The epic, and sometimes controversial, race went down to the wire but Tander led a Holden charge with the General taking a clean-sweep of the podium and HRT taking out both 2009 enduros after also winning the L&H 500 last month.

Team BOC’s Jason Richards – who set the fastest lap of the race taking 2 min 8.9972 sec to circle Mount Panorama on lap 61 – and Cam McConville finished only 0.7599 sec behind Tander.

Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM) young guns Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso managed to claw their way back from an earlier spin and a bit of muscling from the more experienced drivers at the end of the race to finish third.

Sprint Gas Racing’s Greg Murphy was hot on the heels of Holdsworth at the end, finishing a mere 0.0042 seconds behind.

With its winning streak broken TeamVodafone’s Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup were the first Ford team to cross the finish line in fifth; however, stewards will decide whether the #888 Falcon will be penalised for its part in an incident on lap 156 of 161 that cost the Sprint Gas Racing duo of Jason Bargwanna and Mark Noske a podium position.

The #888 car was also given a drive-through penalty early in the race for a near-miss with FPR’s Steve Richards on the exit out of pitlane.

It was Davison’s first ever win at Mount Panorama and Tander, who last won Bathurst in 2000 when he was driving for GRM, was grinning like the Cheshire cat post-race.

“We had really, really good car speed in all conditions; it was just a matter of lining up the fuel stops to the end so poor Will had to struggle around for about seven laps on wets on a dry track but then it opened up our fuel window to get us to the end,” Tander explained.

“I remember when I won the race here in 2000 it was a changeable day like this when weather was coming and going.

“It all seemed reasonably easy; the decisions came easy and the right decisions were made at the right time and today’s one of those days, so Bathurst is certainly one of those races where when it’s your day, it’s your day.”

Davison revealed he was quietly confident about winning the Great Race all weekend, saying it was “win or bust” for Team Red.

“We came into this weekend with a pretty one-eyed attitude to win this race and nearly too one-eyed at certain times,” he admitted.

“I’ve just had this great feeling about the weekend, but you’ve got to keep it under wraps because you know what job you’ve got ahead of you and we didn’t start off well on Thursday, but we didn’t start off well on Friday at Phillip Island either so the guys turned the car around again and we just kept chipping away.

“Anytime you were thinking things were running smoothly, and everything’s under control, something would get thrown at us.

“We wanted to win this race so bad this weekend for everyone in the team and at Holden and… somehow things have turned out perfectly. This is up there with anything; you just don’t forget about this one.”

The Team BOC car equaled Brad Jones Racing’s best Bathurst finishes in 1997 and 2001 and was a superb result for the only regionally based team in the V8 Supercar Championship.

“My God, I was sitting back there in sixth at one point thinking ‘we just need track position’; we had a fast car,” Richards said.

However, he had no intention of just pedaling around for a top 10 finish.

“Do or die, I’m not going to sit here and finish sixth at Bathurst, I’m gonna have a crack at this thing,” he said he thought to himself after the second last of eight safety car periods.

“And I hit a few walls on the way and got it home to second so I was pumped,” he enthused.

McConville, who finished second at Bathurst in 1999 with Lowndes, paid tribute to the work Richards did at the end before stating the team arrived at Mount Panorama on Thursday to win but that runner-up was a nice feeling.

“We owe a lot to Jase, really, for this result… It does feel like a win because you just don’t know how many more (Bathurst races) you might get the opportunity to be in this situation with a fast teammate (and) a good car.”

Only 13 cars finished on the lead lap, and of the rest, eight were officially classified as DNFs.

Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 top 10 results

*Subject to change

Garth Tander/Will Davison Commodore
Jason Richards/Cameron McConville Commodore
Lee Holdsworth/Michael Caruso Commodore
Greg Murphy/Mark Skaife Commodore
Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup Falcon
Jason Bargwanna/Mark Noske Commodore
Tim Slade/Paul Morris Commodore
Rick Kelly/Todd Kelly Commodore
David Besnard/Greg Ritter Commodore
Tony D’Alberto/Andrew Thompson Commodore

Source: www.v8supercars.com.au

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