V8: Tander concedes title

Former champion Garth Tander has already admitted defeat in the V8 Supercar Championship title race.

The Toll Holden Racing Team driver endured another difficult weekend in Bahrain after only scoring 25 points in the Abu Dhabi season-opener seven days earlier.

While the 32-year-old drove strongly in the opening race at the Bahrain International Circuit to claim fourth place, a clash with Ford Performance Racing’s Steven Johnson in race 2 saw him post another zero points score to leave him 22nd in the overall standings, 453 points behind runaway leader Jamie Whincup.

Despite the fact that there are still 22 races remaining, Tander admitted he is now concentrating purely on race wins after his dreadful start to the new season.

“The team didn’t get the result it deserved and it’s hurt us in the championship, so we forget about that now,” Tander said.

“I’ve never won a race in Adelaide, so the focus is to go there and win both races. We’ve got two marquee events coming up in Adelaide and Hamilton so we’ll go on an event by event basis and go for the wins.”

Fellow Holden driver, Todd Kelly, has also admitted his title hopes are over after another frustrating weekend in the Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore.

Kelly finished 20th in race 1 before retiring from the weekend’s second race after an incident on the first lap.

“For me, I need to qualify better and win races and not focus on the championship too much now because that’s pretty much over and out,” he said. “We’re chipping away at it. We’ll definitely be in contention for the year.”

Watch two-hour highlights from Round 2 in Bahrain on Motors TV (Sky Channel 413, Virgin Media 545) on Sunday 7 March at 3pm (GMT).


Andy Wilkinson