Tander feels at home in Townsville
MOTORSPORT: Garth Tander has brought up plenty of milestones in his decorated Supercars career, but there is an unwanted one he wants to discard this weekend at the Townsville 400.
At the last round in Darwin, the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver registered his 50th race without a win – his thirdlongest streak without a victory in his 20-year career.
The 2007 Supercars champion is one of only two drivers in the championship to have had 600 starts and one of four to record more than 50 wins.
The 41-year-old’s last victory came at the Sandown 500 in 2016 when he was with Warren Luff and Holden Racing Team.
Tander heads into the two Townsville races after two topseven finishes in the last round and also has form at the street circuit, winning three times in the event’s 10-year history.
“I always go pretty well there, even last year in the GRM car we were pretty strong there,” Tander said. “Maybe it just suits my driving style, the way that I drive the car.
“I like the Townsville event itself and that makes a difference. I think potentially I tend to go better on street circuits.”
Tander is 13th in the standings after one podium in Adelaide at the start of the year.
“We’ve been up and down,” he said. “We started the year really strongly in Adelaide ... but we probably didn’t get the results we wanted since then.
“We really want to in the second half of this year, certainly in the lead-up to the endurance races, build some consistency in our championship so it can be a springboard heading into Sandown and Bathurst.”
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