Tander steals race 2 victory

Mark Winterbottom led the early laps of the race, but lost a crucial couple of seconds in pitlane as he waited for other cars in the lane to drive past to their pit bays before he was able to exit his own, allowing teammate Steven Richards and Tander to move ahead.

Then, with eight of the 42 lap race distance remaining, the safety car on to the circuit because a small flag was on the track at the start of the main straight, compressing the field. At the restart on lap 37, leader Richards had a gear 'hang' just as he took the green flag, allowing Tander to get alongside and nose ahead as they headed into turn one.

Richards went deeper under brakes and took the lead back, but he had gone too deep, allowing Tander to turn inside and take the lead as he ran wide, holding onto second just ahead of teammate Winterbottom, the top trio remaining unchanged to the finish.

Behind them were the two Team Vodafone cars of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, Whincup's effort a great comeback after being hit in the side by Will Davison (who possibly was hit from behind in a concertina by Russell Ingall and Jason Richards) on lap one, dropping Whincup to 13th.

The aforementioned Ingall and Richards were next in sixth and seventh, Mark Skaife next in eighth making a great recovery after his 25th place finish in race one with Rick Kelly and Will Davison completing the top ten, Davison himself recovering after being spun by Shane van Gisbergen on lap 24.

The biggest loser at the end of the race was James Courtney, who spun off the track with just over two laps remaining while in eighth position, dropping all the way down to 25th place.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Garth Tander          Holden   52:24.0187
 2.  Steven Richards       Ford     +   0.6863
 3.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +   1.5947
 4.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     +   2.0307
 5.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     +   2.2714
 6.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +   3.6408
 7.  Jason Richards        Holden   +   3.8504
 8.  Mark Skaife           Holden   +   5.5282
 9.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +   7.5439
10.  Will Davison          Ford     +   8.0424
11.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +   9.0653
12.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +   9.8838
13.  Shane Price           Holden   +  10.7654
14.  Paul Morris           Holden   +  11.0358
15.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +  12.3847
16.  Shane van Gisbergen   Ford     +  12.5865
17.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +  13.4744
18.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +  14.0195
19.  Jason Bright          Ford     +  14.3660
20.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +  15.6522
21.  Michael Patrizi       Ford     +  15.9718
22.  Marcus Marshall       Ford     +  16.7392
23.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +  19.9682
24.  James Courtney        Ford     +  21.4607
25.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +  22.8647
26.  Kayne Scott           Ford     +  25.4355
27.  Andrew Jones          Holden   +   1 lap
28.  Andrew Thompson       Holden   +   2 laps
29.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +   5 laps