Tanders Chase Historic Double – A World Apart
Oct 27, 2007
Australia’s fastest couple, Garth and Leanne Tander, will be chasing an historic motorsport championship quinella on opposite sides of the world next weekend.
While Garth is vying for the lead in the V8 Supercar Championship in Bahrain, wife Leanne will be trying to clinch the crown in Australia’s premier open-wheeler category, the Australian F3 Championship, in a three-way battle at Oran Park.
The clash of events means Garth, who doubles as Leanne’s engineer on their jointly-owned TanderSport F3 Dallara when not racing in the V8 series, will have to make do by staying in contact by phone from Bahrain where he will be engaged in his own battle to wrest the V8 championship lead from Ford rival Jamie Whincup.
Garth is scheduled to be flying back from Bahrain on the Sunday when Leanne will be taking on Tim Macrow and Charlie Hollings in the first of two races to decide the championship. He will hear the outcome when he stops over in Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon, and then hopes to hear the result of the second and last race before he lifts off again for Melbourne.
“I am a bit disappointed not to be there, because we have worked very, very hard to get Leanne in a position where she can battle for the championship, ” Garth said. “And now I am not going to be there to see how it pans out.
“But we have great guys who work with us in the Formula 3 program who are more than capable of running the car without me, and Leanne is more than capable of getting the job done.
“It is going to be a heck of a battle with three of them going at it, and it is a shame I can’t be there to see it. We will be racking up a fair phone bill with all the international phone calls that weekend.
“More than anything, I am happy with our TanderSport team’s performance this year in the Formula 3 program. It is really only our second year in, and to be battling for the championship is a true testament to the way our team has gone about it. As we expand next year, it is a good step into 2008. ”
Leanne is taking a four-point lead over Macrow into the final F3 event of the season, to be staged as part of the Shannons Nationals.
She is the first woman in Australian history to lead one of Australia’s premier racing categories, and if she wins the title, will become the first woman to win the CAMS Gold Star – the top award for open-wheeler racing in Australia. The Gold Star has been won by some of the best-known names in Australian motorsport, including Larry Perkins and John Bowe.
While disappointed Garth will not be trackside the for the F3 decider, Leanne says she will have plenty of support on hand.
“We should be OK because we ran there (Oran Park) earlier this year without Garth, ” she said. “We will have the same guys running the car and they have been running us all year, alongside Garth, so we should be OK.
“But, obviously it would be my preference to have him there. We will speak by phone, but I think that with the time difference and the fact that he is going to be on the plane between Bahrain and Hong Kong during at least one of the races, it is going to be a bit hard. ”
Garth, a last-round winner in the V8s at Surfers Paradise, is shooting for his first V8 Supercar title in a four-way battle with team-mate Rick Kelly and Triple 8’s Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes.
With three rounds to go, Garth is in second place, just nine points behind current leader Whincup and 19 points ahead of Lowndes.
Team-mate and defending champion Rick Kelly is in fourth place, 35 points behind Whincup, and the only other driver still in contention.
