It was a stunning comeback by Tander from the horrors of the season’s double-header opening in the Middle East just two short weeks ago where he failed to finish two of the four races and came home to Australia a distant 22nd in points.

The 2007 V8 Supercar and reigning Bathurst Champion was always confident in himself, his Toll Holden Racing Team and his #2 Toll HRT Commodore, the speed the car showed in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain was good enough to place on the podium or even win, but the luck just did not go his or the team’s way on the OS sojourn.

In between races, there were doubters in the media and paddock wondering what happened to the reigning Teams Champions during the off-season. Some asked where the magic had gone, so Tander and the team responded in the best possible way, shouting the answer “don’t write us off” with two gritty, hard fought wins.

Tander led from the front all weekend, putting his car on the front row of the grid for both races, a self-admitted mistake giving his second Saturday, while a faultless lap in Sunday’s 20 minute free for all qualifying session earning Tander the 21st pole of his distinguished career.

Sunday’s race win was also the 46th of Tander’s career, the 32 year old fourth on the all-time Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar Championship winner’s list, behind only Mark Skaife (87), Craig Lowndes (74) and the late, great Peter Brock (48) – an indication that GT is one who can never be discounted from contention.

Will Davison finished the weekend’s two races ninth and 14th, results many observers of the series regarded to be the best touring car championship in the world would consider acceptable, but while he was thrilled for his team-mate Tander and the entire team for its wins, the Barry Sheene Medallist was a little dismayed.

Davison struggled to find a comfortable balance with his Toll HRT Commodore – not an ideal situation when you have to race around a concrete-walled street circuit.

Afterwards he admitted he was puzzled, but Davison’s eyes were filled with determination to find a resolve to his issues, looking to the non-championship Australian Grand Prix event in two weeks to make the fix before the series heads to Hamilton for the fourth round next month.

After being all but written off after just two rounds of the championship, Tander has now jumped to 11th in points, while Davison still moved forward despite his personal disappointment, hopping up from 13th to 12th and within shot of the top 10.

The season still has 11 rounds and nine months to play out, with Tander saying with he, Davison and the team targeting as many race wins and podiums as possible on a race-by-race basis, they should be able to crawl back up the points table and should have the answers to whether they will be back in contention come October and the annual Bathurst enduro.

Before then, the non-points Australian Grand Prix gives the Toll HRT a perfect opportunity to further tune itself for the remainder of the season, the ITM 400 in Hamilton, New Zealand, following a few short weeks later on 16-18 April.

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