Garth Tander: ”Disappointing but not the end of the world”

Garth Tander lost the lead just 100 meters from the finishing line in the final V8 Supercars race of the weekend at Phillip Island to Scott McLaughlin but says he is not too affected by it.
“Whilst it’s disappointing, it’s not the end of the world. That’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. We’ve won plenty of fuel races and lost a couple along the way as well. That’s the way it goes,” said Tander.

The Holden Racing Team driver got ahead of McLaughlin after the first pitstop and had a comfortable lead before the first and only safety car session. As the race resumed, McLaughlin got closer and closer at the same time as Tander got a radio message from the team that he was going to be tight on fuel.

”The boys told me it was going to be pretty tight on the last lap and it was just 100m the wrong side of the line. When you look back there’s always things you could have done differently but we hit all our numbers and did all we need to do and just came up short. Obviously we’ll look at everything and make sure we learn from it,” said Tander.

Tander was under hard pressure from the Volvo Polestar Racing driver during the final part of the race, but says he had it under control.

“It was pretty comfortable. I could see where Scott was stronger and knew what I had to do. I put the car in the right spot so he had dirty air when he was following me and that was it. It was pretty much under control, I just didn’t have enough fuel,” said Tander.

Tander remains in ninth position in the championship, 201 points behind team-mate James Courtney in eighth position.