KEY POINTS:
Holden driver Garth Tander snatched the lead off pole-setter Mark Winterbottom nine laps from the end of an often breathtaking first race of the Pukekohe round of the Australian V8 Supercar championship yesterday.
In front of a 46,083 crowd, Tander beat Winterbottom off the line but lost the advantage after the pit stop. Tander kept close then sneaked under him at the hairpin and won the dash to the finish.
"My tyre life was better than his [Winterbottom's] and that is how I got around him," said Tander.
Winterbottom, in spite of being hunted down, was pleased.
"My tyres were certainly wearing and I tried a couple of Scandinavian flicks to try and keep him out, but I could not hold him for long," said Winterbottom.
Third place went to Tander's teammate Rick Kelly who was engaged in a titanic struggle with Ford driver Steven Richards who fell to the close attention, letting Todd Kelly through for fourth.
The first of the recognised locals was Jason Richards in the Tasman Motorsport Commodore (seventh).
Four-times Pukekohe winner and crowd favourite Greg Murphy was 12th, Team Kiwi driver Paul Radisich, Falcon 15th and Holden driver Fabian Coulthard 22nd.
The large crowd that was on hand to farewell the Australian racers from Pukekohe, left the track disappointed following Murphy's failure to make it into the top 10 shoot out.
Murphy, who now drives for the Tasman motorsport team, had handling problems during Friday's practice session where he recorded times near the back of the pack. He improved yesterday and was less than half a second slower than Winterbottom's best time.
The race to claim the New Zealand V8 Championship entered a fascinating final phase with series leader John McIntyre (Falcon) edging into third place in the first of the weekend's three races. His nearest rival, Kayne Scott (Commodore) won the 12-lap race.
Previous championship winner Andy Booth was second.
McIntyre accused his rivals of conspiring against him and Booth of forcing him off the road.
As a spectacle, the race was a disappointment because the safety car was on the track for half the distance following off-track incidents with mid field competitors.
This appeared to favour Scott, but he did not think so.
"We had a good race pace and I was confident of pulling away but this was not allowed to happen."
The two final races in the championship are run today, and McIntyre's lead over Scott has been whittled down to 28 points.
Christchurch's Andy Knight won the first of the Toyota series 12 lappers. He was pursued for 10 laps by Shane Van Gisbergen who had to retire when smoke poured from his car.
