Tander still confident of fourth Bathurst win

The Holden Racing Team remained at Bathurst's Mt Panorama until 5am this morning to rebuild Garth Tander's #2 HRT Commodore in time for today's all-important final practice and qualifying sessions.

Tander, a three-time Bathurst winner, made contact with the barriers at the entry to The Dipper in the closing stages of yesterday's third practice.

The 2007 V8 Supercars champion shouldered the blame for the accident, but stayed upbeat about his chances for Sunday's Great Race.

"I just clipped the inside-wall on the right-hander before the Dipper and it fired me straight into the outside-wall, and hit my left-front pretty hard," Tander said.

"It was my mistake, and not at a high-risk part of the track either. I made a car positioning error and paid a big price.

"I'm a bit frustrated, because it meant a lot of work for the boys. But, we had good car speed yesterday, and that's a great omen for the Great Race."

HRT managing director Adrian Burgess, a Bathurst veteran, said the repair list overnight was substantial - but would not affect the rest of the weekend.

"It was a big night, and there was obviously a lot of work to do," Burgess said.

"The boys have done a cracking job, and our Commodore should be right to go with no side effects.

"We had to replace a couple of bars in the front, and repair three corners, along with the sub-frame, uprights, steering column and racks.

"However, morale was great all night, and Garth was in the garage giving the boys a hand. We got it all done, and are a bit tired but that's how it goes."

Burgess also said that the crash was nothing out of the ordinary for the revered Mount Panorama circuit.

"It's just one of those things," he said.

"Garth just took a little bit too much too early on in the weekend, and paid the price for it. It's far better for that to happen on Thursday than Sunday."

Friday's fourth practice session for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 begins at 9.30am AEST, for co-drivers only, with final practice at 1.10pmbefore ARMOR ALL Qualifying at 3pm.