Garth Tander has taken out the BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge for the Toll Holden Racing Team at the Qantas Australian Grand Prix.

 

Tander won the third and final race today, backing up his victory in Race 2 last night and his second place finish in Friday night’s race – the combined points giving the 2007 V8 Supercar Champion overall victory for the weekend.

 

Starting from pole, Tander followed rival Jamie Whincup into the first turn – Whincup benefitting from a good start and the inside line into the first turn as Tander did yesterday – but the reigning V8 Supercar Champion’s Holden suffered mechanical problems and was soon in the pits.

 

Tander then came under pressure from the Ford of James Courtney, but all the while Tander appeared to be comfortably in control – Courtney’s car later also suffering a mechanical issue which ruled him out of contention.

 

Tander went on to win the race by almost three seconds from Shane van Gisbergen, with team-mate Will Davison continuing his return to form by finishing third.

 

It was a strong result for Davison, who had started Friday’s first race from 15th and gradually moved the #22 Toll HRT Commodore forward – the result a great confidence boost for Davison ahead of the next championship round in New Zealand in three weeks.

 

Tander claimed overall victory for the weekend with Shane van Gisbergen second and Craig Lowndes third – Davison fourth overall.

 

The next event on the calendar for the Toll Holden Racing Team is the fourth round of the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series, the ITM 400 at Hamilton in three weeks time.

 

Garth Tander, #2 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE:

“Fantastic result for us, continuing our form from Adelaide – it was important for us to keep the momentum going. I’m really happy with today, but it’s a bit of a shame that Jamie [Whincup] and James [Courtney] dropped out, it deprived the fans of a ding-dong battle. But you only have to beat the ones that finish the race and that’s what we did. We are looking forward to Hamilton, we had a good run there in 2008 and we’re hoping to repeat that again next month and continue our current run of success.”

 

Will Davison, #22 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE:

“A fantastic result after starting 15th in the first race, not a single scratch on the car and we’ve been able to progress to third by the third race. A lot of fun all weekend, 15th to 10th, 10th to 6th, 6th to third, a lot of great racing. The main thing was I think we got on top of the #2 Toll HRT Commodore, we tried a lot of different things through the races, some good, some bad, and I think we can take a lot more confidence to Hamilton than what we took in here because it’s been a tough start to the season. Hopefully this is a turning point, we were down after Adelaide. Last week we took a new approach and stayed positive and we’re optimistic about where we can go from here.”