Garth Tander has missed out on a Phillip Island three-peat as he and Cameron McConville finished ninth for the Toll Holden Racing Team in today’s L&H 500. It was a disappointing race for Tander and McConville after starting fifth – McConville had a strong start, but first lost track position after being hit on the first lap. He fought back to be in the top five before handing over to Tander.

Garth Tander has missed out on a Phillip Island three-peat as he and Cameron McConville finished ninth for the Toll Holden Racing Team in today’s L*H 500.

It was a disappointing race for Tander and McConville after starting fifth – McConville had a strong start, but first lost track position after being hit on the first lap. He fought back to be in the top five before handing over to Tander.

In the cycle of stops, Tander lost track position and again fought back to be top five.

But the #2 Toll HRT Commodore dropped four spots in the last round of green flag stops, passed by a number of cars that had headed to the pits to fuel up when the Safety Car appeared ahead of the final ‘pit window’ a few laps prior – those cars requiring just a short fill on the last stop and gaining track position.

For Davison and Reynolds, their L*H 500 was over virtually from the start when Reynolds was run into by David Besnard on the 10th lap after the latter turned the Ford of Steven Johnson around. The #22 Toll HRT Commodore suffered bent steering, which cost five laps in the pits while repairs were made.

Reynolds and Davison returned to the race but on old tyres, keeping their best for practice at Bathurst in four weeks time. They were classified 28th.

Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife won the race for Holden. Ford’s Mark Winterbottom and Luke Youlden were second, Team BOC’s Jason Richards and Andrew Jones third, having been a lap down in the early stages of the race.

Tander sits sixth in series points while Davison is 16th.

The next round of the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series is Australia’s Great Race, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, which will be held at Mt Panorama, Bathurst, on 9-12 October.

Cameron McConville, #2 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“I had a reasonable start but then got a hit on the first lap by Skaifey, I think, in the back wheel and lost a lot of momentum. We got into a groove before I pitted around lap 20, but the car hurt the tyres too much at the end of the stint. Garth looked like he suffered from something similar and he did a really good job to get us up into fourth. When the Safety Car came out we didn’t take and we lost about five spots. In hindsight, we probably should have, so we will look at that. With our pace, fifth was probably as good as we could have hoped, so ninth is a little disappointing. We’ve got plenty to work on for the big one next month. Today’s just a warm-up for Bathurst, that’s what it’s all about.”

Garth Tander, #2 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“Today wasn’t our day; we didn’t have the speed we needed to get the result we hoped for. We battled away, Cameron did a great job and we were where we needed to be in fourth or fifth mid-race. Through the cycle of stops we lost some time, but came back. I don’t know what happened with the last stop, but we lost a lot of time, four or five spots. I pushed on hard, but the car lost its balance. Ninth was a disappointing result, not what we came here for. But we will put our heads down and work even harder between now and Bathurst. The Toll Holden Racing Team has a long history of success and is very proud. We don’t lay on our laurels and we won’t let today get us down.”

David Reynolds, #22 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“I was pretty happy with the weekend until the main race. My pace was good, a confidence builder for me. I got a good start, made a few positions, and the car was travelling ok. Then Besnard turned [Steven] Johnson around and I tried to avoid them – I thought I did – but then he drove into the side of our car, bending the steering and putting us out of the race. We lost five laps in the pits before going back out and circulated for the rest of the day.”

Will Davison, #22 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden VE Commodore Series II:

“A frustrating day in which we suffered from more bad luck than anything. David was very unlucky in his incident with [David] Besnard – he did what he does best, first he wiped out Steve Johnson then he didn’t see ... I don’t know what he did! He came across and ruined our race. It’s a shame, very unfortunate doing something like that on lap 10. From them on we just soldiered on, running around on old practice tyres to save all our tyres for Bathurst.