Disappointing results in the Middle East had thrown the team a curveball and Tander, team-mate Will Davison and the team returned home far down the points table than anyone would have ever envisaged they would be.

But the old saying is that “a champion team will always beat a team of champions” and Tander and the Toll HRT responded accordingly in Adelaide, dominating in fine style and winning both races to claim a resounding victory.

Last weekend’s Qantas Australian Grand Prix event in Melbourne presented a different scenario as without any championship points on offer there was a temptation to use the event solely to test rather than race to win.

But winning races in front of 300,000 people is a valuable commodity and Tander and the Toll HRT did not let the opportunity to impress slip by, first winning the pole in Friday’s Top 10 Shootout, then, after a gearbox issue kept Tander off the top step of the podium in Race 1, winning Saturday and Sunday’s main races – the combined points total handing Tander his second Grand Prix V8 event win in the past two years.

“It was important for the team to keep the momentum going, to continue our good form from Adelaide,” Tander said afterwards.

“The Grand Prix has allowed us to try different things on our car that we perhaps normally wouldn’t, but we’ve also had good speed all year, so we’ve been able to develop the Toll HRT Commodores and keep our run going.

“We’ve got Hamilton next month and we’re hoping to continue the momentum we’ve got, we had a really good run there in 2008 and we’d like to repeat that again.”

For team-mate Will Davison, the situation heading into the AGP was quite the opposite, and the V8 Supercars’ reigning ‘best and fairest’ driver wanted a complete turnaround to the difficult start to the season.

Initially, the difficult times looked as though they would continue with Davison qualifying 15th, but he dug deep and, working in conjunction with his engineers, continually improved the #22 Toll HRT Commodore and moved forward – finishing tenth in Race 1, sixth in Race 2 and reaching the podium in the final 13 lap race around the Albert Park circuit.

For Davison, his efforts and the results have given him a huge boost of confidence before the next round of the championship.

“I think we can take a lot more confidence to Hamilton than what we [arrived at the GP with] because it’s been a tough start to the season and, hopefully, this is a turning point,” he said.

“Last week we took a new approach and we’ve stayed positive throughout.

“We tried a lot of things this weekend and our results were good, we moved forward each race and I had a lot of fun at the same time.

“The main thing was we got on top of the #2 Toll HRT and we’re optimistic about the year ahead, and that’s a positive.”

The next round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series is the ITM 400 in Hamilton, New Zealand on 16-18 April.

This will be the third time the V8s have run on the tight, dynamic NZ road course, with Tander winning the inaugural event in 2008.

Tander wins Australian Grand Prix V8 Supercar Challenge Garth Tander has taken out the BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge for the Toll Hold...

Garth Tander wins AGP race 2, Davison continues to move forward, finishes sixth Garth Tander and the Toll Holden Racing Team have won Race 2 for the BRC IMPCO V...

Toll HRT's Tander wins AGP Top 10 Shootout, Finishes race 1 second A gearbox issue has cost the Toll Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander victory in t...