Wheels magazineAs the V8 circus heads to Darwin this weekend, HRT's Garth Tander tells Auto Action why he's not thinking about the past.
Reigning V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander has put the disappointment of Sandown round behind him and is focussing on this weekend’s sixth round of the series in Darwin.
The Holden Racing Team star, who finished a lowly – by his standards – seventh in Melbourne last month, admitted that his and the team’s results at Sandown were below par.
“I’ve said all along that you don’t worry about what’s happened in the past, all you do is worry about what’s happening in the future,” Tander told Auto Action magazine.
“Sandown was obviously a disappointing weekend for us results wise; we were far too inconsistent all weekend so we’re just looking forward to Darwin and the challenges that that will throw our way. The climate and the track condition at Sandown is very different to the climate and track condition that we’ll experience at Darwin.”
The 31-year-old relinquished his championship lead in Melbourne and now trails Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom by 52 points. But with HRT’s history of success in the Northern Territory, Tander is confident he can get his title defence back on track.
“HRT, from what I gather has had a pretty reasonable run up there; I’ve had a reasonable run up there in the past as well but that doesn’t mean anything at the moment,” he said. “We’re going to Darwin as normal, we’ve done our thorough preparation, obviously we had a big debrief from Sandown to make sure that when we go to Sandown in the future we don’t have the same mistakes as we had in the past.”
Meanwhile the man who replaced Tander at the top of the points table has scoffed at suggestions that leading the championship will place him under added pressure in Darwin.
“It’s not pressure, it’s just a good feeling,” said Winterbottom of leading the V8 championship for the first time in his career. “I’d rather lead than chase.”
Winterbottom added that he wouldn’t change his approach to protect his points lead.
“Just run the same race,” he elaborated, “because it’s good enough to put you in the lead so you don’t change your strategy.”
Reigning V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander has put the disappointment of Sandown round behind him and is focussing on this weekend’s sixth round of the series in Darwin.
The Holden Racing Team star, who finished a lowly – by his standards – seventh in Melbourne last month, admitted that his and the team’s results at Sandown were below par.
“I’ve said all along that you don’t worry about what’s happened in the past, all you do is worry about what’s happening in the future,” Tander told Auto Action magazine.
“Sandown was obviously a disappointing weekend for us results wise; we were far too inconsistent all weekend so we’re just looking forward to Darwin and the challenges that that will throw our way. The climate and the track condition at Sandown is very different to the climate and track condition that we’ll experience at Darwin.”
The 31-year-old relinquished his championship lead in Melbourne and now trails Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom by 52 points. But with HRT’s history of success in the Northern Territory, Tander is confident he can get his title defence back on track.
“HRT, from what I gather has had a pretty reasonable run up there; I’ve had a reasonable run up there in the past as well but that doesn’t mean anything at the moment,” he said. “We’re going to Darwin as normal, we’ve done our thorough preparation, obviously we had a big debrief from Sandown to make sure that when we go to Sandown in the future we don’t have the same mistakes as we had in the past.”
Meanwhile the man who replaced Tander at the top of the points table has scoffed at suggestions that leading the championship will place him under added pressure in Darwin.
“It’s not pressure, it’s just a good feeling,” said Winterbottom of leading the V8 championship for the first time in his career. “I’d rather lead than chase.”
Winterbottom added that he wouldn’t change his approach to protect his points lead.
“Just run the same race,” he elaborated, “because it’s good enough to put you in the lead so you don’t change your strategy.”
