» V8s Clipsal 500: Tander on pole for Race 1

Former V8 Supercars champion Garth Tander has taken pole for the opening race of this weekend’s Clipsal 500 event in Adelaide, giving him the perfect platform to launch a successful defence of the race he won last year. It the TOLL Holden Racing Team driver’s first pole position of the season and his third on the shortened version of the former Grand Prix circuit.

Tander lapped quickest ahead of his nine rivals in the day’s top-ten shootout, finishing three-tenths quicker than current championship leader Jamie Whincup in the Team Vodafone Holden.

It was an all-Holden second row, with GRM’s Lee Holdsworth qualifying third-fastest ahead of Rick Kelly in the Jack Daniels Commodore.

The honour of the fastest Ford driver when to fifth-placed Mark Winterbottom, who headed a FPR trio ahead of team-mates Shane van Gisbergen and Will Davison.

Watch the highlights from today’s qualifying session

Defending champion James Courtney finished up eighth-quickest – complaining of a lack of rear grip in his HRT Commodore, while Jason Bright and Paul Dumbrell were the slowest pair in the shootout session.

Dumbrell had actually been quickest of the entire 28-car field in the preceding 20-minute qualifying session that decides the make-up of the shootout and the grid order from eleventh place onwards, but the Bottle-O Racing Team driver made a mistake at the final corner on his single flying lap in the shootout.

The earlier qualifying session was also marred by a collision between Tander and Will Davison, which saw both cars enjoying a quick spin. Tander’s car underwent some hasty repairs in time for him to rejoin the track and take the most of his opportunities to clinch pole.

V8 Supercars Clipsal 500 Qualifying Results (Race 1):

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Garth Tander	TOLL Holden Racing Team	1:22.3830	1
2.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone	1:22:6217	1
3.	Lee Holdsworth	Fujitsu Racing GRM	1:22:6771	1
4.	Rick Kelly	Kelly Racing	1:22:7405	1
5.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel FPR	1:22:7629	1
6.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tool Racing FPR	1:22:8866	1
7.	Will Davison	Trading Post FPR	1:23:0273	1
8.	James Courtney	TOLL Holden Racing Team	1:23:3045	1
9.	Jason Bright	Team BOC	1:23:4200	1
10.	Paul Dumbrell	The Bottle-O Racing Team	1:31:9403	1
11.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone	1:22:0518	11
12.	Steven Johnson	Dick Johnson Racing	1:22:0586	9
13.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods	1:22:0686	11
14.	Jonathon Webb	Mother Energy Racing Team	1:22:0797	11
15.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 Racing	1:22:1080	11
16.	Todd Kelly	Kelly Racing	1:22:1757	11
17.	Jason Bargwanna	Team BOC	1:22:1803	10
18.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing GRM	1:22:2488	11
19.	Tony D’Alberto	Wilson Security Racing	1:22:3035	12
20.	Fabian Coulthard	Huzzah Racing	1:22:3075	10
21.	David Reynolds	Stratco Racing	1:22:3169	11
22.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto Racing	1:22:3896	11
23.	Alex Davison	Irwin Racing	1:22:3928	12
24.	Greg Murphy	Pepsi Max Crew	1:22:4038	10
25.	James Moffatt	Dick Johnson Racing	1:22:4125	12
26.	Warren Luff	Gulf Western Oil Racing	1:22:7384	11
27.	Dean Fiore	Triple F Racing	1:22:7758	12
28.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing	1:23:0861	11