by Matthew Agius

Garth Tander has taken outright victory in the penultimate round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Symmons Plains Raceway for the Ferodo Triple Challenge.

Tander and his HSV Dealer Team team-mate Rick Kelly were the standout performers this weekend – both black and red VZ Commodores performing amicably over the course of the weekend. A HSV Dealer Team one-three outright result is the second time this year that both cars have finished on the podium – the last time being at Hidden Valley when the pair finished second and third.

Not since the 2000 FAI Bathurst 1000 has Garth Tander taken a round win. For many years the talented West Australian has not been on the winners list, and since joining the HSV Dealer Team has performed admirably. A hat trick of wins this weekend has secured Tander seventh place in the championship standings.

"Three wins from three starts – it doesn't get much better than that. The car was fantastic all weekend and we didn't change a thing all the way through – the car just got better and better as the track rubbered in," said a joyful Tander.

"I have to thank the guys for doing a fantastic job all weekend. We missed pole by just 100th of a second and went on to win all three races, so we can't ask for too much more than that. Richo and I had a really good race. Although it wasn't always that close, if you had a bad lap two laps in a row, you would have a battle on your hands. We were both putting 120 per cent, and it was great.

"For us it was a matter of going hard early, building a little bit of a buffer and pitting early and fast to maintain the lead. It has been a long time between drinks, but it is great. The reason for switching to HSV Dealer Team this season was to win races, and since Darwin, we have been a consistent top five runner. Now, we are really looking forward to winning more, hopefully at Phillip Island in a couple of weeks."

His main rival all weekend was Team Perkins Racing's lead driver Steven Richards. The New Zealand born superstar started from pole, but his race pace was slightly slower than that of the #16 HSV Dealer Team Holden. Richards holds on to sixth place in the championship and is the third placed Holden.

Rick Kelly was not able to quite match the pace of his round winning team-mate, however managed to keep out of trouble throughout the majority of the weekend and collected a respectable podium finish.

"It is great to have both cars up the front again. We had a good first race, making up a couple of positions, but unfortunately in race two, we made a couple of changes that didn't quite work out," said Kelly.