The Toll Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander has gone back-to-back in winning on the streets of Adelaide, taking out the Clipsal 500 today in dramatic circumstances.
Tander started the second 78 lap/250km leg from pole and battled with rival Jamie Whincup for most of the race before the field was bunched up under the Safety Car with just 20 laps to go after the kerb at the notorious turn 8 began breaking up.
Running a risky two stop strategy, the Safety Car could not have come at a better time for the #2 Toll HRT Commodore, the slow laps under caution giving Tander and the team the required breathing space and allowing the reigning Bathurst Champion to run to the flag without stopping again.
But to make the race even more dramatic, a major curve ball was thrown when rain started falling moments after the race restart on lap 64, Whincup then passing Tander for the lead when the HRT Commodore hit the white lines at turn four – but just two laps later Tander was back in first place, regaining the lead at the same point.
Tander was then able to pull a slight gap from Whincup, who then received a mechanical black flag for loose bodywork – the result of suspected contact from behind from eventual second place finisher James Courtney –2007 V8 Supercar Champion Tander going on to claim the race win, the 45th of his distinguished career.
Tander’s win was also Holden’s sixth straight for the 2010 season and Holden’s seventh Clipsal 500 victory in its 12 years.
Team-mate Will Davison did not have the same luck, after qualifying seventh he was troubled by the same handling characteristics that affected his car in Friday’s practice – Davison could muster a best of 14th at the end of the 78 lap race.
After entering the event 22nd in points, Tander now sits 11th and Davison one spot behind.
Tander is now eligible to win the V8 Supercar Grand Slam which was announced on the weekend – if he can also win the Bathurst, Gold Coast and Sydney events, Tander will claim the $2 million bonus.
Garth Tander, #2 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE:
“The Sunday race in Adelaide just never fails to deliver, does it? I wasn’t sure that we were ever going to have a Safety Car and we went for a long time before we did and the pace was strong. We committed to ‘two-stopping’ quite early, and stretched the first fuel window as far as it could go. When we didn’t stop the third time when the Safety Car came out we were rolling the dice. We were hoping the Safety Car would go a couple laps and it went a couple more than we needed. It was tight and there’s not a lot of fuel left in the tank. Then, when the rain came, it was on for young and old. It was hard to be at the front and you didn’t know how hard to push. I locked [the brakes] up on a couple white lines at turn 4 and Jamie got through, but I managed to get him back [a couple laps later]. It was an amazing race and I’m sure it looked great on TV.”
On his and the Toll Holden Racing Team’s chances in the V8 Supercar Championship.
“We still need to have a few results like we did this weekend to fight back [in the championship]. It was important for us to have the results we did this weekend. We’ll go to Hamilton and try to do what we have done this weekend. The only way to get back into the championship is to win races and that’s our goal in the short term. We don’t expect to be back in the hunt until the endurance races.”
Will Davison, #22 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE:
“I’m really looking forward to running in Melbourne at the Grand Prix in two weeks, for me it’s probably a good time for a non-championship race to go and try some things to see what happened this weekend. We worked very hard here [in Adelaide], but we got very little reward. I’m a little confused with the weekend; we qualified seventh with a reasonable time, but I still had a feeling that over a race distance it wasn’t going to be great. I could pull a single lap time out of the car, but it was too difficult to drive fast all the time. For whatever reason I just wasn’t comfortable, so it wasn’t an enjoyable race for me.”
