Tander takes bite out of Whincup 

Source: PhotosportHolden's Garth Tander

Holden Racing Team duo Garth Tander and Will Davison chipped a little further into Jamie Whincup's championship lead with a 1-2 finish in the V8 Supercar race at Sandown on Sunday.

Tander won race 14 of the series, helped by a perfectly-timed pit stop just before a safety car period.

It allowed the Holden driver new tyres, enough fuel to finish the race and track position while his rivals were scrambling to enter the pits en masse.

Tander's teammate Davison backed up his race win on Saturday with second place, with Team Vodafone's Whincup third in his Ford.

At the midway point of this season's championship, Whincup's overall lead has been cut to 117 points, with Davison second and Tander third.

Tander was able to get off to a flying start from sixth place on the grid in the 65-lap race, using the new soft compound sprint tyre to good effect.

He kept his tyres on until lap 29, when he made the pit stop which ultimately won him the race.

The two weekend wins for HRT capped off a big week for the team, which found out on Friday that Holden will continue its financial backing of HRT until at least 2012.

And it also allowed HRT bragging rights over arch-rival Team Vodafone, which announced last week it was defecting from Ford to Holden to pit the two leading teams in the sport head-to-head in Commodores from 2010.

The next two races in the series will be held at Queensland Raceway from August 21 to 23.