KEY POINTS:
Garth Tander has won an action-packed first race of the inaugural Hamilton 400, proving untouchable in his Toll HRT Holden Commodore.
"It was a tough race," he admitted, "but I got lucky when Richo went wide on the first lap."
Richo - or New Zealander Steven Richards -
was third across the finish line in his Ford Performance Racing Falcon, nearly a second behind Rick Kelly's HSV Dealer Team Commodore.
Crowd favourite Greg Murphy had to settle for lacklustre 23rd place after a dramatic race, but still set a new V8 Supercar lap record, offering the many Murph fans some consolation.
The massive crowd of 58,418 spent much of the race on it feet as Hamilton's first-ever V8 Supercar race packed serious action into its 36 laps.
From the flag
It took less than a minute after the start flag dropped for things to get heated on the brand new 3.4km Hamilton street circuit, with Mark Skaife making contact with local hero Greg Murphy's brand new racecar, spinning him and leaving him back in 17th place.
The next corner saw even more action, with Russell Ingall and Paul Morris both spinning. Ingall, who last week predicted "carnage" at Hamilton's inaugural street race, was forced to retire after first tapping Jim Beam driver Steven Johnson before being pushed solidly into the concrete hitting the wall.
Johnson and Shane Price were also victims in the incident, finishing their race one outings.
Championship leader Jamie Whincup, who crashed heavily in practice after a tangle with Todd Kelly, resigned himself to joining the commentary team, while team mate Craig Lowndes started from 21st place.
"Is all this stuff normal?" asked Whincup from the commentary box, "I don't usually see all this crazy stuff."
After running wide at turn 5 on the first lap, Steven Richards let Garth Tander and Rick Kelly through, before settling into third position behind the safety car.
Ford's rising star Michael Patrizi hit a tyre wall at pace almost immediately after the restart on lap four, effectively finishing his race.
The pit window opened, with a massive influx of drivers into pitlane, as Mark Skaife eschewed a stop and took first place. He was pushing to try and open up some track real estate, but Patrizi's crash saw the safety car out and the field bunched together again.
Murphy suffered during his pit stop, with the car being dropped down from the airjacks too quickly - with a wheel missing.
The big V8s lit up again as the safety car left on lap nine, with a mad scramble for the first corner looking like another opportunity for the Chrysler 300C safety car was on the cards.
But with Skaife leading his teammate Tander, Rick Kelly and Steven Richards, the field began to settle down to concentrate on putting in some clean laps.
On lap 11 Lowndes gave his Triple Eight team a serious case of déjà vu as Murphy made contact with the sole remaining Vodafone Falcon. Lowndes backed the car into a wall, but managed to get back on track.
But to make matters worse, Lowndes then copped a drive through penalty for his earlier pit exit. Jason Richards was also penalised.
As the action kicked on, Skaife (the only driver that had not made a pit stop) and Tander put the hammer down and put down some of the first 1:25 laps seen in the race in an attempt to widen the gap to Rick Kelly.
Young New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen was again driving with a maturity beyond his 18 years, pushing past hardened campaigners like Jason Bright and Andrew Jones as he edged closer to the top ten.
Another Kiwi youngster, Fabian Coulthard, was putting in a solid performance to hold onto 8th place, sandwiched between Todd Kelly and Cameron McConville.
Skaife finally pitted on lap 20, just five laps before the pit window closed, to leave on-form Tander with clear track ahead of him but Rick Kelly and Steven Richards chasing hard.
As Skaife dropped back into 21st place behind Team Kiwi driver Kayne Scott, both Coulthard (who had, in the meantime, passed Will Davison) and Van Gisbergen benefited with the re-shuffle moving into 7th and 9th respectively.
Andrew Jones demonstrated how to make a V8 supercar fly on lap 22, clipping the ripple strip on the exit to the challenging chicane solidly enough to leave a good four feet of clear air between the two left-hand wheels of his Commodore.
Lowndes' 888 Falcon was forced into the pits with a blown tyre on lap 27, rounding out what has been a dismal weekend for the team, and settling back to a disappointing 20th place.
Greg Murphy, despite having spend the race close to the back of the field, showed that he's still a serious threat heading to tomorrow's racing by putting down a lap record of 1:25.5362.
Van Gisbergen's flier of a Hamilton weekend continued into the closing laps, with the Stone Brothers Racing driver almost climbing into the boot of Todd Kelly's Jack Daniels Commodore lap after lap. But a puncture on the 33rd lap - perhaps a result of his aggressive drive - saw him drop down the order to 19th.
But Garth Tander proved untouchable, rewarding the hordes of Hamilton Holden fans with a well-earned race win, flowed by fellow Commodore driver Rick Kelly.
Steve Richards managed an impressive third place, with Fabian Coulthard the second Kiwi home in 7th place.
Van Gisbergen finished in 21st with Greg Murphy - complete with fastest lap - coming in 23rd.
TOP TEN
1 Garth Tander
2 Rick Kelly
3 Steven Richards
4 James Courtney
5 Lee Holdsworth
6 Cameron McConville
7 Fabain Coulthard
8 Todd Kelly
9 Will Davison
10 Mark Winterbottom
