Tander, Courtney top testing

Reigning champion and works Holden driver Garth Tander was quickest at Winton Raceway on Tuesday, before Jeld-Wen Motorsport's Courtney pipped Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup to the head of the timesheets at Queensland Raceway yesterday.

The Winton test featured 18 championship runners, with Rick Kelly, Lee Holdsworth and Mark Skaife the only drivers to get within half a second of Tander's benchmark.

Champion Tander said: "We've been ticking all the boxes with the new car. Our preparation is even better than last year so I believe we're in very good shape."

Yesterday's test at Queensland went ahead despite fears over the circuit's safety. The track was recently sprayed with a compound to prevent the surface from breaking up but it took longer than expecting to dry, leaving teams concerned about poor grip.

Courtney set the quickest time on just his second lap on new tyres, before rain in the afternoon cut short the day's dry running. But the test left Courtney optimistic for the season ahead.

"Today was really productive. We came here sceptical about the condition of the track but it wasn't a problem in the end.

"It's time for me to win a championship now, I'm running out of excuses. There was a lot of drama last year - things going wrong in practice and losing us time at the start of a meeting.

"That's why we test, to get prepared for the race weekend, so I'm looking forward to qualifying at Clipsal now."

Ford's Jamie Whincup ended yesterday's test in second place, but set the pace throughout most of the day while getting accustomed to the new sequential gearbox.

"It makes the car completely different," he said. "They're easier to drive but it might take some of the fun out of racing, let's see. Getting the revs right on the down change was the thing I struggled with the most, but it will come."

Whincup's teammate Craig Lowndes set the pace at the beginning of the day, but didn't come back out as the others lowered their times. Russell Ingall shook down his Supercheap team's new Holden Commodore that they only finished building on the morning of the test.

Winton Motor Raceway times:

Pos  Driver               Make     Time                 Laps
 1.  Garth Tander         Holden   1:23.6048             98
 2.  Rick Kelly           Holden   1:23.8809  + 0.2761   46
 3.  Lee Holdsworth       Holden   1:23.8914  + 0.2866   89
 4.  Mark Skaife          Holden   1:24.0220  + 0.4172   75
 5.  Mark Winterbottom    Ford     1:24.2953  + 0.6905   97
 6.  Steven Richards      Ford     1:24.3145  + 0.7097   85
 7.  Jason Bright         Ford     1:24.3570  + 0.7522   73
 8.  Todd Kelly           Holden   1:24.3633  + 0.7585   78
 9.  Andrew Jones         Holden   1:24.4172  + 0.8124  104
10.  Greg Murphy          Holden   1:24.4337  + 0.8289   61
11.  Paul Dumbrell        Holden   1:24.4830  + 0.8782   93
12.  Shane Price          Holden   1:24.5552  + 0.9504  106
13.  Jason Richards       Holden   1:24.6215  + 1.0167   83
14.  Andrew Thompson      Holden   1:24.6912  + 1.0864  103
15.  Michael Caruso       Holden   1:24.8856  + 1.2808  103
16.  Cameron McConville   Holden   1:24.8963  + 1.2915  101
17.  Tony D'Alberto       Holden   1:25.2464  + 1.6416   82
18.  Marcus Marshall      Ford     1:25.9846  + 2.3798   49
19.  Michael Patrizi      Ford     1:26.8554  + 3.2506   91

Queensland Raceway times:

Pos  Driver               Make     Time                 Laps
 1.  James Courtney       Ford     1:10.5881             99
 2.  Jamie Whincup        Ford     1:10.6422  + 0.0541  123
 3.  Steven Johnson       Ford     1:10.8445  + 0.2564  103
 4.  Will Davison         Ford     1:10.9230  + 0.3349  105
 5.  Fabian Coulthard     Ford     1:10.9423  + 0.3542   50
 6.  Craig Lowndes        Ford     1:11.2669  + 0.6788  127
 7.  Paul Morris          Holden   1:11.3749  + 0.7868   27
 8.  Russell Ingall       Holden   1:11.5793  + 0.9912   26
 9.  Shane van Gisbergen  Ford     1:11.7856  + 1.1975   79