Shane van Gisbergen and Tander reflect on first win together after years of rivalry

The second “dream team” combination at Triple Eight Race Engineering have spoken of a profound mutual respect for each other after taking their first victory as combined drivers in today’s Supercars Championship Gold Coast 600 race.

Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander are only three races into their relationship of driving as partners rather than rivals after spending over a decade fighting on track but three podiums, including a win, have cemented the belief that this pairing is one of the strongest on the Enduro Cup grid.

Narrowly missing out on victory yesterday behind the #888 of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes after being told to stay back, the favour was repaid in Race 27 of the Supercars Championship, giving Triple Eight its second one-two of the weekend.

The last time Tander had won a Supercars race was back in 2016, driving for the Holden Racing Team (then operated by Walkinshaw Racing) at the Sandown 500. van Gisbergen finished second that day after making a late charge to the rear of Tander’s #2 car.

In the post race press conference, TouringCarTimes asked Tander how it felt to get a win with his adversary of many years and what it meant for their relationship.

“It’s fantastic,” Tander said.

“Shane and I had spoken a couple of times in the past about if the opportunity arose that I’d end up in a co-driver role to do something together.

“When it all came together, joining the team, being in Shane’s car, it’s fantastic.

“He was giving me a hard time this morning because he couldn’t remember the last time I started from pole position; I reminded him that I beat him to pole at Homebush in 2016!

“It’s fun together, a lot of banter but it’s just great to be a part of the team.”

van Gisbergen was asked how he rated Tander as a co-driver after being on his fifth in as many years, having previously driven with Jonathon Webb, Alex Premat, Matt Campbell and fellow Kiwi, Earl Bamber.

“All different reasons for the changes but certainly Earl (Bamber) was really good,” said van Gisbergen.

“I would have loved him back this year, he would’ve been better again.

“Garth has made himself a part of the team, come to so many races, all the testing and entrenched himself in it all. It’s made a huge difference.

“Especially with Bathurst being the first race this year, he was under so much pressure to get everything right, he came up from Melbourne just for one day for driver changes; everything was seamless.

“It’s all you can ask for.”

Thanks to their consistent results over the past three races, van Gisbergen and Tander now lead the Enduro Cup standings, having inherited the lead thanks to Scott McLaughlin’s qualifying crash which took the #17 of he and Alex Premat out of Sunday’s race.