Tander and Percat win the Bathurst 1000km

Garth Tander and Nick Percat have won the Bathurst 1000km race in a nail biting finish, with Tander pressured to the end by Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes, who now takes the lead of the championship.

The early stages of the race were relatively uneventful compared with the second half of the race. The only scare at the start was for Steven Richards, stalling the #5 Ford Performance Racing Falcon from tenth on the grid, dropping him down to 17th as the cars behind managed to avoid him.

FPR team-mate Will Davison had a great run at the start from second on the grid, taking the lead from Greg Murphy down into the Chase on lap seven.

Fabian Coulthard became the first retirement at Bathurst for the second year running in the Walkinshaw Racing Holden Commodore. Coulthard was running behind Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright, who was suffering with an intermittant engine cut-out going through the Dipper. The suddenly slowing car of Bright caught Coulthard out, forcing him to swerve to avoid the BJR car and hitting the wall. The team tried to get the car back into the race but the damage was too extensive.

On lap 16, a mistake at the Chase for Mark Skaife in the #888 Triple Eight car saw team-mate Andrew Thompson get past, in what would prove critical for the #888 team’s strategy later in the race.

After the first round of pit stops, Jamie Whincup, now onboard the #88 Holden was quick to catch the #6 FPR Falcon now driven by Luke Youlden and took the lead, shortly before the next incident of the race, with 17-year-old rookie and television contest winner Cameron Waters crashing out at Forrest’s Elbow just a few laps after taking over from Grant Denyer. The wild card entry would rejoin 66 laps down and wouldn’t be classified in the results.

Waters recovered the car to the pits avoiding the need for the safety car, but it wasn’t long until the first of eight safety car deployments took place, which was just for track repairs on lap 40.

Andrew Thompson took over the #88 Triple Eight Holden as the bulk of the field pitted again behind the safety car, whilst a double stinting Mark Skaife was forced to queue behind his team-mate in the pits. At the restart, Luke Youlden crashed the #6 FPR Falcon out of second place on cold tyres heading into the final corner whilst heading for the green flag. This saw the safety car immediately called again to recover the stranded Falcon, with the chance of a good result immediately eliminated with Will Davison and Youlden going on to finish 18th.

David Brabham then picked up a drive through penalty for the #4 SBR Falcon, after locking up at the Chase and hitting the back of Jack Perkins’ PMM Commodore. Meanwhile, Lowndes was now on a recovery drive after losing time in the pits, passing the #2 HRT Commodore of Bathurst rookie Nick Percat at Quarry for second, putting Triple Eight first and second.

The third safety car was called after Greg Ritter spun out at Murray’s Corner on lap 63, with the safety car deployed in the pit window again. The majority of the field pitted, but as Lowndes was right behind team-mate Thompson, the #888 car was again forced to queue, losing spots in the pits and rejoining in sixth place, whilst the #2 HRT Commodore of Tander & Percat emerged in second place and Steven Richards & Mark Winterbottom had brought the #5 FPR Falcon back to the front in third.

Lowndes worked his way up again, passing Winterbottom for third on lap 75 and Tander nine laps later for second whilst there were the first murmurs of a possible problem with the sister #88 car’s alternator, which was still leading the race.

Soon there was another off at Murray’s Corner, this time for Dean Fiore in the Triple F Falcon. This again brought out the safety car, with Lowndes again forced to queue behind his Triple Eight team-mate. This time Lowndes deliberately held back from Whincup on his way into the pits, as did Holden Racing Team driver James Courtney from Garth Tander in order to minimise the time lost, but both received a warning from the stewards for this tactic.

Soon after the restart, the much anticipated rain began to materialise, but not enough to cause anyone to make the switch to wet tyres, and within three laps the rain had subsided without any incidents.

The safety car was soon called again however, this time as the medical car was required to attend to an ill marshal at Forrest’s Elbow. The #888 car pitted during this safety car to try and get off sequence, having become frustrated with having to queue behind the #88 three times already.

At the restart, Marcus Marshall in the #34 GRM Holden dived up the inside of John McIntyre in the #9 SBR Falcon at Forrest’s Elbow, with McIntyre spun around and backwards into the wall, and the GRM car forced to pit to repair the front-left wheel. Though both cars lost time, McIntyre and van Gisbergen would recover to finish in sixth place with Marshall and Michael Caruso finishing in tenth position.

Skaife was now buried in the mid-field in the #888 Triple Eight Holden after pitting off sequence, and had to contend with a fierce battle involving Nathan Pretty’s Lucas-Dumbrell Racing Holden, Russell Ingall’s PMM Commodore and Karl Reindler in the Britek Holden. Eventually Skaife broke through, and worked his way up to 11th place before the biggest incident of the race on lap 113.

After a brake change for the #17 DJR Falcon of Steven Johnson & David Besnard, Besnard had neglected to pump the brake and found himself without brakes heading into Quarry, until the rear brakes kicked in and spun the Ford Falcon around, hitting the barrier hard and rupturing the fuel tank, with the fuel spilling onto the track igniting. The marshals were quick to extinguish the fire and Besnard escaped without injury.

Behind the safety car, Triple Eight again pitted both cars, so despite the alternatitive strategy, Skaife again found himself held-up behind the #88 car, whilst this time it was HRT who had the better stop with Garth Tander emerging in the lead in the #2 Commodore for the first time.

Tander lead from Whincup at the restart with Winterbottom in third and and Lowndes now back down in eighth. Another safety car was called when Steve Owen damaged his car and slowly recovered to the pits on lap 122. Tander continued to lead from Whincup whilst Lowndes made little ground, just passing James Moffat before pitting along with James Courtney on lap 136.

This proved to be another disaster for Lowndes, as two laps later the safety car was called for a final time, but this time for Jamie Whincup who had stopped on circuit with his battery finally letting go. Whincup managed to coax the car back to the pits for a replacement, but would also need another before the race was up, with the championship points leader going on to finish in 21st place.

With Greg Murphy, Jason Bright, Russell Ingall & Karl Reindler all able to pit behind the safety car, Lowndes found himself in seventh place and potentially out of the running for the victory.

Tander restarted in the lead ahead of Murphy with Bright third on lap 140, but with Rick Kelly’s car leaking oil around the circuit, several cars went off at the end of the Chase, which saw Lowndes pass Reindler, Ingall and Winterbottom in one corner. Lowndes was now already up to fourth, and soon passed Jason Bright for third at Quarry, before dispatching Greg Murphy for second three laps later and left himself with 13 laps to catch and pass Garth Tander for the lead.

An epic battle ensured, with Lowndes slowly closing on the HRT driver, but Tander resisted the pressure, only making one mistake, locking up into the Chase losing two seconds on lap 153, but even with Lowndes right on Tander’s tail for the final three laps, last year’s Bathurst winner was unable to find a way past and Tander claimed his third win at Mount Panorama along with Nick Percat, winning at Bathurst on his first attempt at the circuit.

Lowndes’ second place however along with Whincup’s finish in 21st place sees the 37-year-old triple champion take the lead of the championship by 100 points from Whincup, whilst the series heads to the Gold Coast in two weeks time where Lowndes will be joined by Sebastien Bourdais and Jamie Whincup by Andy Priaulx at the Surfers Paradise street circuit.

Tander & Percat’s win was recorded as the closest ever finish at the circuit at just 0.292s, and was Tander’s third win of the season, with Lowndes and Skaife finishing on the podium along with Greg Murphy and Allan Simonsen.