Double victory for Tander

Garth Tander has won a sensational race 4 in Adelaide, fighting off the Ford Falcon’s of James Courtney & Mark Winterbottom on fumes after running a daring fuel strategy.

Championship leader Jamie Whincup took his lowest points finish this year after receiving a mechanical black flag for frailing bodywork.

A safety car period was called to repair a breaking up kerb, which gave Tander the reach he needed to finish the race without having to stop again.

Whilst running in fuel conservation mode, Tander briefly gave up the lead to Holden rival Whincup, as a late rain shower also came into play. The HRT driver was able to retake the lead however, and as Whincup settled back into second, he was hit by the Jim Beam Racing Falcon of Courtney, which caused some bodywork to come loose.

Whincup was given the mechanical black flag, but soon after the part fell off the car anyway. Regulations say however that the car would still have to visit the pits after receiving the flag, which enfuriated Triple Eight team boss Roland Dane:

“It’s difficult to accept. The rule is nonsense. They will have to have another look at it all,” he said.

“From a sport’s point of view we have just made ourselves look ridiculous in front of all of these people and to all of the people watching at home.”

Whincup also expressed:
“Slogging it for two hours (with) all of us just putting ourselves through absolute torture and then for it to get taken away by something out of control, it’s exactly like getting your till knocked off at the end of the day,”

Garth Tander explained how his strategy helped him acheive his second win:
“When we didn’t stop for a third stop when that safety car came out we were certainly rolling the dice; we were hoping that safety car period was going to go a couple of laps and it went a couple of laps longer than we needed. It was tight; there is not a lot of fuel left in the tank now.”

Tander took the win less than a second ahead of James Courtney, leaving Ford to still look for their first win of 2010.

Garth Tander now moves up to 11th place in the standings, whilst Whincup now leads Mark Winterbottom by only 57 points.