Townsville 1-2 repeat

They locked out the front row of the grid in the earlier race, but this time around they took the chequered flag at the Castrol Townsville 500 - Driven by TAFE Queensland.

In a finish reminiscent to Sunday at the same Townsville event last year, Holden Racing Team finished 1-2, with Garth Tander leading James Courtney home by 2.3 seconds.

It's Tander's first win since Phillip Island last year and the result makes him the first man outside the top 10 to win a race at the North Queensland street circuit.

Starting from 11th on the grid, car #2 took a late pitstop and Tander ofund himself mixing the earlier leaders.

Fabian Coulthard had the jump off the startline from ARMOR ALL Pole Position - and front-row Walkinshaw Racing stablemate Nick Percat ran with him until a slow pit stop buried him in the pack.

And while he reassumed the effective lead, a small mistake allowed both Tander and Courtney to sail through and lead for the remainder of the 125km race.

A safety car for debris threatened Tander's lead, but it was a clean run to the end for the HRT Commodores.

"The car was awesome, really, really good," Tander said.

"I got a good start... they just kept pitting in front of me, giving me clean air and it kept getting faster."

Courtney joked that once again, the order needed to be reversed with his teammate the first of the 1-2 at Townsville.

"It keeps being the wrong way around for me!" Courtney said.

"Awesome result for the team. We both should've been on for an awesome result for the first one, but it's even better to fight back and come through. Pumped!"

Coulthard suffered plenty of panel damage in the wild first race, so just to be racing competitively was positive for him.

"The boys did a fantastic job getting the car back out there after the damage we had, we'll take a podium any day after the day we had," Coulthard said.

With Shane van Gisbergen and fourth, Chaz Mostert prevented a train of Holdens, keeping the repaired #888 of Craig Lowndes and defending Champion Jamie Whincup behind him.

Pepsi Max teammate Mark Winterbottom was at the back of that battle pack in eighth, with Percat recovering for ninth in his HHA Commodore and Russell Ingall completing the top 10.

Others to note include Volvo's Scott McLaughlin, who was pinged for pit lane speeding during the race; Erebus' Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison 14 and 15 after Davison also received a penalty for unsafe release causing contact with Michael Caruso in pitlane; Jason Bright in 17 after a suspected broken anti-rollbar; and James Moffat the first Nissan in 18.

Click here for full results.

Winterbottom continues to lead the Championship with a 144-point lead over Whincup. Lowndes is 191 away from the leader.

After losing fifth in the points after the first race of the day, Courtney has surpassed van Gisbergen.

Click here for full Championship points.

There will be one final 250km race around the Townsville circuit tomorrow, with qualifying and an ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout to determine the grid.