After 161 laps and almost six hours of racing, it came to 0.2sec – HRT’s Garth Tander’s winning margin over the fast-finishing Craig Lowndes in the Triple Eight car.
Massive gallery here
On a cold but dry day on Mt Panorama, Triple Eight didn’t lead a lap all day, with both HRTs, the Pepsi Max Commodore of Greg Murphy, FPR’s Mark Winterbottom and SBR’s Shane van Gisbergen setting the pace early. Various Safety Car periods through the day essentially removed any fuel strategy element from the event, while the cool weather kept lap times higher than in previous years.
It all came down to the final ten laps; Lowndes reeled in Tander from an 11-second deficit to be hanging off the HRT’s bumper as the pair entered the last lap. The pair raced hard and clean, with Tander hanging on for a sorely-needed victory for the struggling factory outfit.
It was Tander’s 50th win, and HRT’s 200th.
His 23-yeard-old co-driver Nick Percat also becomes the first rookie since legendary F1 driver Jackie Ickx won the event with Allan Moffat in 1977. The youngster held his own, at times battling both Triple Eight cars at the front of the field.
Incidents littered the 161 laps, but none more spectacular than David Besnard’s frightening crash in the #17 DJR Falcon. He crashed at the fifth-gear turn two after failing to re-pressurise his brakes after a pad change, destroying the rear of the car and igniting the fuel that leaked from the punctured tank. He escaped without injury.
Jamie Whincup suffered heavily after alternator failure in his Commodore; he handed a 100-point championship lead to his teammate Lowndes as a result.
Our drive of the day? James Moffat gets an honourable mention for a spirited drive until mechanical failure dropped him out of a top-five finish, but it has to go to Nick Percat, who resisted great pressure and minimised his mistakes to put the #2 Commodore in a position to win.