Tander sails past Nissans
Holden hero Garth Tander is hoping his fourth place qualifying position will translate into a shot at victory in today's 200km mini-enduro at the Plus Fitness Phillip Island 400.
Yesterday, the Holden Racing Team Commodore VF driver qualified further back in the top 10 for the two 100km races and managed to fight his way up to fourth place finishes in both after battles with Nissan Motorsport's Michael Caruso in Race 33 and Todd Kelly in Race 34.
But this time he has qualified ahead of the Altimas, with only Red Bull's Jamie Whincup, Volvo's Scott McLaughlin and FPR's Mark Winterbottom ahead of him.
"It's like following the Manly Ferry when you are behind those Nissans, the wake is so big behind them," laughed Tander, referring to the Altima's aerodynamic set-up. "They wouldn't want to complain about their aero. Far out!
"But we are in front of them now and much closer to the front. The problem yesterday we started too far behind, having to battle through and were then chasing them down."
Tander conceded the tyre longevity advantage he displayed in yesterday's races may not carry through to this afternoon because overnight rain had washed the track clean and weather conditions will change.
"The track will be different because of the rain and the wind is stronger and is a slightly different direction, which has an influence here.
"There was also a fair bit of overcast yesterday so the UV wasn't in the track, but there's sun today, so hard to know exactly where we are at. But we are not going to drift too far away from where we were as a race car yesterday, which was obviously quite strong.
"We will have to see what the weather does and debrief regarding the changes we made overnight and what we keep and what we put back."
Tander's strong form at Phillip Island follows on from a disappointing Pirtek Enduro Cup in which he and Warren Luff managed a third at the Sandown 500 but did not even start the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 because of car damage.
If he does cross the line first today it will be Tander's second win of the year, following on from his Townsville 500 victory. Before that, his last win was at this event last year.
"Our speed has been encouraging recently without getting a result ... I don't know why I go so well here because technically it doesn't really suit my style.
"I don't use any special tricks or anything. I just enjoy it."
