2008 Hamilton 400

Race 1 was held on Saturday 19 April. Garth Tander took his fourth consecutive win after clean-sheeting at Albert Park. The race wasn't without incident though as Mark Winterbottom and Shane van Gisbergen collided with each other off the start line while Greg Murphy was spun around by Mark Skaife at the exit of turn 1.

The chaos continued into turn 2 when Van Gisbergen locked up while Russell Ingall went down the inside of a Steven Johnson car which caused a collision collecting Paul Morris, Shane Price, Michael Patrizi, Steven Johnson and Craig Lowndes. Johnson, Price and Ingall retired to the pits. Steven Richards had managed to run wide at turn 5 which gave the lead to Tander and gave Rick Kelly second place. The Safety Car was deployed until the end of lap 5. The Safety Car was back on track at the end of that lap though thanks to an incident for Patrizi at turn 7. Most people pulled into the pits except for a few people like Mark Skaife. This decision, forced by HRT's decision to pit Tander first, would cost Skaife dearly later in the race. The Safety Car pulled in on lap 11 and racing resumed.

Jason Richards and Lowndes were both given drive through penalties for pitlane infringements after Murphy pulled into pitlane with a broken steering plate. Murphy returned to the track 2 laps later to the delight of the crowd and Paul Morris had also returned to the track.

Skaife pitted on lap 20 and fell well down the order while Caruso spun his GRM Holden Commodore. Craig Lowndes entered pitlane on lap 26 for a flat tyre when he clipped the tyre bundle at turn 4. Andrew Jones pulled into the garage to retire at lap 30. Van Gisbergen also pitted on lap 33 for some damage and was subsequently lapped. In the end Tander won from Rick Kelly and Steven Richards.

Race 2 was held on Sunday 20 April. A fifth consecutive victory for Garth Tander in Race 2.

Race 3 was held on Sunday 20 April. Six on the trott wrapped up the round victory for Garth Tander.

After round 3 of 14

Pos	No	Name	Team	Points
1	15	Rick Kelly	HSV Dealer Team	672
2	1	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team	626
3	33	Lee Holdsworth	Garry Rogers Motorsport	580
4	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Performance Racing	572
5	88	Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering	540

The 2008 Hamilton 400 had four support categories.

Category	Round winner
New Zealand V8s	John McIntyre (Ford BA Falcon)
Toyota Racing Series	Earl Bamber (Tatuus TT104ZZ Toyota)
Porsche GT3 Cup	Craig Baird (Porsche 997 GT3)
Mini Challenge	Courtney Letica (Mini Cooper)

• Official timing and results