Motorsport: Holden gets Hamilton 400 hat-trick (+photos, video)

Garth Tander has given Holden a dream result at the Hamilton 400 V8 Supercars street race. Photo / Getty Images

Holden Garth Tander has scored a hat trick to win the inaugural Hamilton 400 V8 Supercars round.

The Toll Holden Racing Team driver drove superbly all weekend, winning all three races on the 3.4km run saw him win all three races on the 3.4km street circuit with ease.

His clean sweep saw him received the impressive greenstone Mark Porter Trophy - a memorial to the Kiwi driver who was tragically killed in an accident at Bathurst.

From the podium Tander heaped praise on the newly-created event, which attracted a colourful capacity crowd of 60,000.

"This is already a big event - it's going to be really big in a few years' time," he said, "I love it."

Tander now moves into second place in the V8 Supercars championship behind HSV dealer team driver Rick Kelly. Lee Holdsworth rounds out the all-Holden top three.

New Zealand-born Ford Performance Racing Steven Richards finished this afternoon's race in second place, followed by Stone Brothers driver James Courtney with Rick Kelly taking fourth.

His wasn't the only homegrown success though, with rising star Fabian Coulthard brought the Glenfords Racing Ford home in sixth place, and young flyer Shane van Gisbergen rounded out a top weekend for SBR with a gutsy drive getting him into the top ten.

Other New Zealanders had less than perfect outings in the final race, with Greg Murphy's race ending on lap seven, and Kayne Scott also picking up a DNF after locking up the Team Kiwi Racing Falcon and hitting a wall with only a few laps remaining.

Garth Tander made a perfect start to the race off pole position, quickly opening up precious real estate between himself and James Courtney.

When Todd Kelly speared into Marcus Marshall on turn one, sending the crowd to its feet, there was a reminder of yesterday's race one havoc, but little damage was done and the pair kept moving.

Lee Holdsworth ground to a halt after launching the Valvoline Commodore off the tricky chicane and into the wall, bringing out the safety car and bunching the 27-car field up at the start of lap 2.

Tony D'Alberto was put into the wall at turn six after a touch from Jason Richard's Holden, sending the Bottle-O Holden back to the garage for the rest of the afternoon.

By lap four Holdsworth's car had been cleared from the circuit and the safety car made its exit, but not for long.