MOTORSPORT: HRT’s Tander and Luff top 500

Triple Eight team owner Roland Dane’s prediction on Friday proved prophetic; the Holden Racing Team is undoubtedly a threat in the Supercars championship endurance racing season.

In fact, HRT proved to be the best of all in yesterday’s Wilson Security Sandown 500, with Garth Tander and Warren Luff overcoming bad weather, a weird car issue and a late race attack from Red Bull’s Shane van Gisbergen to emerge on the top step of the podium.

It was Supercars superstar Tander’s first ever win in the Sandown 500, his first victory in 72 Supercars races and it kicked off his and Luff’s defence of the Pirtek Enduro Cup perfectly.

It also came only weeks after Holden confirmed the HRT name would be transferring to Triple Eight in 2017, along with all its factory funding, leaving the Walkinshaw-owned squad to fend for itself.

“Obviously with the announcement a couple of weeks ago that Holden are relocating their funding, it’s just shown that the whole organisation hasn’t dropped its lip, it’s just got on with business,” Tander said after the traditional warm-up for the Bathurst 1000.

“When we rolled the cars out on Friday – especially our car – the car was absolutely fantastic. It’s a real credit to them, especially the car #2 guys have done a really nice job of this car, really enjoyed today.

“I think what’s really important is for the guys within the organisation to realise what they’re doing is working,” he added.

“We are slowly getting back to where we need to be and we had genuine pace all weekend this weekend.”

Intriguingly it also emerged on the weekend that Tander’s teammate James Courtney had probably been re-signed by Walkinshaw for 2017 while Tander declared himself certain of his racing future, although he was unwilling to be more definitive than that.

Tander’s trip to the top step was aided significantly by the strong performance of Luff, who fought though difficult conditions to lead most of the opening stint, before Paul Dumbrell took over at the front in the pole qualifying Red Bull Commodore he was sharing with Jamie Whincup.

But Dumbrell cost the duo a shot at victory when he slipped his seatbelts off before he had come to a stop, prompting a drive-through penalty.

They would eventually finish 13th, meaning van Gisbergen took over the drivers’ championship lead from his team-mate, albeit by just seven points.

The third T8 entry of Craig Lowndes and Steven Richard also had a bad day, both drivers heading off track in the greasy conditions. Indeed, it was van Gisbergen’s partner Alex Premat who was the best of the T8 co-drivers, the reverse of what had been expected given the Frenchman’s patchy previous record and lack of race miles this year.

The race started – and temporarily stopped - dramatically when rookie James Golding slammed into the wall on the opening lap after a tyre deflated in the Garry Rogers Motorsport Volvo S60 he was sharing with James Moffat. That triggered a red flag and a shortened race because the fence needed repairs at turn seven.

Rain, pitlane penalties, accidents, fuel economy and some outstanding driving – and some less than stellar efforts as well it must be admitted – all played a role in producing an intense closely-fought ‘retro round’ at the historic Melbourne circuit.

Tander slowed dramatically in the last few laps after the left front guard came loose and upset the balance of his Commodore VF. Van Gisbergen closed to within 0.3 sec but the chequered flag came out just in time to deny him.

Will Davison and Jonathon Webb completed a Holden sweep of the podium in the Darrell Lea Stix Commodore despite a late-race engine issue, while Scott McLaughlin and David Wall were fourth in the Wilson Security Volvo S60 after shaping as victory threats earlier in the race.

McLaughlin still passed Mark Winterbottom for fourth in the points after a wretched weekend for the defending champion and co-driver Dean Canto, the latter spearing off track in the wet conditions in The Bottle-O Ford Falcon, losing two laps and condemning them to 24th place.

motoring.com.au’s Luke Youlden co-drove Fabian Coulthard to sixth in the DJR Team Penske Falcon FG X, just edging the carsales.com.au Nissan Altima of Todd Kelly and impressive rookie Matt Campbell.

V8 Supercars Championship points:
1. Shane van Gisbergen – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 2248
2. Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 2241
3. Craig Lowndes – TeamVortex – Holden Commodore VF – 2091
4. Scott McLaughlin – Wilson Security Racing GRM – Volvo S60 – 1989
5. Mark Winterbottom - The Bottle-O Racing – Ford Falcon FG X - 1902

See the full run down on V8SC points for 2016 here.

Declaration: Bruce Newton is a paid contributor to the official supercars.com.au website.