Tander wins eventful Adelaide race

Garth Tander has won an action packed first race of the weekend at Adelaide ahead of the two Triple Eight drivers.

Tander had taken pole position in the earlier qualifying shootout, but it wasn’t anything as easy as like a lights to flag victory for the Western Australian.

At the green, Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jamie Whincup had a poor start from second place which allowed Kelly Racing’s Rick Kelly and Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Lee Holdsworth to get ahead of him by the first corner.

Whincup quickly set about recovering from his slip at the start, getting back ahead of Holdsworth on lap three and Rick Kelly on lap nine. The 2008-2009 champion then closed down on the Holden Racing Team car of Garth Tander, passing him at the Turn 9 hairpin on lap 14.

Tander’s team-mate James Courtney, winner of race 2 at the season opening event at Abu Dhabi, collected the wall at Turn 7 a few laps later and had to pit for repairs to his Holden Commodore VE2. The reigning champion would rejoin but would finish ten laps down in 24th place, after also being served with a penalty for jumping the chicane. Courtney also faces investigation for reversing in the pitlane in order to make the sharp pit entry, as the damage to his car had affected the car’s steering.

The first round of pit stops took place on lap 25, with the majority of the front runners stopping. Whincup kept his lead, but a slow pit stop for Tander saw him slip to third behind Rick Kelly.

Paul Dumbrell and Jason Bright were able to conserve fuel more than the rest of the pack, and both took turns at the front before both pitting by lap 29.

The first of four safety car interventions occurred on lap 30, as David Reynolds in the Kelly Racing Commodore went off into the gravel trap. Soon after the restart, Garth Tander passed Rick Kelly for second at the hairpin and set after Jamie Whincup.

Paul Dumbrell was the next driver into the garage for repairs after hitting the wall twice at Turn 8. The Rod Nash Racing driver would end up as the last classified runner in 25th in a day which promised more after topping the times in qualifying.

The second safety car was called for Steve Owen on lap 46, with the Paul Morris Motorsport driver ripping the rear left wheel from the car after heavy contact with the wall at Turn 8.

This triggered a flurry of activity in the pits, as with 32 laps to go, with further interruptions it seemed possible that this could be made to be the last pit stop by many teams.

Craig Lowndes lost time queuing behind Triple Eight team-mate Whincup, whilst Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom lost even more ground as he was trapped in-between the two Garry Rogers Motorsport cars which were also queuing for tyres and fuel.

At the restart, Will Davison led from Greg Murphy and Steven Johnson, a trio of drivers who had not pitted, with them all holding out to be safely within the pit-stop window.

Murphy quickly slid down the order, and was then spun out by Tekno Autosports’ driver Jonathon Webb at the hairpin. Whincup and Tander rapidly progressed through the cars that hadn’t stopped ahead of them, getting up into second and third place behind FPR’s Will Davison before he pitted on lap 55.

The leaders were now in fuel save mode, knowing they needed to perhaps run for more than 30 laps on their current fuel load. It was during this phase that Garth Tander vitally nipped past Whincup on lap 57 for the lead, seemingly believing he didn’t need to back off on the throttle as much as Whincup to get to the end.

The strategy for the top runners was quickly reset when Dick Johnson Racing driver James Moffat spun at the Turn 9 hairpin, collecting Tony D’Alberto’s Ford Falcon in the process. With heavy damage to the front of Moffat’s Ford, the car couldn’t continue and the third safety car of the day was deployed.

After a lengthy recovery, the race was restarted with 11 laps to go, with fuel saving no longer an issue for anyone. Whincup could now turn up the wick and set about trying to retake the lead from Tander, whilst Lowndes continued to recover from his earlier pit-stop issue and swiftly passed Russell Ingall for fifth and then Fabian Coulthard for fourth.

Ingall also tried to pass Coulthard, with the two locking horns through turns 8 and 9 on lap 69. The contact appeared to be the direct cause of a scary accident for Ingall, as his steering arm failed through turn 13, ending with the Commodore crashing heavily into the wall.

The fourth safety car bunched the field up again, as concern focussed on the front left tyre of Jamie Whincup in second who had clipped the tyres in Turn 1.

Fortunately by the final restart, the issue appeared to have resolved itself, with the race restarting on lap 73 with a new shortened distance of 76 laps.

Lowndes dispatched Bright to claim the final spot on the podium whilst Whincup challenged Tander for the lead, the two making side-by-side contact with each other across the finish line at the end of lap 74.

Whincup then settled back and accepted second place to the Holden Racing Team driver, with HRT securing their second win of the season.

As a result of his win, Tander now moves up to eighth place in the standings.

Whincup now has a 123 point lead over FPR’s Mark Winterbottom after a win in Abu Dhabi and two podium finishes, whilst reigning champion James Courtney languishes in 20th place after two bad results around his race 2 victory.