KEY POINTS:
The Australian V8 Supercar championship will go down to the wire at Phillip Island today after Holden's Garth Tander won the opening race of the final round to move to equal points with Ford's Jamie Whincup.
Tander won yesterday's opening 27-lap race in the season finale, with Whincup third. The result allowed the Holden driver to bridge the seven-point gap which separated the pair.
Whincup's Ford team-mate Craig Lowndes' chances of winning the title look slim after he finished fourth to be 23 points behind Tander and Whincup.
Whincup qualified best of the three but a pit stop problem cost him valuable track position at a vital time during yesterday's race. Whincup pitted while in front of Tander but emerged behind him - a problem changing a rear tyre believed to be the cause.
With Whincup fifth and Lowndes sixth sitting behind several Holdens, Tander took the lead from another Holden driver Mark Skaife on lap 20.
Just as Tander looked likely to push several points clear of Whincup, all hell broke loose in the last four laps.
First Whincup moved past Todd Kelly's Holden, then Lowndes punted Kelly off the track soon after to move through. With two laps remaining, third-placed Jason Richards lost control of his car and spun off, with Whincup then inheriting third and picking up valuable extra points.
The last two races of the season will be held today, with Tander to start from pole and Whincup from third as all drivers take yesterday's race position into today's grid for race two.
Lowndes' only hope of winning his fourth championship is if Tander and Whincup strike trouble today.
- AAP
