HRT take victory at incident packed Gold Coast race

The Toll HRT Commodore of Garth Tander and Cameron McConville battled back from a jump start penalty and a mechanical black flag to win the first race of the Gold Coast 600 from Craig Lowndes and Andy Priaulx.

With the majority of the international drivers and scheduled co-drivers taking the start, a unique moment in V8 Supercars history was about to take place, and it wasn’t too long a wait for the first safety car.

A terrific start from Jacques Villeneuve from third saw the Canadian driver get up to second off the line, but as he headed into the first corner, contact was made between the Bottle-O Racing car with team-mate Luke Youlden, who was attempting to squeeze around the outside. The FPR car was launched into the air, and landed and was immediately damaged.

Villeneuve then spun into the next corner, still recovering from the contact – which caused a multi-car pile-up behind and the first safety car deployment of the race. The start was a total disaster for FPR, as Will Power was the first to come around the corner and ran straight into Jacques’ Falcon, deconstructing the Ford teams race just as soon as it started.

As Villeneuve attempted to recover, he spun the back of his Falcon into the #22 HRT car of Will Davison, taking Will out of the race.

On lap 5, the race restarted with a number of cars showing battle damage from the chaos.

Villeneuve initially tried to continue on without stopping for repair, but the damage to the Bottle-O Racing car was too extensive and he pitted a few laps later, losing several laps as his car was repaired.

Luke Youlden would also rejoin a few laps down to help save what he could for co-driver Mark Winterbottom’s championship, but by the end of the day, Mark would only finish 21st, and dropped to fifth in the championship standings behind Garth Tander.

The car on top form was the No.34 Garry Rogers Motorsport car of Michael Caruso. GRM had decided to start Caruso in the car, and not their international driver Patrick Long, and the team would employ a unique strategy in the race. Sportscar veteran Long drove the middle stint after an early stop to get out of traffic. In the early stages, Caruso quickly worked his way up to second, passing Andy Priaulx, team-mate (and Bathurst co-driver) Greg Ritter, and then Warren Luff in the DJR car.

In the meantime, the European touring car regulars who had avoided the early carnage were quickly working their way up the order, with Alain Menu progressing to just outside of the top ten by his first pit-stop from 28th on the grid.

Sebastian Bourdais and Fabrizio Giovanardi were the last of the international drivers to stop on lap 41, whilst running first and second in the Dick Johnson Racing and Britek cars respectively. Giovanardi’s co-driver Karl Reindler would go on to finish ninth, scoring his career best finish in the championship to date.

Tiago Monteiro’s race was cut short with heavy damage to the front of his Centaur Racing Commodore. Co-driver Tony D’Alberto not getting a chance to run in the race.

Another safety car mid-race caused another bout of chaos. The timing was great for the #34 GRM car of Patrick Long and Michael Caruso, who completed a second driver change – the only team to do so in the race. With Lee Holdsworth clouting the wall and developing a puncture the lap before, the #34 GRM car was the team’s best hope for a good result. A packed pitlane which saw Jamie Whincup queued behind Craig Lowndes would cause frustration for the #34 car however. As Caruso pulled out, he was unable to avoid the stack of tyres that Triple Eight had scattered around their double pitstop.

The tyres bounced around the pitlane, but no penalty was forthcoming for either GRM or Triple Eight for the incident during the race.

Tander now restarted in second behind the Bundaberg Red Racing car of Fabian Coulthard, with the #2 HRT car having lost track position serving a 10 second jump-start penalty during its one and only pitstop as McConville crawled at the start – combined with Coulthard having opted not to stop, with David Reynolds set to run the final stint in the #24 car.

This meant there were lapped cars between Coulthard and Tander at the restart, and one of those was the Dick Johnson Racing car of Steve Johnson. With team-mate James Courtney right behind Tander, Johnson didn’t give way swiftly to the Holden.

More controversy ensued, as a mechanical black-flag was called for the HRT car. It was deemed there was fuel spilling from the Commodore, and the officials wanted the HRT team to repair the issue. Johnson soon gave way after this, allowing the HRT car through, now in first place after Coulthard had completed his pitstop.

HRT protested however that it wasn’t fuel, but an overflow from Tander’s drinks bottle. Tander said after the race that the team instructed him to drink to stop the fluid spill, and the flag was withdrawn, much to the consternation of Triple Eight boss Roland Dane, who reflected that a similar incident at Adelaide saw driver Jamie Whincup pit to repair a loose bumper which had by then already fallen off.

On lap 80, James Courtney managed to pass Tander on the track, just before the safety car was called for the stopped Bundaberg Red Racing car of Andrew Thompson.

At the final restart, Courtney held his position at the front, but several laps later the DJR driver was given a drive-through penalty for not staying within five car lengths of the safety car at the restart.

Long faces were at DJR, as Tander resumed the lead, with Craig Lowndes in second place snapping at the back of the HRT car.

With two laps to go, Rick Kelly and Jason Richards pitted for fuel, sparking concern that perhaps the cars wouldn’t be able to make it to the end, but Tander held on with the fuel warning light only coming on as he crossed the finish line to win his first race since March.

“It was Cam’s first stint is what won us the race” said Tander

“When he got his ten second penalty for allegedly rolling at the start, that stint was amazing…then we had big drama’s for the rest of the race…the front spoiler fell off, the headlight got out and smacked onto it and brakes were going away and we had a gearbox issue as well…but to get that one was very very satisfying”.

Andy Priaulx, sharing with Craig Lowndes finished second in the Triple Eight Holden Commodore, and was the top finishing international competitor in the race, and was delighted with the result.

“It means a lot,” said Andy.

“I’ve never managed to get into a good position in one of these cars, they’re really hard to drive. Coming here this weekend knowing I was going to drive with Craig, and he’s still in a chance of the championship added a bit of pressure, but I felt really comfortable with the car straight-away and learned the circuit pretty quick and I must say Craig and the whole team have really helped me.”

Of the other touring car regulars, Jason Bright and Alain Menu finished in seventh place after some late moves by Bright saw the BJR car move up the order, including spinning out his team-mate Jason Richards in the final stages.

Greg Murphy and Yvan Muller, seemingly set for a top ten result, had to settle for 13th after Murphy ended up confronting a spun Todd Kelly on the circuit after the last restart.

The race format for Sunday sees it all happen again, with another qualifying session and Race 20 of the V8 Supercars Australia championship take place.