Tander wins at Symonds Plains

Holden Racing Teams, Garth Tander, has broken the team Vodafone strangle hold on the V8 Supercar Championship by wining race 7 of the 2009 season after qualifying on the pole at Symonds Plains.

Tander was able to was able to just scrape into the final leg of qualifying after setting the tenth fastest time in leg two, then used the advantage of going out first in the shootout to set the fastest time around the 2.4 kilometre Tasmanian track.

2005 Champion, Russell Ingall, Pushed the red Factory Holden all the way to finished second by less than 0.100 of second after qualifying forth in the shootout.

Ingall’s Super-Cheap Auto Commodore was carrying much more speed than his fellow Holden driver, but attempts to overtake the leader in the closing laps were foiled buy lapped traffic.

DJR’s Steven Johnson was the first Ford home in third.

Will Davidson came from 14th on the grid to finish forth and Todd Kelly collected a fifth for Kelly Racing.

The Triple 888 cars had a dismal day compared to previous performances this season. Lowndes was excluded from the Top 10 shootout after causing the Leg two sessions to be red flagged when he beached the Vodafone Ford at the turn 4 hairpin farcing him to start tenth.

His teammate and Championship Leader, Jamie Whincup, didn’t fare much better. After qualifying first in leg 2, he was at a disadvantage in the Shootout as he came out last, and the crucial tyre temperature was gone.

Lowndes and Whincup never really recovered and finished seventh and eight respectively.

Greg Murphy showed great pace throughout qualifying and would qualify on the outside pole race 7. But the Sprint Gas Commodore was out classed in the pits and the 51 car would finish a disappointing ninth.

V8 Supercars latest centurion, Rick Kelly, finished 11th in his 100th start, and drive of the day nominee, Cameron McConvilie, drove the WOW Racing Commodore tho 14th after starting from the rear of the grid.

The one real incident from the race involve 3rd place qualifier, James Courtney, when he lost the right rear tyre after, what is believed to be, intentional contact from Todd Kelly from the hairpin, halfway up the backstretch. Because there was no attrition, Courtney wound up 30th (dead Lat).

Race winner, Garth Tander, describe his first win of the season as “busy”.

“At the end when we were lapping traffic it was on for young and old,” he said.

“It was busy the whole race and obviously there was a bit of unknown about how the Sprint (soft compound) tyre would work here in these cold conditions on a very short lap.

“Our car was very, very good all race; I just tried to manage the gap as much as I could all the way through the race so that it would look after the tyre at the end.

“It went away a little bit right at the end there, but the speed is still very good so it’s time we got a result for Holden.”

Despite the late race run-ins with lapped traffic, The Enforcer seemed more than satisfied with his second place, but he couldn’t help himself when ask about the situation.

“You can tell the attitude of some drivers, a couple of them just turned left, hard, and if I had have just stayed there I would have turned them ‘round and possibly taken the front end off my car, so I had to grab some kerb now and then and it was just a shame, because I wanted to get on Garth and give him a good race at the end,” Ingall said.

“It was pretty average steering by a few drivers, but some you’d expect it, you know? I knew which ones they were.

“You could pretty well see the number on the back and you’d say, ‘yep, turkey, turkey, not too bad, turkey, turkey (as you drove past them).

“You’d see them coming a mile away so you know what’s coming at you, put it that way.”

Ingall said his #39 Commodore had the best pace all year today.

“We’d found something that had been hindering us all year in the new car,” he said.

“It was just something in the build and the boys to their credit found it last night and instantly we got pace, so at least that’s fixed and out the way.”

Ingall agreed it was good to see Holdens at the front, saying he was sick of the “one horse race”.

Jaime Whincup still holds a commanding lead in the Championship, but lost a little ground to Davidson, Johnson and new forth place man, Garth Tander.

The series will take to the track Sunday for race 8 of the championship.