Tander calls for a new facility in WA

Reigning V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander has called on the West Australian government to explore the construction of a brand-new facility as one option to save the state’s round of the series.
Tander a native Western Australian is the most successful circuit racer in the state’s history and firmly believes WA deserves its place on the V8 Supercar calendar.

“As it stands right now, this is the second-last WA race,” he said. “Not just for Barbagallo, but the second-last race in WA for the foreseeable future. Obviously that’s disappointing.

“To lift Barbagallo to a greater capacity for fans, to realign the pit lane and do what they need to do to get the garages on pit lane, it would cost a huge amount of money and it’s money the sporting car club over there doesn’t have.

“V8 Supercars wants a street race (in Perth) but that’s only going to happen if the government supports it. As it stands right now, the government isn’t prepared to support it, so it’s a very difficult predicament.”

While upgrading the sub-standard facilities at Barbagallo Raceway and a Perth street race have long been discussed, Tander said the feasibility of a new purpose-built facility deserved to be investigated.

“One option might be for the government to invest in a brand-new facility of an appropriate standard, and maybe we can keep Barbagallo as well to have two circuits over there,” he said.

“If the government isn’t prepared to spend money on a street circuit, are they prepared instead to spend that sort of money on a racing facility where suburbia’s not far away?

“That might be an option that hasn’t been looked at, perhaps we could look at extending the Barbagallo contract until that new facility is in place. There are many options that can be worked on, but it just comes down to a matter of funding.”

He pointed to the popular and well-patronised purpose-built drag-racing and speedway facility at Perth’s Kwinana Beach as an example of a successful greenfield project. “That facility has reinvigorated that side of motorsport in Western Australia, as the new drag facility in Western Sydney has helped drag racing in New South Wales,” he said.

Also at stake was the V8 Supercar series’ proud claim to being a national series that visits every Australian state. “If we drop Western Australia, that stops happening,” he said. “There’s been a lot said about how great it is that our series goes to every state, so it would be a fair backflip if we didn’t go to Western Australia.”

Tander pointed out the mining boom and its flow-on effects into the WA economy made the sport’s current reach into the state a valuable commodity. “There’s a lot of sponsorship in V8 Supercars where Western Australia is a key market and we’ve seen that before, where they have been threatening to pull out of the WA event and the sponsors have put on the heat and said ‘no, we need to keep going there’.

“We need continue to service the sponsors that service the sport and if that means continuing to go to WA, then we have to do it.”