INTERVIEW: GARTH TANDER – A YEAR OF CHANGE
Garth Tander – A year of change – Photo: LAT
Garth Tander’s move from the Holden Racing Team to Garry Rogers Motorsport was a big shift – but he is feeling right at home back where his Supercars career started
Garth Tander returned to Garry Rogers Motorsport for the 2017 Supercars season – Photo: LAT
AA: You are almost a year into this new adventure with GRM. How is it travelling?
GT: On the whole I think that it is gravelling pretty well.
Certainly the results at Bathurst and the Gold Coast were not spectacular, but at Bathurst we were second until I made my mistake, and put it off the road behind Shane van Gisbergen. We were in the top 10 pretty much all weekend.
At the Gold Coast, we missed it. We just didn’t get the car right.
But if you look back, generally, at the year, it going alright. If someone had said to me at the start of the year, ‘Would you be happy to be in the top 10 in points, all year?’ that would be a yes. And I am only 40 points off seventh. I would take that; 100 percent, you would take that.
AA: There is a danger for people like me to compare Bathurst this year with Bathursts from other years. But if I am going to be dumb enough to do that you were in contention to win, both last year and this year, late in the race. So far as those races were concerned you are about where you were a year ago. Fair comment?
GT: [Laughs] I think that is a very simplistic way of looking at it.
AA: It is.
GT: Those two races could not possible be more different. In terms of the lead-up to the event and how we got into contention, they were very different days.
If you speak to any of the main players, they would all have a story of woe. Last year, I thin that there were only three of us with a story of woe in that last stage of the race!
All year I have quoted Dick Johnson; ‘The only thing you get from looking backwards is a sore neck’. Realistically I only look at what is in front of me.
AA: But you have learned a lot over the journey. And it’s actually a favourable comparison to make, is it not, that GRM was in contention to win Bathurst, and you were also, a constant?
GT: It takes a team effort to get into that situation.
Look at this year. James Golding – ‘Beebs’ – did an awesome job in the wet. He kept us in contention. The guys did an awesome job with the strategy. The car was very fast in the very few dry laps that we did. It was 100 percent a team effort. I have been fortunate to have been able to challenge for a win – or unfortunate, it depends how you loo at it! – in the race in the last two years.
Garth Tander and James Golding teamed up for the enduros – Photo: LAT
AA: That is about as much as anyone can ask for at Bathurst…
GT: Yes, and I am seriously dark with myself for slipping off the road at that restart. That is what caused all the rest of the chaos from there on. We were out of position and then we got hit from behind. I came out of the first corner, we had damage and it was over and out from there.
At that restart, we were in front of Reynolds, we were in front of Pye, and genuinely, my mindset was, ‘I am just going to follow Shane around here, he is good at this sort of stuff!’ It was half-wet, half-dry and I was a bit too literal and I followed him up the escape road!
AA: Where were you on the scale of one to 10, where one was a fully-dry car setup and 10 was a fully-wet setup?
GT: We were 100 percent ‘dry’.
AA: That would have been an asset at the end of the race…
GT: If, but, maybe. Look at last year; I know now that the Volvo was not going to make it on fuel. We know that Jamie was very marginal on fuel, and we were very strong on fuel. But you never know what is going to happen in the new few laps…
AA: I can recall talking to you years ago about the ‘mentor’ role you were taking at HRT when Nick Percat arrived to be your co-driver. What similarities can you draw between that era and that team and what you are going through at the moment with Golding?
GT: It is similar.
In all honestly, Walkinshaw Racing, HRT, had no structure to enable that sort of thing – none at all. So that was actually tasked upon me to do it. That meant that I had to upskill myself away from the race team, and to learn effective mentoring skills. I had to use that as best I could, to help Nick in that situation.
At that stage Nick was a rookie. He had not done much racing and I had to work, to guide him.
But at GRM it is different. Look at what Garry has done over the years of his Supercar team ownership career – and look at the names that have been through there. He does the mentoring; not so much of it is tasked to me.
So with ‘Beebs’, we talk about a lot of situations; ‘If this comes up, do this’, or ‘think about it this way’. A lot of that went on before Sandown; he did not need to be thinking about the first-lap crash last year, even though a lot of people were talking about it. Before the race, I just said, ‘Forget about it’. As much as he could do, accept it, you can’t change it. He was a part of it but it was not totally his fault. People didn’t know the full story and we simply went to Sandown to do the best job we can.
AA: I am glad that the conversation went in that direction, regarding Nick and Golding. Has James surprised you?
GT: Not really – not based on what we saw with his Wildcard races.
His qualifying was very good. His ability to learn how to manage the tyres all the way through the races was very good. His racecraft was probably not as awesome as it could have been through those races.
