Toll HSV Dealer Team’s Garth Tander was the quickest of the four championship contenders in Friday practice for the V8 Supercar title decider at Phillip Island.
The West Australian laid down a best lap of 1 min. 34.16 sec. on old tyres to trump his rivals on the first day of the Grand Finale – the 14th and final round of the 2007 series.
Tander set the second fastest lap time of the day, two-tenths of a second behind Ford’s Mark Winterbottom (1:33.61), who is not in contention for the crown.
But Tander was almost three-tenths faster than rival Craig Lowndes, who was sixth on the time sheets with a best lap of 1:34.47.
Tander’s team-mate, defending champion Rick Kelly, was eighth on 1:34.61 after getting caught in traffic on his hot lap just before the checkered flag came out to end the session.
The fourth contender for the title, current leader Jamie Whincup, could only manage the ninth quickest lap, 1:34.63 – half a second slower than Tander’s hot lap.
Tander, who was also second quickest in the corresponding practice session last year, was pleased with his #16 Commodore, saying it was quick straight out of the truck.
He said the team spent the session mainly making adjustments for the changing conditions in the two-hour practice, which was held in brilliant sunshine.
Tander, who goes into the round just seven points behind Whincup, opened up proceedings by peeling off a series of fastest laps on his older set of used tyres.
He said that after bolting on his better set of tyres, he had a small “off” that cost him time.
He was confident that a set of new tyres and a clean lap would improve his times for Saturday’s three-part qualifying session in the battle for pole position and a sideshow for the award for the most pole positions of the year.
Kelly said his car was better than its lap time indicated. He said that when he tried for a fast time right at the end of the session, he first had to deal with heavy traffic and then ran out of time for a second try.
The reigning champ, who has to make up a 48-point deficit to retain his title, has started better than he did last year, when he was 13th fastest after the first session.
#16 Garth Tander (2nd fastest, 1:34.16): “The car was really good when I rolled it out. We didn’t really change too much throughout the session, just fine-tuned it the conditions. I don’t think the track was that flash at the start of the session, and it really looked like it was rubbering in as the session went on, so it will be interesting to see what the track is like tomorrow. Our car was really good throughout the session. I made a mistake on my flyer on my better set of tyres, which probably cost me a bit of time. But I am very happy with the car and the set up, and we should be able to extract a bit more time out of it tomorrow. The first goal is to get eight more points than Jamie does, and the second goal is to make sure we get more points than Craig. We want to qualify well, and traditionally we have done that here, and if we can do that and have a strong first race, we will see what happens after that.”
#1 Rick Kelly (8th fastest, 1:34.63): “Here at Phillip Island the track goes a little greasy in the middle of the day, which is the bulk of the practice session. I think our car is in a good spot. We struggled a little bit with traffic and timing, so I think we are looking all right.”
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