When Garth Tander arrived in Townsville for this weekend’s V8 Supercars round it had been 21 months since he had savoured a win.
And that drought did not look like ending any time soon after a disastrous practice session in north Queensland.
But barely 48 hours after a frustrated Tander was forced to order spare parts up from Melbourne for his damaged Holden, he was all smiles on top of the podium for the first time since his 2011 Bathurst 1000 victory.
“I have been reminded about my last win. It’s nice to quieten that down but I knew it was a matter of when,” an ecstatic Tander said on Sunday.
“But this has been an amazing team effort.
“To have had to have flown parts up on Friday night, everyone was involved in this one.”
While Tander enjoyed the sweet taste of success after Sunday’s 200km event, series leader Jamie Whincup was left with a bitter taste in his mouth.
In a blow to his title defence, the four-time V8 champion qualified 15th for Sunday’s 70-lap event and finished 11th.
In Saturday’s opening 200km event he qualified 16th – the first time he started outside the top 10 all season – and finished seventh.
Before the round Whincup (1591 points) led the championship by 159 points but had it whittled down to 111 by Sunday ahead of Holden teammate Craig Lowndes (1480) and Ford hope Will Davison (1376) at the season’s halfway mark.
But Sunday was all about 2007 V8 champion Tander and his resurgent Holden Racing Team (HRT).
Long-suffering Ford fans were celebrating after Davison marked only their third win of the season and completed a quinella with factory-backed teammate Mark Winterbottom in the opening 200km race on Saturday.
However, the Blue Oval fans were seeing red barely 24 hours later when Tander ensured the factory-backed HRT ended a 58-race drought ahead of teammate James Courtney.
Remarkably, it also marked HRT’s first quinella since Sandown 2009.
The omens could not have been worse for Tander when he experienced shock absorber problems at Friday’s practice and was forced to make a last minute parts request to HRT’s Melbourne headquarters.
But by Sunday nothing could slow down Tander – not even heavy contact with the wall on lap 19.
“It was pretty second hand after that. It had a huge vibration but thankfully I brought it home,” said Tander who won with a clever tyre and fuel strategy.
Tander also hoped his win provided a State of Origin tip ahead of the interstate rugby league series decider in Sydney on July 17.
Tander’s Holden had donned Queensland’s Maroon colours for the Townsville round while Sydneysider Courtney was decked out in blue.
“I am willing to take one for the boys if that means we win game three,” Courtney smiled.
Shane van Gisbergen was also impressive on Sunday, completing a last to third finish after spinning out on the opening lap.
The next round is in Ipswich from July 26-28.