The Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and Warren Luff have finished 3rd in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 after a thrilling final 20 laps. Teammates Jack Perkins and Russell Ingall finished just outside the top ten in 11th.

Friday’s qualifying session was postponed after a huge crash involving Mostert on the first timed lap in the session. Rain then affected Saturday’s rescheduled session which left both HRT cars starting towards the back of the grid in 17th (car #22) and 22nd (car #2).

Today’s 161-lap main event got underway in an orderly fashion, drivers conscious it was a long day ahead to the finish line. Ingall was in for the first stint in car #22 while Tander was on driving duty in car #2.

The first safety car was deployed on lap 16 after Gracie skidded into the wall and while she was able to limp her badly damaged car back to pit lane David Wall had an engine failure and was stopped on the track.

It was only 20 laps later that Heimgartner was tagged and spun into the wall at turn one. The third safety car came on lap 80 when Blanchard found the wall at the grate.

Rain had threatened all day and storms were predicted for the afternoon, on lap 90 the dark clouds rolled in and it began to rain at the top of Mt Panorama – a wet track was declared. Ingall was quick on the radio: “It’s raining now, it’s raining now” was the call. “Just get it back to the pits” replied Alistair his engineer.

Luff was not so sure about immediately moving to wet tyres so his engineer left the decision up to him to pit or stay out. Luff eventually decided to stop, which was the right call. The rain passed quickly and by lap 104 both
HRT cars were back on slicks.

Perkins had a nervous moment over skyline on lap 133. He was out of shape and brushed a wall but he had luck on his side and there was no damage to his Holden Commodore, so he pushed on.

The final safety car was called on lap 133 after Pye came together with the concrete at Sulman Park. While Perkins was quick to pit, Tander was forced to circulate for one more lap. At the restart Perkins was sitting in 7th position and Tander just one place behind in 8th.

In typical ‘Tander style’ he was going to race the wheels off his machine to chase down a podium position and he did not disappoint. In just two laps he had jumped from 8th to 3rd, overtaking multiple cars in one turn at the cutting. While he was determined to hunt down Lowndes and Winterbottom he was unable to catch them in the final 20 laps. Having not started the race in 2014, Tander and Luff were content with the third step of the podium.

The final event of the PIRTEK Enduro Cup will take place on the streets of Surfers Paradise at the Gold Coast 23-25 October.

Car #2 – Garth Tander/Warren Luff
Qualifying Result: 22nd
Race 25 Result: 3rd

Car #22 – Jack Perkins/Russell Ingall
Qualifying Result: 17th
Race 25 Result: 11th