Tander’s first pole since 2012

Garth Tander has nabbed the last pole position of the season in his final race for the  Holden Racing Team.

It’s Tander’s first P1 start since 2012, when he managed the same feat at the Sydney Olympic Park circuit, the last event before the switch to the car of the future.

The best positions were determined by the ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout, with Tander heading out third after Todd Kelly and Nick Percat.

A flawless lap meant a 1min27.1524 – a time even the 2016 championship Shane van Gisbergen could not topple, 0.0136sec behind at the end of the session. 

Excitement broke out in the HRT garage once Tander had locked it in, set to start his last race in the red Commodore this afternoon.

“It was a good lap, I didn’t know how good it was going to be,” he said.

“Cloud cover was coming and going, after my lap I wanted to get the sun back out.

“It was pretty close at the end. It’s a long time since I’ve had a pole, it’s a special one.

“We just wanted to come here and celebrate what HRT achieved over 26 years. This was pretty cool.”

Tander is yet to announce his plans for 2017 but has had a strong second half of the year, including yesterday finishing second to Jamie Whincup.

Whincup made an error in his lap, locking up at turn one making him the biggest loser of the shootout dropping from third in qualifying to 10th. Tander moved from eighth to first, the big winner.

Teammate James Courtney was third with David Reynolds fourth in the Erebus Commodore.

Slade, Scott McLaughlin, Percat and Kelly were fifth to ninth.

Click here for full results.

The final race of the 2016 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship kicks off at 3.40pm local time.