Motorsport: Tander brings Holden home in Tasmania

Holden finally declared "game on" yesterday, snapping Ford's grip on the V8 Supercars Series at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

Garth Tander scored a breakthrough victory for the red team when he won the opening race of the Tasmanian round from fellow Commodore pilot Russell Ingall. It was Holden's first win this year, ending a six-race drought.

Tander, who had taken out his third successive pole position at the short track, flashed past the finish line just one-tenth of a second from Ingall, who had harried him throughout the 42-lapper.

Steven Johnson finished third to be the leading Ford driver but series leader Jamie Whincup could manage no better than eighth place in his Falcon.

Tander had to deal with a crowded field over the shortest track on the calendar and also had to come to grips with the new soft sprint tyre on a cold surface.

But the Holden Racing Team driver, who previously won here in 2005-2006, handled the pressure.

"There was plenty going on when cars were pitting and going in and coming out - who is on what tyre and who was (racing) for position and who's not and then at the end when we were lapping traffic it was on for young and old," Tander said. "It was busy the whole race and obviously there was a bit of the unknown about how the sprint tyre would work here in these cold conditions on a very short lap and our car was very, very good all race."

Veteran Ingall dodged and weaved to try to get past Tander but was continually frustrated by slower cars and later blasted those he called "turkeys".

Whincup has an 84-point lead in the series over Tander's teammate Will Davison ahead of an 84-lap race set for today.