Garth Tander made it back to back wins, taking out race 2 of the Clipsal 500 despite nearly running out of fuel in the closing stages of the race. The win came ahead of Jim Beam Racing's James Courtney with the Ford Performance Racing of Mark Winterbottom filling the final spot on the podium.
However the controversy will rage over the mechanical black flag given to Championship leader Jamie Whincup, which cost him any chance of victory whilst in a battle for the lead. Whincup was black flagged for a loose body part. Despite the part coming free he was still ordered to the pit for the car to be inspected. To rub salt into the wound the part was dislodged after contact by James Courtney.
Under the rules however once the flag in shown the car must report to the pits, irrespective of any change in the situation.
Whincup was not happy after the race “I really don’t know what to say to be honest. It’s extremely painful to come away from this weekend with no real result after all the hard work we put in.
“For the 20 of us to go through two hours of torture and to get so close, but to have it all taken away by something completely out of our control is very difficult to accept.
“To finish in that fashion is something I will remember for a long time, but I have no choice other than to use this as a motivation to work harder and achieve the results we have worked so hard for,” he said.
Roland Dane however was even more vocal “It’s difficult to accept. The rule is nonsense. They will have to have another look at it all,” he said.
“From a sport’s point of view we have just made ourselves look ridiculous in front of all of these people and to all of the people watching at home.
“Clearly the part had come off the car and yet you are called in to have a look at it when you know perfectly well that there is nothing wrong with it.”
Winner Tander meanwhile was just glad to hold on with very little fuel left in his tank “When we didn’t stop for a third stop when that safety car came out we were certainly rolling the dice; we were hoping that safety car period was going to go a couple of laps and it went a couple of laps longer than we needed. It was tight; there is not a lot of fuel left in the tank now,” he said.
He was not getting carried away however “We still need to have quite a few results like we had this weekend to continue to fight back… we don’t expect to be back anywhere near the hunt until the endurance races,” he said.
Courtney was quick to praise his team for the strategy they adopted on the day "My team did a great job with strategy and pit-stops, and the car was good all day. I had a ball out there. I was making pit stops at different times to most of the others, and I seemed to be passing cars all the time. It's a lot of fun racing when these cars 'hook up'.
"The race seemed to go really fast because I was always racing someone or trying to catch and pass them. In the last stint I had good tyres and I threw everything I could at Garth (Tander). I knew he was running low on fuel so I pushed as hard as I could, but he held on to finish just ahead of me.
"I think the Safety Car in our last stint helped him (Tander) because he was able to save some fuel for a few laps. There was some rain near the end - it was slippery driving over the lines and man-hole covers, but I loved it. A win would have been better than second, but two podiums this weekend gives me plenty of points for the championship. I can't wait for our next race at Hamilton (April 16-18). It's another street circuit and I've been on the podium there the past two years (2008 & 2009)."
Third place getter Winterbottom was reflective on the one that nearly got away “I made a few mistakes today… I think the car was good enough today but the driver made a few errors. I owe the boys a few beers tonight because they gave me the car to win today,” he said.
Behind the top 3 Shane van Gisbergen bounced back with a 4th place, in a up and down day “We were a bit up and down throughout the race in positions, the strategy we were running we needed a safety car in order to make it with fuel so when the track began to break up at turn 8 that definitely helped us and allowed us to race to end.
“Under safety car I was told to conserve as much fuel as possible which is what I did. When the race restarted I was trying to go fast but use less fuel so I was backing off a bit earlier than I normally would. Under safety car I was in sixth gear (2,000 revs) doing 40kms just trying to save fuel.
“At the end there I really pushed hard, it started to rain a bit which made it interesting and I had a little bit of pace over the guys in front, but Winterbottom got away from me when it started to dry out so I couldn’t quite catch him.
“Fourth is a great comeback from yesterday, I wanted to get a podium for the guys but we didn’t quite get there, we are really happy with the points haul.”
Paul Dumbrell had another solid run to claim 5th, while Rick Kelly bounced back strongly to claim 6th.
He reflected on another tough race afterwards “It was a very tough race,
“We treated every lap as a qualifying lap out there and it didn’t go our way in the end.
“The strategy we had today, like yesterday, could have very much gone our way if the Safety Cars had been in different spots and both days I think we were a little bit hard done by with what happened.
“Nevertheless when we come back next year we need to find just a little bit more pace. We don't need a lot more, just a little bit.
“It was by far the toughest Clipsal 500 I've ever been in as far as the pace that everyone was doing. You've seen the winner in the past miss corners, have spins, change batteries and all sorts of stuff.
“This weekend was just more intense and that's the way it's going to be all year so we need to keeping move forward as a team and improving our Jack Daniel’s Commodores.”
Perhaps the most surprising result, again built on the back of a solid Saturday, was Tony D'Alberto who claimed a strong 7th and in the process his best result in V8 Supercars.
He was understandably excited after the race "I'm just absolutely wrapped, it has been a big weekend for the whole team," said D'Alberto.
"To all of our sponsors and supporters, I hope you enjoyed the weekend.
"Well done to the guys, they did an awesome job."
Top 10 results
1. Garth Tander, 150pts
2. James Courtney, 138pts
3. Mark Winterbottom, 129pts
4. Shane Van Gisbergen, 120pts
5. Paul Dumbrell, 111pts
6. Rick Kelly, 102pts
7. Tony D’Alberto, 96pts
8. Steven Johnson, 90pts
9. Jason Richards, 84pts
10. Michael Caruso, 78pts
