Garth Tander confirmed for carsales TCR Australia

Garth Tander has drawn double duty as he lines up for his rookie run in the carsales TCR Australia Series at Phillip Island this weekend.

The Supercars legend is racing a pair of showroom-based Audis, a familiar R8 in the Australian GT Championship and a factory-fresh RS3 in the TCR triple-header.

He might be the defending champion in the GT field, alongside car owner Geoff Emery, but Tander admits everything will be new in the TCR baby.

“The car only arrived in the country this week,” Tander tells carsales.

“So I don’t have any expectation as far as a result. Still, I want to be somewhere near the front by the second half of the weekend.

“It’s all new and the series is in its infancy, but all the others at the front of the field have already had one weekend of racing, and a bit of testing, so they understand the cars more than me.”

There will be three RS3s in the field, all fronted by the Melbourne Performance Centre, but Tander is still waiting to hear the names of his team mates as the TCR field grows to an anticipated 20 cars.

“I’m not sure who will be driving the other cars.”

Tander says he is relishing his first season away from a main-game drive in Supercars, although he is lining up as one of the endurance race favourites as co-driver to Shane van Gisbergen with the Red Bull Holden Racing Team.

He has already been a podium finisher in the Toyota 86 championship against a field of youngsters and says he is looking forward to his TCR debut.

“I’m doing it because it’s a good opportunity to do something different. I’ve done 20 years of racing a Supercar, and then in the last couple of years I’ve added GT.

“Now I’m not full-time in Supercars I can do some other things. This is an extension. It’s an opportunity to test myself in a different environment.”

As Tander prepares for the TCR challenge he says he is happy to be backing up in the GT racer,.

“I’ll do a few laps this weekend. I did all the enduros with Jeff Emery last year. We didn’t have a good one at Phillip Island but we still ended up fourth and we eventually won the championship.

“It will be a bit of a challenge, going from rear-wheel drive in the R8 to front-wheel drive in the TCR car. But the beauty is they are both left-hand drive and have a paddle gearshift.”

Tander says he watched the television coverage of the Sunday racing at the TCR starter meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park, but has no real knowledge of what to expect behind the wheel.

“My antenna will be up pretty high. There will be tyre degradation at the opposite end of the car, front-wheel drive, a new car, plenty to deal with.

“But there is racing on Saturday and Sunday so I hope to be comfortable by the final race.”

The carsales TCR Australia series resumes from Phillip Island on Friday.