Tander wins race one

Tander lost the lead into turn one at the start but was back ahead two corners later, and despite an off at turn one on lap seven, always looked likely to take the win.

Behind him there was a shuffle of places at the start, with Mark Winterbottom second ahead of Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes leaping up to fourth with Lee Holdsworth and Steven Richards next.

The leaders pitted fairly early, with Whincup moving ahead of Winterbottom and just behind Tander, while Whincup's teammate Lowndes lost out as Steven Richards moved ahead.

That was the order those five cars were in on lap 10, and that's the order they were in 40 laps later at the finish, despite a safety car in the closing laps.

Whincup finished second ahead of Winterbottom, Richards and Lowndes, with Rick Kelly in sixth. The top ten also remained unchanged from lap 28 onwards.

The safety car made its appearance late in the race when Jeld-Wen Motorsport's James Courtney, on his way back up the order after a dismal qualifying, passed Jack Daniel's Racing's Shane Price at the hairpin.

As Courtney attempted to complete the pass, he locked his rear brakes and the rear of his car slid wide, just as Price began to turn in. Courtney's rear wheel tangled with Price's front, damaging the steering on Price's car and putting Price out on the spot.

Though the contact was unintentional, the stewards were unhappy with the move, handing Courtney a drive-through penalty, dropping him from 13th to 27th.

The results of race one diluted the championship battle, winner Tander extending his lead over fifth-place finisher Lowndes by 11 points to 31. Whincup has closed to within two points of his teammate while 2006 champion is 46 points behind teammate Kelly with only 120 points remaining.

While Tander is still catchable, his rivals, particularly Lowndes and Kelly, will start the next race several places behind him, while needing to catch and then finish in front of him. Two more races like race one, and Kelly's hopes of back-to-back titles will be gone.

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE
 2.  Jamie Whincup         Ford Falcon BF
 3.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon BF
 4.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon BF
 5.  Craig Lowndes         Ford Falcon BF
 6.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE
 7.  Mark Skaife           Holden Commodore VE
 8.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon BF
 9.  Will Davison          Ford Falcon BF
10.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE
11.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE
12.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE
13.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden Commodore VE
14.  Marcus Marshall       Holden Commodore VE
15.  Steve Owen            Holden Commodore VZ
16.  Russell Ingall        Ford Falcon BF
17.  Jason Bright          Ford Falcon BF
18.  Owen Kelly            Holden Commodore VZ
19.  Cameron McConville    Holden Commodore VE
20.  Dean Canto            Holden Commodore VE
21.  Andrew Jones          Ford Falcon BF
22.  Simon Wills           Ford Falcon BF
23.  Jason Bargwanna       Ford Falcon BF
24.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon BF
25.  Alan Gurr             Ford Falcon BF
26.  Max Wilson            Ford Falcon BF
27.  John Bowe             Ford Falcon BF
28.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon BF
DNF  Shane Price           Holden Commodore VE
DNF  Paul Morris           Holden Commodore VE
DNF  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE