Tander leads HRT one-two in Race 21

Garth Tander broke a 24 race winless streak by leading a Holden Racing Team one-two in the second Saturday encounter at the Castrol Townsville 500.

Having failed to turn a front-row lockout into a victory in Race 20, Tander and team-mate James Courtney rose from 11th and eighth on the Race 21 grid respectively to beat home their opposition.

Moving to eighth on the opening lap, Tander gained much of his track position by running a longer first stint than his key rivals.

He rejoined from his pitstop side-by-side with pole-sitter Fabian Coulthard, who then gifted the HRT duo the front-running by sliding wide at Turn 3.

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The positions at the front remained stagnant over the final 32 laps, with Tander proving able to ease away from the field after a mid-race Safety Car, which had been called for debris.

Shane van Gisbergen banked solid points with fourth, while Chaz Mostert held out Red Bull duo Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup for a well earned fifth.

Mark Winterbottom salvaged eighth from his lowly 19th place grid position, closing onto the tail of Race 20 winner Whincup in the dying stages.

Front-row starter Nick Percat ran second to Coulthard early but finished just ninth after losing time with a slow pitstop.

Tim Slade was again out of luck in the fourth Walkinshaw Holden, falling foul of front-end issues for the second consecutive race.

Second-row starts for Will Davison and Scott McLaughlin turned into just 16th and 14th respectively in the final results after drive-through penalties.

McLaughlin, who lost three spots in the opening corners due to a tap from Van Gisbergen, was caught speeding in pitlane, while an unsafe release saw Davison collide with Michael Caruso’s Nissan in pitlane.

The V8 Supercars will return to the track for Race 22 qualifying from 1100.

See below full full results for Race 21

1	Holden Racing Team	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	57:38.3580	1:14.6821
2	Holden Racing Team	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	57:40.7000	1:14.7135
3	Lockwood Racing	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore VF	57:42.4459	1:14.8079
4	Team Tekno VIP Petfoods	Shane Van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	57:47.4399	1:14.7507
5	Ford Pepsi Max Crew	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG	57:47.9810	1:14.9279
6	Red Bull Racing Australia	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	57:48.1808	1:14.8871
7	Red Bull Racing Australia	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	57:48.6921	1:14.9599
8	Ford Pepsi Max Crew	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG	57:49.1491	1:14.9568
9	Walkinshaw Racing	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	57:50.6895	1:14.8124
10	Repair Management Aust Racing	Russell Ingall	Holden Commodore VF	57:51.2218	1:15.1833
11	The Bottle-O Racing Team	David Reynolds	Ford Falcon FG	57:53.5595	1:15.0383
12	Wilson Security Racing	Scott Pye	Ford Falcon FG	57:54.7418	1:15.1542
13	Wilson Security Racing	David Wall	Ford Falcon FG	57:58.4945	1:15.1100
14	Valvoline Racing GRM	Scott McLaughlin	Volvo S60	57:58.9543	1:15.2047
15	Erebus Motorsport V8	Lee Holdsworth	Mercedes E63 AMG	57:59.2816	1:14.8707
16	Erebus Motorsport V8	Will Davison	Mercedes E63 AMG	57:59.6021	1:14.9456
17	Team BOC	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore VF	58:07.3766	1:14.7910
18	Norton Hornets	James Moffat	Nissan Altima	58:07.4102	1:15.6033
19	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	58:14.5754	1:15.1229
20	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	58:14.8496	1:15.3267
21	Team JELD-WEN	Jack Perkins	Ford Falcon FG	58:17.7354	1:15.4468
22	Valvoline Racing GRM	Robert Dahlgren	Volvo S60	58:18.1573	1:14.9583
23	Team Advam/GB	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	58:20.4014	1:15.5194
DNF	Supercheap Auto Racing	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	14:40.3359	1:14.9931
DNF	Norton Hornets	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	4:02.8281	1:16.5265

Championship points after Race 21

1	Mark Winterbottom	1532
2	Jamie Whincup	1388
3	Craig Lowndes	1341
4	Fabian Coulthard	1298
5	James Courtney	1234
6	Shane Van Gisbergen	1226
7	Scott McLaughlin	1127
8	David Reynolds	1030
9	Chaz Mostert	1002
10	Garth Tander	997
11	Jason Bright	956
12	Will Davison	860
13	Michael Caruso	848
14	Lee Holdsworth	834
15	James Moffat	816
16	Russell Ingall	812
17	Rick Kelly	803
18	Scott Pye	786
19	Tim Slade	750
20	David Wall	695
21	Nick Percat	679
22	Dale Wood	649
23	Jack Perkins	610
24	Todd Kelly	563
25	Robert Dahlgren	398

VIDEO: The start of Race 21

VIDEO: Caruso speaks after Davison incident

VIDEO: Tander and Courtney overtake Coulthard

VIDEO: Mostert and Lowndes battle

VIDEO: Tander breaks winless streak