Dunlop

Tander and Whincup Reign Supreme in Townsville

GARTH TANDER BECAME THE THIRD MOST-DECORATED DRIVER IN AUSTRALIAN TOURING CAR HISTORY BY TAKING OUT SATURDAY’S (JULY 9) RACE AT THE SUCROGEN TOWNSVILLE 400.

Tander won the 49th race of his career to surpass the great Peter Brock, labelling it a better victory than his last Bathurst 1000 title and then said it’s only the start. He now sits behind contemporaries Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes on the all-time winners list.

He beat home TeamVodafone’s ever present Jamie Whincup and resurgent Trading Post Racing’s Will Davison in his Ford Performance Racing Falcon. Davison held of a rampant Lowndes in the last five laps.

“The car was amazingly good in that middle stint, that’s what won us the race,” Tander said.

“This is every bit as important as our Bathurst win in 2009. We have got a lot of work to do and understand that but the gain we have made has been the biggest in my time at Walkinshaw.”

In Sunday’s (July 10) race, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes put on a one-team show for the fans. A Sunday crowd of more than 50,000 people, culminating in 150,000 spectators across the three days including 56,000 on Saturday, watched the sport’s best team fight out on the track with a 1-2 finish from Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom.

A mix of strategy, race pace at different times and soft Dunlop tyres resulted in the 1-2 finish for the TeamVodafone Commodores.

“It’s always going to happen in a good team when you have two very good cars that you are going to go head to head somewhere along the line,” Lowndes said.

“It’s going to be one of those years we are going to have more battles as we go along. Roland has always said he wants us to race to the chequered flag as no doubt the fans do. The one thing we won’t do is put ourselves in the gravel trap.”

Whincup also equalled Peter Brocks’ race win record of 48. The series takes an extended break until the next championship event, the Ipswich 300 from August 19-21.

Sucrogen Townsville 400 Event Results

Race 14 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1st: Jamie Whincup, Triple 8 Racing
2nd: Will Davison, Holden Racing Team
3rd: Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team

Race 15 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
1st: TeamVodafone ,Jamie Whincup
2nd: TeamVodafone, Craig Lowndes
3rd: Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon, Mark Winterbottom

Tags: Garth Tander, Jamie Whincup, SUCROGEN TOWNSVILLE 400