Russell 'The Enforcer' Ingall might have finished second but knew he was within a whisker of his first V8 Supercar race win since defecting back to Holden - had it not been for a 'turkey' or two he said ruined a great finish to the Falken Tasmania Challenge.

Supercheap's Ingall was annoyed that several times lapped cars stopped him from getting on the tail of winner Garth Tander in the closing laps, and the finish line margin of less than a car length suggested the result might have been the other way around.

Tander ended up getting the best of the good breaks on the shortest track on the V8 Supercar circuit for the first Holden win of the season, ahead of Ingall and Jim Beam Racing's Steven Johnson who has this year taken the mantle of Mr Consistency.

But it was Ingall, ironically penalised for blocking in qualifying earlier, that encountered cars that were not in the race getting in his way time and again.

“It was a pain in the backside really, it wasn't cutting me much slack,” Ingall said. “There was a couple of times there, probably three, where Garth got some good lunges at the end of the back straight and I tried to follow him through.

“It was pretty average steering from a few drivers. Some you would expect it and I knew which ones they were. You can see the number on the back so you know who they are... turkey, not too bad, turkey, turkey. You can see it a mile away so you know what's coming.

"It was just a shame because I wanted to get on the end of Garth and give him a good race at the end."

Tander agreed that his Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore got the best of the luck.

“Any time Russell is behind you, you are going to be concerned,” Tander said. “It was a matter of trying to get through the traffic clean and not give Russell any opportunities. It was positioning the car so that I could stay in the best place to hold off Russell.

“At the end there when we were lapping traffic it was on for young and old. It was very busy. I just tried to manage the gap as best I could throughout the race to manage the tyres at the end but there was very little left in them.”

For Ingall it was a welcome return with his team finding a glitch out of the blue overnight.

“We found something that has been hindering us all year, something in the build. To their credit the boys found it last night and instantly we got pace. At least that's fixed and out of the way,” he said. “And as Garth said it's good to have Holden back up there. We are getting a bit sick of this one horse race but I reckon the boys have got to look in their mirrors now, we are back on track.”