Tander wants redemption after Sandown crash

Garth Tander is determined to score Bathurst redemption after his first race with Penrite Racing was cut short after a crash at Sandown.

Tander is chasing a sixth straight Bathurst victory in 2023, having won two of the last three Great Races with Shane van Gisbergen and Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Van Gisbergen and Tander won’t defend their win together, with the latter shifting alongside 2017 winner David Reynolds and Penrite Racing. Van Gisbergen will race with Richie Stanaway.

This year marks the 24th instance of the defending race winners not competing together at Mount Panorama to defend their victory.

For Tander, it’s a second time, having been split with his 2009 winning co-driver Will Davison for 2010 as Supercars prevented full-timers from racing together. 

Bob Jane is the only driver to win consecutive Bathurst classics with different co-drivers; he won with Harry Firth in the first Bathurst Great Race in 1963, and with George Reynolds in 1964.

For Tander, however, the ambition is to right the wrongs of three weeks ago when he crashed out of the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 after the left rear wheel parted company with the #26 Ford.

"I'm really looking forward to joining Dave," Tander said.

"Dave is a character, but certainly when he pulls the helmet on he’s very fast, and he’s very fast particularly here at Bathurst. He’s a former winner himself back in 2017. 

Tander is also keen to sink his teeth into a race proper aboard a Gen3 Supercar, given his Sandown 500 lasted no more than 20 laps.

"Every time you come to Bathurst and you drive into town for the first time, and you see the Mount Panorama sign on the side of the hill, you don’t need any extra motivation," Tander said.

"It’s certainly a nice feeling coming back as the defending champion. It’s a very special time of year, and one that we always look forward to.

"It’s a big challenge this year with the Gen3 cars for the first time at Bathurst. For those of us that have been coming here for a long time, we have to undo a lot of the muscle memory we developed over the years driving the previous cars.

"These cars will be a different challenge, which is really exciting. Soft tyre compound here for the first time at Bathurst, a lot less downforce, a lot faster down Conrod. There’ll be a lot more challenges thrown at us."

Bathurst-winning combos which were split up the following year