Garth Tander completed a victorious Armor All Gold Coast 600 Australian V8 series race which was enriched with the participation of international racing drivers mainly from IZOD Indycars series. However the race soaked in controversy when Championship and provisional race leader James Courtney had certain victory ripped from his grasp with 10 laps of the 102-lap race remaining.
Courtney was actually issued a black flag after an infringement, seemingly for driving erratically behind the safety car, and served a drive-through penalty.
Earlier Tander himself had been issued with a black flag for loose bodywork but officials made the incredible decision to withdraw the order!
The race was dotted with incidents right from the opening lap but none were bigger than Courtney’s (eventually classified 10th) black flag which enabled Jamie Whincup (sixth) to close the Championship points gap to 101.
Craig Lowndes chased Tander home for second and is right up to his neck in the Championship fight after 19 of 26 races this season in the #888 Commodore he shared with World Touring Car ace Andy Priaulx.
A physically spent Shane van Gisbergen finished third in a charging drive through the field in the SP Tools Falcon that he shared with John McIntyre.
Tander, who dedicated the victory to co-driver Cam McConville’s ripper opening stint, shed some light on the Courtney incident after having a birds-eye view sitting behind him under the safety car. I was bemused as to what was going on from when the safety car turned its lights off. You are supposed to maintain a constant speed of 80kph but it was accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake and then he left the last corner very, very early before we got the call on the radio to say the safety car was in pitlane. I actually thought he got it (black flag) for going too early.”
It was a race that finished almost as bizarrely as it started with the incident on the opening lap with Jacques Villeneuve again the target of a series of events through no fault of his own, but surely destroyed his chances for a good performance and a possible victory for The Bottle-O Racing Team.
Villeneuve copped a bump from Warren Luff and then received a whack from Luke Youlden (#5 FPR Falcon) going into the first chicane.
Then entering the new hairpin on the shortened 2.9km track, Villeneuve copped a hit from behind from Greg Ritter which turned him around causing a scrimmage that involved up to a dozen cars. Villeneuve was forced to pit the Bottle-O Falcon, which is ironically run under the FPR umbrella, on lap 14 with front-end damage and a badly cut tyre. The 1997 F1 World Champion merged back into the race but was nine laps down in 26th place, the last of the cars still circulating. He finally finished the race 22nd, the last of the running cars.
The ensuing chaos eliminated also Toll HRT driver Will Davison and the #6 FPR car of local Indycar hero and 2010 Indycar title contender Will Power and Steve Richards.
Power had to garage the Dunlop-backed FPR car when he lost oil pressure in a nightmare start that only lasted a few hundred metres into what was supposed to be a 300km race.
The most significant performance of the Indycars drivers was the one of the 4-time CART champion and ex F1 driver Sebastien Bourdais who returned to racing with an 8th position finish. Alex Tagliani finished 11th and newly crowned Indycars champion Dario Franschitti was back 16th driving for the Jim Beam Racing team.
