Holden Racing Team

2014 Tyrepower Tasmania 400 – Preview

The Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander will join V8 Supercars royalty at this weekend’s Tasmania 400 at Symmons Plains – by equalling the late, great Peter Brock on 212 event starts.

The 36-year-old has now also had more event starts with the iconic Australian brand than any other driver in ATCC/V8 Supercars history.

Tander, who made his debut at Phillip Island with GRM in 1998, is now in his 17th season – his seventh with the Holden Racing Team, after a three-year stint with the HSV Dealer Team.

“It’s hard to compare those statistics, because we race much more often than the guys in Peter Brock’s era,” Tander said.

“We’re now racing 14 times a year, compared with guys of that era who had just six or seven championship races each season.

“We, naturally, reach these milestones much quicker.”

However, Tander, who is fourth on the all-time race wins with 52 victories, was quick to praise Brock – who remains a legend of the sport with three championships (1974, 1978, 1980) and 48 wins.

“Peter, as a driver, person, and identity was the biggest we ever had in Australia – and nothing has changed that,” Tander said.

“He’s now transcended motorsport – he wasn’t just a sporting icon, he’s an Australian icon. I don’t think that I compare to him at all. It’s just that we’ve done the same amount of events.”

Milestones aside, HRT heads to Symmons Plains Raceway next week – with both drivers expecting some of the toughest racing of the season.

The Tasmania 400 is traditionally one of the sport’s most competitive weekends – with an average of just 0.77 seconds covering the top-25 cars in qualifying last year.

“Tasmania is a really tight weekend, and the grid is normally very close there,” Courtney said.

“If you’re down half a tenth of a second there it could mean dropping quite a few grid positions, which means you can get caught up in carnage.

“To make sure we get out of the mayhem, we have got to make sure that we get everything out of qualifying and come away with top results.”

The 2014 Tyrepower Tasmania 400 will follow the SuperSprint format, with two 10-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday ahead of that afternoon’s two 100km races. Sunday sees a final 20-minute qualifying session in the morning, before a 200km feature race in the afternoon.

Tasmania will also see revisions introduced to the Safety Car restart procedure with an 80km/h speed limit when the cars form up, no overtaking before the start/finish line, a lengthened Acceleration Zone (AZ) and the lead driver controlling the start.

Tander applauded V8 Supercars for listening to feedback from the drivers.

“They’ve acknowledged the regulations need a bit of a tweak,” Tander said.

“We, as drivers, understand that there needs to be an element of entertainment and suspense as we’re coming up to the restart, but the way it was working in Adelaide was hard to manage and hard to police.

“The changes they’ve made will certainly make it easier for the drivers to comply with the rules and make it easier to police so that everyone gets a much more fair restart after the Safety Car.”

The first of three practice sessions at the 2014 Tyrepower Tasmania 400 gets underway at 10.10am AEDT on Friday March 28.

Channel 7’s coverage of the 2014 Tyrepower Tasmania 400 begins on Saturday March 29.

Check your local guides for exact timings.