Tander secures Grove Porsche cameo

Penrite Racing star recruit Garth Tander has secured a pre-enduro cameo in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Championship.

Tander, who joined Penrite Racing from Red Bull Ampol Racing, will compete in Round 4 of the Carrera Cup series at the forthcoming OTR SuperSprint.

The OTR SuperSprint is Round 8 of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship. Tickets are on sale now.

The five-time Bathurst winner will race the #87 entry backed by SP Tools, with the car to be prepared by Earl Bamber Motorsport and run by Grove Racing.

The #87 is no stranger to the Tanders, with Garth’s son Sebastian — a Grove junior — racing with the number in the SP Tools Australian Karting Championship.

Tander, who is also part of the Supercars broadcast team, raced at The Bend last year in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia series.

He also made Supercars starts with Garry Rogers Motorsport in the first ever Supercars round at The Bend in 2018.

The cameo comes as Tander readies for his first enduro campaign with Penrite Racing, which has also recruited star Porsche driver Kevin Estre.

Penrite Racing has yet to allocate Tander and Estre to either David Reynolds or Matt Payne.

“It’s important for Garth to have the opportunity to get some miles prior to the enduro rounds and Carrera Cup is the perfect platform,” team co-owner Stephen Grove said.

"To have a driver of Garth Tander's experience pilot a Grove Racing 992 Porsche Cup car at Talem Bend is exciting for the whole team”.

Tander added: "I'm really excited to do a sprint round of Carrera Cup at Tailem Bend. I have raced Carrera Cup in the Pro-Am event that they used to run back in 2016.

"Obviously doing a championship sprint round is a whole other deal, and I am under no illusion that its going to be incredibly tough.

"I know how tough the championship is and how strong the drivers are within the championship, so I know it's going to be a steep learning curve, but I am really excited about that opportunity.

"Having SP Tools on the car is a great honour — I have a long-standing relationship with SP Tools and it is great to have them on the Porsche. They are great supporters of motorsport and I certainly hope to do them proud.”

"Many thanks also to Stephen and Brenton Grove. Getting racing miles prior to Sandown and Bathurst is important.

"I can't think of anything better to prepare me for those two Supercar endurance racing events than to jump into the middle of a very tough Carrera Cup championship right in the deep end.”

Tander will make his first Supercars start in a Ford at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on September 15-17.