Garth Tander survived a lap one battle with James Courtney and managed to hold off Jamie Whincup to win the second race at the 2010 BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge today (Saturday).

With a spattering of rain enough to make for a greasy track, the 13 lap non-Championship race was pretty eventful throughout and the Toll Holden Racing Team driver was quick off the blocks.

“It was a bit of fun with James; I thought I was gone because I braked way too late at turn three on the first lap and I was expecting him to come back up the inside but obviously he braked at about the same point I did,” Tander laughed.

“It’s always fun finding your limiter on the first lap.

“It was a tough race just because with the rain coming and going you didn’t really know how hard to brake at any of the braking zones, it was sort of different each lap so when you are the lead car the guys behind can sort of judge your car behaviour on where they’re going to brake.”

Tander said the car performed well and did not chew through its tyres as much as it did yesterday.

“And we made a change to our car that was pretty big and it worked in some parts of the race and then late in the race the car went off quite a bit, last two laps. It’s good to get the win,” he said.

Whincup, who started the race from fifth and charged his way up to second place, noted that on the first lap
“it was all happening at turn one”.

“Everyone was going really, really hard, surprisingly, so I got through all that battle and the car was very good and I picked my way right up through,” he said.

“I thought it was going to rain actually; all the weather stations were saying it was going to rain, we were ready for rain but it didn’t come.”

The TeamVodafone driver was today handed a $3000 fine, which has been suspended until the end of the year, for driving at an excessive speed while marshals were on the track at the end of yesterday’s Top 10 Shootout.

Whincup refused to comment on the matter at a post-race press conference, saying he “won’t waste everybody’s time with that” but he will deliver an apology at a briefing for officials tomorrow morning.

Courtney, who won yesterday’s race, had to fight off SP Tools Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen for most of the race.

Van Gisbergen overtook Courtney on the first lap but the order swapped again by the end of the second lap.
The Giz stayed on the back of the #18 Falcon for the rest of the race and even attempted a gutsy move on the Jim Beam driver at the second-last corner on the last lap.

“Shane tried to pass around the outside and it was never going to happen,” Courtney laughed.
Tander commented that the weather should be different for tomorrow’s race.

“So hopefully we can see where we’re going in tomorrow’s race and stay away from this weather that seems to descend on Albert Park late in the day,” he said.

“It will make a pretty interesting F1 race but it will be nice to have a nice dry clean (V8 Supercar) one tomorrow.”

The third and final race of the 2010 BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge starts at 2.20pm.

2010 BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge top 10 points after race two

Garth Tander Holden 192
James Courtney Ford 186
Jamie Whincup Holden 166
Shane van Gisbergen Ford 166
Craig Lowndes Holden 140
Mark Winterbottom Ford 130
Steve Johnson Ford 124
Will Davison Holden 120
Paul Dumbrell Ford 120
Lee Holdsworth Holden 100