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Tander focuses on his own pace

01 May 2014
Holden ace will worry about his rivals once his HRT Commodore is sorted.
4 mins by James Pavey
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Holden hardman Garth Tander says he will pay little attention to the performances of his teammates or rivals until he is confident his factory Commodore V8 Supercar is up to full speed.

And he predicts that could be a while away yet.

Tander is in his seventh season at the Holden Racing Team and enduring its fourth rebuild in that period, this time under Englishman Adrian Burgess, who joined Walkinshaw Racing from Triple Eight Race Engineering this year.

The West Australian, who heads for his home Championship event in Perth next time out,  is 14th in the V8 Supercars Championship and third out of four Walkinshaw drivers; his HRT team-mate James Courtney is fourth, new Supercheap Auto driver Tim Slade is 12th, while rookie Nick Percat is 22nd in the HHA Commodore. 

Tander has endured some significant setbacks this year, such as his power steering failures in Tasmania and a weekend at the Winton 400 where he and engineers Blake Smith and Jason Bush just could not find the right balance on a circuit made more challenging by freshly laid sealant.

At last weekend’s ITM 500 Auckland Tander’s pace improved, with a fifth place grid position and finish in Race 12 his best result.

But in a season where Courtney has already won at the Clipsal 500 and claimed at least one podium at every Championship event, the 2007 V8 Supercars Champion has yet to finish a race in the top three.

“All you can do is try and get the most out of the package you have got, so therefore measuring yourself against the opposition and even against your teammates on various weekends is almost pointless until you feel like you have a car that had as much potential as your opposition,” Tander told v8supercars.com.au.

“So it is hard to measure against those guys, so you just have to make sure you get the most out of your package each weekend until you feel it is one of the better ones in pitlane.

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“We certainly don’t feel that is the case right now.”

However, Tander is confident the car is getting closer to the mark, especially in race trim. The problem is, strong qualifying is absolutely crucial to gaining a quality result. The 200km Race 13 in NZ was a good indicator of the issue. A poor 22nd on the grid was rectified by a strong drive and good strategy to 12th – passing Courtney in the process. 

“In qualifying we haven’t been able to get the balance how we want it,” Tander confirmed. “We get it right for the race but then we are starting too far behind. It’s something we are focussed on at the moment but there is so much we are focussed on at the moment it’s hard to get it all right all the time. 

“We had some issues at Winton which we had again in New Zealand,” Tander added. “So I think we have identified a bit of a deficiency particularly in my car and I think if we improve that, it is going to improve it everywhere.”

Tander admits that he is frustrated by his difficult start to the season, but says that the only sensible course is to look forward to the car upgrades that are coming through the system as Burgess’ new-look engineering team designs a series of fundamental changes to the Walkinshaw Racing Commodores.

“I am enjoying seeing what is coming for the car,” he said. “It’s a bit frustrating we do not have all the stuff we want on the car right now … but the big stuff is long lead time that will take a while.

“You have got to have a lot of belief in the company that we have the right people in the right places ands we are going down the right path and process.

“There is a big road map in front of us and we understand what has got to happen and there is a general timeframe about when it is going to happen. So you just have to have faith that it is going to play out.”

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