Tander takes three from three again

Just as in race two, Tander led from start to finish apart from a brief period during the compulsory pitstops. In another repeat of race two, Steven Richards finished close behind with James Courtney third again, despite grabbing second at the start, losing the place to Richards during the pitstops.

The same three drivers finished that way overall for the round, with Tander's three wins at Hamilton following on from three wins at the last V8 Supercar event, the non-championship round at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

Rick Kelly and Mark Winterbottom completed the top five, just ahead of Fabian Coulthard who had his best-ever weekend in V8 Supercar by far. Just behind Coulthard were Craig Lowndes and Steven Johnson, both completing great recoveries after troubles in race one, having finished 19th and not finished at all respectively.

The weekend's results has shaken up the order in the championship. Rick Kelly is the new leader on 672 points, his 2008 season reminiscent of his 2006 title year, as he has scored well consistently but is yet to claim a win.

Behind Kelly is his teammate from that season, Garth Tander, who similarly to 2006 has scored up the most wins, in this case four, but is 46 points behind Kelly. Next is Lee Holdsworth, who could've been right with Kelly but for his last race crash, and is instead 92 point behind him.

Only eight points behind Holdsworth is Mark Winterbottom, while behind Winterbottom is Jamie Whincup, whose incident in qualifying with Todd Kelly saw him go from a 108 point lead to a 132 point deficit.

There was little drama at the front of the field, apart from Lee Holdsworth crashing out of fourth position at the chicane on lap one, but further back there were plenty of damaged panels.

Jason Richards spun Tony D'Alberto at speed under brakes a couple of corners after Holdsworth's crash, D'Alberto retiring at the end of lap one while Richards received a drivethrough penalty for his part in the incident.

At the restart following Holdsworth's crash, there was drama at turn two. Marcus Marshall dive to the inside of Todd Kelly as they entered the corner. As Kelly began to turn in, Marshall drove up onto the concrete to avoid contact, but didn't entirely succeed, understeering side-by-side into the side of Kelly in the middle of the corner.

They exited the corner side-by-side, close to the wall but not touching it. However, it appeared Kelly was not happy with Marshall, and turned into the side of Marshall's car, spinning Marshall, while Kelly was then unavoidably collected by Will Davison, the incident bringing out the second safety car period.

Marshall made it back to the pits to retire, while Kelly was later given a drivethrough for the incident. This incident also appeared to earn Paul Morris a penalty, for cutting across the concrete island to avoid piling into the back of the cars in front, and gaining an 'advantage'.

This despite the only cars Morris emerged ahead of on the other side that he wasn't ahead of before were those of Kelly and Marshall who were having a battle that ended badly for both of them.

The safety car made its third appearance just after half-distance when Paul Dumbrell stopped on track. This followed an incident under brakes heading into turn two, where Dumbrell was looking around the outside of McConville.

As they entered the braking area, McConville continued his gently move towards the left of the circuit, squeezing Dumbrell lightly into the wall but enough to end his race. Despite no driver being penalised for any contact on Saturday, this incident was also deemed worthy of a drivethrough penalty.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Garth Tander          Holden   1:00:27.5864
 2.  Steven Richards       Ford     +     1.1635
 3.  James Courtney        Ford     +     3.9447
 4.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +     6.7151
 5.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +     7.0534
 6.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +     8.7281
 7.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     +     8.9038
 8.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +     9.3616
 9.  Andrew Jones          Holden   +    10.8970
10.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +    11.3342
11.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +    12.9637
12.  Mark Skaife           Holden   +    13.8024
13.  Jason Bright          Ford     +    14.8039
14.  Jason Richards        Holden   +    15.1300
15.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +    15.5954
16.  Shane Price           Holden   +    18.9498
17.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +    19.2465
18.  Paul Morris           Holden   +    21.9601
19.  Michael Patrizi       Ford     +    30.9057
20.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +    35.0840

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make     Laps
     Kayne Scott           Ford      33
     Paul Dumbrell         Holden    23
     Will Davison          Ford       9
     Greg Murphy           Holden     7
     Marcus Marshall       Ford       4
     Tony D'Alberto        Holden     1
     Lee Holdsworth        Holden     0