Townsville V8 Supercars: HRT ends win drought as Tander leads one-two
Garth Tander ended Holden Racing Team's winless streak of 58 races by taking victory in the second leg of V8 Supercars' Townsville weekend
Tander made a great getaway from fourth on the grid to run in second during the opening phase of the race, but the turning point came on lap nine when Lee Holdsworth's Erebus Mercedes ground to a halt at Turn 11.
With the safety car deployed the HRT crew opted to adopt a different strategy to most of those around them by pitting Tander early and putting him on the softer tyre compound.
From there he put in a succession of quick laps and filtered his way to the front of the field, eventually passing Mark Winterbottom for the lead on lap 22.
Tander then managed to eke out a sizeable gap to the chasing pack and made his second stop on lap 39 for a change of rear tyres without conceding position, before going on to take the chequered flag.
Following Tander over the finishing line was team-mate James Courtney, who also adopted a two-stop strategy, and in doing so gave HRT its first one-two finish since Sandown in 2009.
Completing the rostrum was Shane van Gisbergen who made a brilliant recovery from starting 21st - having been caught out by a late red flag during qualifying - and was also tapped into a spin at Turn 2 on the opening lap.
He too made an early stop to get on the softer tyres and reaped the rewards in doing so.
Poleman Winterbottom brought his Ford Performance Racing Ford home in fourth after making just one stop, while Russell Ingall performed brilliantly to finish fifth after starting way back in 24th.
Craig Lowndes struggled in his Triple 8 Holden all afternoon to take seventh, but team-mate Jamie Whincup experienced a more torrid race as he lacked pace while running on the harder tyres during the opening stint.
He finished 11th but still leaves Townsville as the championship leader.
Results - 70 laps:
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Garth Tander HRT Holden 1h30m04.1640s
2. James Courtney HRT Holden +0.3191s
3. Shane van Gisbergen Tekno Holden +9.3852s
4. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford +21.6028s
5. Russell Ingall Walkinshaw/HRT Holden +27.4962s
6. Tony D'Alberto D'Alberto Holden +27.7474s
7. Craig Lowndes Triple 8 Holden +28.4158s
8. Tim Slade Rosenberg/Erebus Mercedes +30.0529s
9. Scott McLaughlin GRM Holden +34.5332s
10. Will Davison FPR Ford +36.8378s
11. Jamie Whincup Triple 8 Holden +36.9797s
12. Jonathon Webb Tekno Holden +37.5389s
13. Chaz Mostert Dick Johnson Ford +46.4717s
14. James Moffat Nissan +47.7656s
15. Todd Kelly Nissan +49.5826s
16. Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden +51.9163s
17. Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Holden +52.6355s
18. Alex Davison Schwerkolt/FPR Ford +55.1586s
19. Alexandre Premat GRM Holden +55.5852s
20. Rick Kelly Nissan +59.7228s
21. Scott Pye Dumbrell Holden +1m00.0182s
22. Michael Caruso Nissan +1m08.6171s
23. Tim Blanchard Dick Johnson Ford +1m08.6852s
24. Dean Fiore Dumbrell Holden +1 lap
25. David Wall Britek/BJR Holden +1 lap
26. David Reynolds Rod Nash/FPR Ford +10 laps
27. Maro Engel Erebus Mercedes +13 laps
Retirements:
Lee Holdsworth Erebus Mercedes 6 laps
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