We can beat Jamie at Bathurst: Tander
Whincup and Paul Dumbrell scored back-to-back Sandown wins in the Red Bull Commodore with HRT filling both places behind them. Only lapped traffic after a late safety car stopped James Courtney, second with Kiwi Greg Murphy, and Tander, with Warren Luff, from a genuine challenge.
Strategy and the early dominance of Dumbrell turned into victory, the first time since 1996 since Craig Lowndes (fourth today) and Murphy that a team had taken victory from ARMOR ALL Pole Position at Sandown.
Despite the result Tander believes the two mighty factory teams are now evenly matched heading to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, a race he has won three times.
"This year's proven that it is just as competitive as ever," said Tander.
"We've proven that we are closing the gap, we still feel that we have more work to do but no one is unbeatable and Jamie will be the first to tell you that. We're going to the next couple of events as confident as ever.
"There were some things that didn't quite go our way today but I'm sure there's 25 other cars that would say the same thing."
The race ignited with 27 laps to go when Lee Holdsworth lost complete control of his Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG at a staggering 266km/h, slamming into a tire barrier at not much less speed than that. Holdsworth was uninjured.
That deleted the eight second lead the Dumbrell and Whincup had spent all day building. Luckily for Whincup three lapped cars stood between him and Courtney at the restart, giving him a massive advantage over the HRT pair.
"The lapped traffic wasn't that keen on getting out of the way today, I think they wanted to un-lap themselves. It hindered us a little for the run at the end there but that's the way it is," Courtney said.
"We wouldn't have had that chance if it wasn't for that safety car; these lads had a few seconds on us."
Whincup built the lead to three seconds after just a handful of laps as officials warned the back three to get out of the way and out of the race. On lap 148 he put the pedal down, clocking the fastest time of the race having conserved fuel earlier in the day.
The current Champion has now won seven of the last 13 races since he took the lead from Ford Pepsi Max Crew's Mark Winterbottom to assume a staggering 273 point Championship lead, now ahead of Lowndes.
"That's 30 points less than the next race [the Championship lead] so there's a long way to go," said Whincup.
A locked rear by Steve Owen took Winterbottom out of contention and into the midfield amidst the bigger Championship picture on a day worth a maximum 300 points to the winner. Winterbottom fought back for tenth today.
Owen made the mistake on lap 77, a result of an early safety car which meant co-drivers stayed in the car for around 25 more laps than expected. He went within an inch of an accident when he pulled up just short of the Armco barrier, losing 10 places as a result.
While that was an error the Kiwi-French combination of Alex Premat and Scott McLaughlin also dropped back through the field early in the race. Frenchman Premat had done a great job to stick with the leaders in the initial laps before trouble struck in the pits.
Having successfully refueled and applied fresh tires, Premat got wedged just outside of his pit bay by the Heavy Haulage Racing Commodore of Oliver Gavin unable to move. With no options Premat had to sit and wait, losing valuable seconds and multiple positions.
McLaughlin fought valiantly back into the game but the delay became effectively the distance between he and the lead three, before he appeared to have late race dramas that slowed him down.
The second Red Bull Racing Australia car was right behind the top three, but Lowndes couldn't shake Tander in the closing laps, allowing 'GT' his first podium finish at the Sandown 500.
However, the fourth place finish was enough to get Lowndes up into second in the Championship, surpassing Mark Winterbottom and leading him by just six points.
Behind Lowndes/Steven Richards in fourth was Wilson Security DJR young guns Scott Pye/Ash Walsh, Shane van Gisbergen/Jonathon Webb who dropped back from second, Chaz Mostert/Paul Morris, Scott McLaughlin/Alex Premat, David Reynolds/Dean Canto and Winterbottom/Owen.
The Championship now heads for the second leg of the Pirtek Enduro Cup, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama from October 9-12.