Jamie Whincup has overcome a determined Garth Tander to win his second race of the V8 Supercars meet in Townsville.

His win narrows the gap to championship leader Mark Winterbottom considerably, establishing him as the Ford driver’s key challenger.

In a race dominated by pit-stop strategy, Whincup and Tander emerged as contenders despite following different refuelling patterns.

Whincup re-entered the field behind Tander after completing his two-stop plan, but the reigning champion reeled in Tander with less than 20 laps to go and was never headed.

Tander, who won Saturday’s race two and was runner-up in a tumultuous race one, still enjoyed his most successful racing weekend since 2010.

Team Tekno’s Shane Van Gisbergen, enjoying better speed on a three-stop strategy, stormed home to finish third.

Saturday’s headline act Craig Lowndes again caught attention for the wrong reasons, trailing the field home.

Given penalties and crashing out of race one, Lowndes’ car lost water considerably through the race, forcing him to pit several times.

The 250 kilometre race was without such drama, though an early safety car from the lap one retirements of Jack Perkins and Dale Wood forced teams into a strategy rethink.

With a mandatory two stops across the 250 kilometre race, two thirds of the field took the opportunity to fill up their tanks.

The Ford Pepsi Max Crew made an early blunder by bringing in Chaz Mostert and Winterbottom at the same time, leaving the championship leader waiting in the pit-lane.

While he re-entered in 20th position, a strong drive through the field lifted him to sixth by the end of the race.