Championship leader Garth Tander has produced the quickest time in practice for the Midas 400 at Sandown International Raceway in Melbourne today.
Tander saved his best til last in the rain interrupted sessions, producing a near record practice time of 1m 10.4532s in his Toll Holden Racing Team VE Commodore to bump Ford’s James Courtney by 0.01s.
Earlier in the day, Tander was involved in an incident with Ford rookie Michael Patrizi that ripped a wheel from his Toll HRT Commodore, the team spending much of the first practice session making repairs and restricting the #1 car to just one lap in the first 30 minutes.
Team-mate Mark Skaife, making his first appearance at Sandown in a VE after missing last year’s Sandown 500 due to an emergency appendicitis operation two days prior, was seventh quickest in the #2 Toll HRT Commodore – the event also marking Skaife’s 205th championship start, equalling lifelong friend Glenn Seton in third on the all-time most starts list.
Five Holdens and five Falcons split the top 10.
The Midas 400 continues tomorrow with qualifying scheduled to begin at 9.55am followed by 39-lap Race 1 at 12.50pm.
Garth Tander, #1 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE:
“Someone said through the week I don’t go too well here, so we’re doing ok if that’s the case. To be honest, my Toll HRT Commodore wasn’t quite where it needed to be, but we’ve got to be careful we don’t engineer it back through the pack. We need to make it flow a little better like Mark, improve turn in stability, but be mindful that we’ve got a good car. We did a fair bit of damage in the incident with Patrizi; it looked like he left me room to go through, but then he must have decided he didn’t want me to pass. There was contact and it tore a wheel off and did a fair bit of damage. ”
Mark Skaife, #2 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE:
“I haven’t been here before in a VE Commodore, so it was an interesting day. My Toll Commodore was very good from when we rolled it out of the transporter and we concentrated hard on making it a good race car. It flowed nicely, but doing the work we did probably cost us on the new tyres. I made a little mistake on the new tyres onto the back straight which cost two tenths. We’ll make some changes tonight, make it flow better again, get the mid corner speed up.
2008 V8 Supercar Series, Rd 5 – Midas 400, Sandown (Practice)
1. Garth Tander, Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE, 1:10.4532
2. James Courtney, Jeld-Wen Ford Falcon BF, 1:10.4647
3. Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Ford Falcon BF, 1:10.4696
4. Jamie Whincup, Team Vodafone Ford Falcon BF, 1:10.4897
5. Will Davison, Jim Beam Racing Ford Falcon BF, 1:10.6628
6. Rick Kelly, HSV Dealer Team Holden Commodore VE, 1:10.6645
7. Mark Skaife, Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE, 1:10.6764
8. Lee Holdsworth, Valvoline Cummins Holden Commodore VE, 1:10.6877
9. Paul Dumbrell, Autobarn Racing Holden Commodore VE, 1:10.8410
10. Fabian Coulthard, Glenford Tools Ford Falcon BF, 1:10.8421
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