Car to win, but strategy for second for Tander.

by Andy Stobart

Triple race winner in Tasmania, Garth Tander reckoned his HSV Dealer Team had the pace to repeat the feat in the Australian V8 Supercar Series at Phillip Island, but tyre strategy meant they were 'only' good enough for second in the BigPond Grand Finale.

Tander took the race lead in the first race of the three at the Australian MotoGP race destination, but was pipped to the race win by the Betta Electrical Falcon of Craig Lowndes. He took second again in the second race, this time to Pirtek Racing's Marcos Ambrose, and he then finished in fourth place in the final race of the year.

"I think we had the car to win this weekend, but I think we out-smarted ourselves a bit with tyre strategy and pit stops and whatnot yesterday and this morning," said Tander at the end of the weekend. "Then we did not have the tyre grip to capitalise on the position we had on the grid."

Coming after his Ferodo Triple Challenge win in Tasmania, Tander looked longingly at the round winner seat occupied in Phillip Island by Ambrose.

"Obviously, anything less than a win after Symmons Plains was going to be a downer," he said. "But I guess we were the form Holden team for the last couple of rounds of the championship and we look like being the form Holden team going into next year's championship. Who would have thought that, after the start we had this year, that we would end up being the team trying to win the manufacturers' championship for Holden."