heads to Perth for the fourth round Big Pond 400 and takes place on May 9-11.