Garth Tander and Nick Percat for team Toll Holden have won Bathurst in a real down to the wire battle
Bathurst 1000 race finishes don’t get any better or any closer than this. Garth Tander beat Craig Lowndes by a mere 0.25 seconds, the closest finish between rival teams ever (form finishes don’t count). Theirs was an epic battle over the final laps as Lowndes chased hard, passing Jason Bright then Greg Murphy to begin hunting Tander who had a healthy five second lead with 13 laps to go.
With Tander and Lowndes logging almost identical lap times, it appeared that Lowndes would not be able to close the gap but, on lap 153 Tander locked a brake in The Chase and Lowndes gained over one second on the HRT car. He now had more than a sniff of victory. Two laps later the gap was 2.1sec and the tension was palpable from the media centre to the pits to the grandstands.
With two laps remaining the gap was just 0.5sec and it almost seemed a formality that Lowndes would snatch a glorious victory. But Tander is one of the hard men of V8 Supercar and he fought Lowndes off to win his third Bathurst and give his young co-driver Nick Percat a 1000 win on debut. It was also a massive fillip for the team after the death of founder Tom Walkinshaw and team upheaval during the season, and the win also gave new team manager Mike Henry his first Bathurst crown.
Someone will probably work out what the physical gap between the HRT and Triple 8 Commodores was at the finish line but it’s not important, this was a race to remember, and Lowndes will no doubt rate it as one of his finest drives. And let’s not forget the great stints by Lowndes’ co-driver Mark Skaife, who is no doubt disappointed he didn’t get his seventh Bathurst, but would be able to appreciate Tander’s grit and speed.
Things were looking good for another Jamie Whincup win - this time paired with young gun Andrew Thompson - but his car faltered with electrical problems going up the Mountain on lap 138. Whincup was able to limp to the pits and rejoin but he was out of contention.
For Greg Murphy and Allan Simonsen, third place in their Pepsi Commodore was a fine addition to Murphy’s ‘lucky’ pole but they were in the hunt much of the day. Ford Performance Racing will be rueing another Bathurst lost after Steven Richards stalled the Winterbottom car at the start and lost many places before the pair fought back for Winterbottom to be in contention at the end and finish fourth. The other FPR car of Will Davison and Luke Youlden led early and was also in contention until Youlden made an uncharacteristic error and crashed on a restart; they would finish 18th.
The race was relatively drama free, as 1000s go, but it still took its toll. The most dramatic was David Besnard’s fiery high-speed shunt at the approach to turn two after he hit the wall and his fuel tank ruptured. ‘Bezzie’ was unhurt. And there were the usual bouncing, rapid transits through the gravel trap at the end of The Chase, which Steve Owen was lucky to avoid after a tyre delaminated at close to 300km/h on Conrod Straight.
One prang the more cynical pundits predicted took out the Shannons Supercar Showdown Commodore of 17-year-old Cam Waters – the youngest to ever start the race - for 66 laps when the rookie made an error at Forrest’s Elbow. But Waters, who was co-driving with Grant Denyer, impressed his team and those who got close to him during the week. He is a talent we will hear more of.
Each Bathurst 1000 always has a 1000 stories to tell but people will be talking about that finish for a long time to come. Congratulations to Garth Tander, Nick Percat and HRT.
Watch Cameron's prang, Besnard explains his fiery exit and the winners spray champagne
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