SP Tools Racing

It just wasn’t Toll HRT’s day today in Race 2 at Hidden Valley with Garth Tander just missing out on a podium position and finishing fifth. His team-mate Will Davison was on track for a top ten before a late race incident relegated him down the order to 18^th.

Starting from pole position after setting the fastest time in the 20 minute qualifying session earlier today, Tander leapt off the start line. He took control of the race early on before battling with Lowndes for the lead.

Dropping a few spots to cars on soft tyres Tander decided to pit on lap 11 for fuel and fresh tyres. Re-entering the race mid pack he was determined to surpass his performance yesterday and a focused Tander drove a hard fought, consistent race. He pitted again on lap 39 and from there it was a race to the end.

In a nail biting finish Tander was looking promising to finish on the podium before the safety car was called with 10 laps to go. Tander lost position on the restart to Lowndes and then another to Alex Davison who was running soft tyres. He completed the race to finish in fifth.

Tander’s team-mate Will Davison also qualified in the top ten in the second qualifying session and looked set to make it a double podium for the weekend.

Davison’s strategy had him pitting for the first time on lap 8 for fuel and tyres and then on again on lap 34. One of the silent movers and shakers Davison was sixth with just over 10 laps left in the race but after an incident with James Courtney he was left careering across the grass with only laps to go. He managed to salvage 18^th position.

Michael Caruso won the race with Alex Davison crossing the line second. Craig Lowndes was third across the line.

Tander accrued the most points for the weekend and made up considerable ground on the Championship front runners and with 954 points currently sits third. Davison managed to haul enough points to maintain second and with 1128 points only sits 144 points behind Whincup.

With Event 5 now complete the Championship Series moves to Townsville for Event 6 in three weeks time.

The Toll HRT Team will remain in Darwin over the next few days to prepare the cars for the next event.

Garth Tander – #2 Toll Holden Racing Team VE Commodore (Qualifying: 1^st, 1:09.7929; Race 10: 5^th)

“There’s a little bit of ‘ifs’, ‘buts’ and ‘what could have beens’, but considering the tyres we had to play with – all the cars in front had the soft tyres on at some stage during the race and we ran the entire 69 laps on the standard tyre – fifth was probably as close as possible to the best result. We got stuffed up at the restart by Dale Wood and that hurt as Lowndes got past and ended up third. Wood needs to go back to Formula Ford because he’s seriously out of his depth. We’ve been talking for a while about putting the lapped cars to the back for the restarts, and maybe with 10 laps to go we do that so the real cars can go racing again. Overall, if you add up the points we’d be close to winning the round using the old system, so a load of good points this weekend. We’re solidly third in the championship now and, more importantly, we showed that we’ve got a very fast car now.”

Will Davison – #22 Toll Holden Racing Team VE Commodore (Qualifying: 7^th, 1:10.1132; Race 10: 18^th)

“We had 56 laps of great racing; I was having a great race, everything was working smoothly and we weren’t making any mistakes … then the restart!  The soft tyres are ridiculous enough as they are, and to bring out the Safety Car for no reason. I had one spin on a bunch of junk brought onto the track by one of the JD cars, that put me back in the pack and then I was hit from pillar to post. Old Courtney, his reputation speaks for itself, he just fired me off. 56 really good laps and hard work ruined at the end by a disappointing series of incidents.”

Hidden Valley Race 10 Results:

1. Michael Caruso, Garry Rogers Motorsport

2. Alex Davison, Stone Brothers Racing

3. Craig Lowndes, 888 Race Engineering

4. Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing

5. Garth Tander, Toll Holden Racing Team

6. Paul Dumbrell, Team Autobarn

7. Lee Holdsworth, Garry Rogers Motorsport

8. Russell Ingall, Paul Morris Motorsport

9. Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing

10. Jamie Whincup, 888 Race Engineering

18. Will Davison, Toll Holden Racing Team

Hidden Valley Qualifying 2 Results:

1. Garth Tander, Toll Holden Racing Team; 1:09.7929

2. Craig Lowndes, 888 Race Engineering; 1:09.9048

3. Mark Winterbottom, Ford Performance Racing; 1:09.9654

4. Todd Kelly, Kelly Racing; 1:10.0482

5. Lee Holdsworth, Garry Rogers Motorsport; 1:10.1000

6. Michael Caruso, Garry Rogers Motorsport; 1:10.1132

7. Will Davison, Toll Holden Racing Team; 1:10.1132

8. James Courtney, Dick Johnson Racing; 1:10.1368

9. Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing; 1:10.1558

10. Alex Davison, Stone Brothers Racing; 1:10.1975

Championship Points Table (after Event 5):

1. Jamie Whincup, 888 Race Engineering, 1272 points

2. Will Davison, Toll Holden Racing Team, 1128 points

3. Garth Tander, Toll Holden Racing Team, 954 points

4. Craig Lowndes, 888 Race Engineering, 906 points

5. Lee Holdsworth, Garry Rogers Motorsport, 897 points

6. Steven Johnson, Dick Johnson Racing, 873points

7. Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing, 807 points

8. Mark Winterbottom, Ford Performance Racing, 765 points

9. Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing, 729 points

10. Russell Ingall, Paul Morris Motorsport, 728 points