Garth Tander and Nick Percat win ultra-close Bathurst 1000 for Holden Racing Team

Lowndes, who shared his car with Mark Skaife, had gone into the closing stages only fourth, passing Brad Jones Racing's Jason Bright with 16 laps of the 161 to go, then overtaking pole-winner Greg Murphy (Kelly Racing Holden) three laps later.

He then charged onto Tander's tail, helped by the HRT man making a small late error, and getting the gap down to under a second with two laps to go. But despite everything Lowndes tried, Tander was able to hang on.

The win was HRT's 200th in the series, and Tander's 50th and his third at Bathurst, while it also made his co-driver Percat a Bathurst winner at the very first attempt.

Second place gave Lowndes a 100-point championship lead. His team-mate and title rival Jamie Whincup had alternator problems in the car he shared with Andrew Thompson, and having battled at the front for much of the way he could only finish 21st.

The Will Davison/Luke Youlden Ford Performance Racing car also had a spell in the lead, but lost a lap when Youlden went off, leaving them 18th.

Murphy held on to third for himself and Allan Simonsen, with FPR's Steve Richards and Mark Winterbottom the top Ford pairing in fourth, just ahead of Bright, who shared with Andrew Jones.

The most spectacular incident of the race came when David Besnard crashed his Dick Johnson Racing Ford heavily on an out-lap. The car caught fire, but Besnard got out unscathed.

Results - 161 laps:

Pos  Drivers                 Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Tander/Percat           Triple 8 Holden      6h26m52.2691s
 2.  Lowndes/Skaife          Triple 8 Holden          + 0.2917s
 3.  Murphy/Simonsen         FPR Ford                + 11.7950s
 4.  Winterbottom/Richards   FPR Ford                + 19.5186s
 5.  Bright/Jones            Brad Jones Holden       + 19.9227s
 6.  Van Gisbergen/McIntyre  Stone Brothers Ford     + 33.6113s
 7.  McConville/Courtney     Triple 8 Holden         + 36.2050s
 8.  Ingall/Perkins          Paul Morris Holden      + 37.1825s
 9.  D'Alberto/Wood          D'Alberto Ford          + 41.6750s
10.  Caruso/Marshall         Garry Rogers Holden     + 47.8567s
11.  Owen/Morris             Paul Morris Holden      + 49.7505s
12.  Slade/Gaunt             Rosenberg/SBR Ford      + 50.1213s
13.  Webb/Lyons              Tekno Ford              + 50.8840s
14.  Reindler/Wall           Britek Holden           + 55.3518s
15.  Luff/Pretty             Dumbrell Holden       + 1m04.8075s
16.  Davison/Brabham         Stone Brothers Ford   + 1m11.8499s
17.  Holdsworth/Ritter       Garry Rogers Holden   + 1m37.6188s
18.  Davison/Youlden         FPR Ford              + 1m48.3127s
19.  Reynolds/Blanchard      Kelly Holden          + 2m03.2874s
20.  Fiore/Patrizi           Kelly Holden               + 1 lap
21.  Whincup/Thompson        Triple 8 Holden            + 1 lap
22.  Kelly/Kelly             Kelly Holden              + 2 laps
23.  Bargwanna/Price         Brad Jones Holden         + 3 laps
24.  Kelly/Russell           Kelly Holden              + 7 laps
25.  Moffat/Halliday         Dick Johnson Ford        + 15 laps

Retirements:

     Dumbrell/Canto          Rod Nash/FPR Ford         144 laps
     Johnson/Besnard         Dick Johnson Ford         112 laps
     Denyer/Waters           Kelly Holden               95 laps
     Coulthard/Baird         Walkinshaw Holden          13 laps