Fleetcare TanderSport’s Leanne Tander – the sole female driver in contention for any major Australian circuit racing championship this season – hopes to use a strong performance at Eastern Creek Raceway next weekend to silence competitors whom she believes are struggling to cope with her success.
After a combative round at Mallala raceway in South Australia last weekend Leanne is now hoping that further success at one of her strongest circuits will put her in a prime position to win this years championship as the season moves to it’s second half.
Tander heads to Eastern Creek next weekend with one win, four podium finishes and 94 championship points to her credit this season and with the sole aim of taking the lead of the series at the 3.9km Sydney track.
”I feel that I’ve proved in the first four rounds of the year that I’m not here to make up the numbers. ” Leanne said today, in response to recent comments made by other competitors, regarding her driving.
“I’ve said from the start of the year that I believe that the Fleetcare TanderSport team and I would be contenders and at the half-way point in the championship we’re only six points from the championship lead.
”We have made up a huge deficit since the start of the season and I think that some of my competitors aren’t coping with it very well.
“What they perhaps don’t realize is that I’ve been in this situation before throughout my career and it only spurs me on to push harder to win when we next go racing. ” She said.
Eastern Creek held the opening round of the 2007 championship at the A1GP Word Cup of Motorsport event, a round where Leanne had a rough start to the season after altercations in both races left her to come through the field to salvage championship points in both races.
As a sign of her strength this season, Leanne left Eastern Creek in February trailing the championship leader by 16 points – a massive margin in this year’s ultra competitive championship. This weekend she returns to the circuit trailing by just six points – with 44 up for grabs this weekend alone.
”We’re heading into the serious end of the championship now so I’m going there to win races, ” Tander said.
”I was fast when we raced there earlier this year, but because I was hit off in both races I didn’t get the results I know I was capable of.
“It’s time to put ourselves in front of the standings and I think that Eastern Creek is the place to do it. ”
Round five of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold Star will be held between July 13 – 15 at Eastern Creek, in Western Sydney.
Sunday’s first of two races will be Fleetcare TanderSport’s 25th Formula 3 race since it’s inception in late 2005.
| 
|