You go into the enduros and it is very different. Racecraft comes just from doing races. That will come.
I have known of James since he was doing Formula Ford. He raced against Leanne when she was first coming back from having Sebastian. There was a race at Eastern Creek and he was there, just him and a mechanic. He blew everyone away that weekend and from that point on, we kept an eye on him, for sure. So it has been cool to get together and to work together.
AA: Looking at the team, how much has it evolved during the year?
GT: It’s hard for me to say, I can only see what has been happening from 1 January to now.
In the timeframe, what has been achieved has been amazing. Look at the field at the start of the year, to be at Adelaide and to make the Shootout on Sunday, seriously, that is amazing. Speaking to Crusty, he reckons that is the coolest thing that he has been a part of. And he has been in the category for a long time and had a lot of success with a lot of different people.
To hear something like that from him is great for the team – and we have gone on from that. To be inside the top 10 for the whole championship year, to this point, is a good effort.
This car is a lot different to what the Volvo was. I have learned through the year, and we have had to adapt to that. We have run against teams that have been running their cars for a long time, and in some instances they have had the same car-and-driver packages for the last three, four, five years. I think that you are up against a bit with that, and we have done a pretty admirable job.
AA: Is this a good era to be going through this? If I draw a parallel between GRM and Erebus – and it is not that difficult to do that because they are two Walkinshaw customer teams – it seems that both teams are marching ahead at a great rate – possible even ahead of WR itself. And both teams have changed brands of cars, and that is supposed to be one of the biggest challenges in the sport.
GT: There is not doubt that both teams are ahead of the Walkinshaw cars – but we are only Walkinshaw customers on the engine side, and I think that is the same with Erebus. That is where the comparison ends; you look at your straightline splits compared to them, and that’s it.
We know they have the same powerplant; same power and torque, same economy. Then you get to the next corner and you are on your own!
The Erebus package is different to what our’s is, and that is different to what Walkinshaw’s is. I think all three of us run different damper packages, different engineering philosophies. And I don’t know what is under a Walkinshaw car; it would be very different to what it was last year. There is no point drawing comparisons, really, other than the time sheets and the points totals. And that makes for pretty good reading.
Garth Tander behind the wheel of his GRM Commodore – Photo: LAT
AA: GT racing is something that you have talked about, is that something that still interests you or are you focusing on one thing at a time?
GT: I am still very much interested in it.
But it is getting more difficult all the time. With LMP1 shutting down, you look at all those drivers coming out of that program and they all seem to be driving GT3 cars now. It is a bit hard to ring Audi and ask them to consider putting you in one of their cars, when they have all their LMP1 driver roster sitting around, not doing much. It is now very much a regional thing and I think that the GT races, like the one at Phillip Island, I can step in and be with those guys when there are no Audi factory drivers available. I will be doing the Bathurst 12 Hour next year, and it would be good to do some other things as well.
If it works out, it works out. I would love to go and do Spa, I would love to do some of the other big races. But the reality is, it is very difficult because of what is happening in international motorsport.
AA: Plus you have a full-time gig here.
GT: And Garry and Barry are far more flexible with me doing other things, if I want to. But realistically, I am not going to do it for the sake of doing it, I want to do it if I can win races, or be in the best position to do that. That is why I would be a bit more selective with what we are doing in.
AA: One the other side of the garage James Moffat hasn’t had a great year. Has that been difficult for you and the team, particularly now that it is known that he is moving on at the end of the season?
GT: I know what that feels like from 12 months ago – and it is not fun.
He is certainly trying his hardest to do as well as he can and that has possibly tripped him up over the last couple of races. I have learned a lot from Moff this year; his speed is very, very strong. Look at this performance at Darwin; he absolutely pantsed me. There was nothing I could do about it; I couldn’t match what he was doing.
That was frustrating in one regard, but I learnt a lot from that. I certainly hope that he can put something together for next year.
AA: You have had the odd spin in an open-wheeler or two recently.
GT: I have. That came about with the Wilson and Payce connection, obviously, they are heavily involved with that project.
The first time I drove the car was at Phillip Island was to do some filming and to do an assessment on the car. Then the parties merged, the Super5000 and the Formula Thunder 5000, and they wanted me to drive the other car. They wanted a comparison and to get some ideas about the specification of the car going forwards. I have done that, Leanne has done that – she has probably done more driving of the cars than I have!
It has been interesting, and cool. It was good to get back into an open-wheeler and do something I have not done for a while. It was nice to have to clean the bugs off the visor again!
AA: You have long voiced an opinion about having your own racing team, and watching Leanne drive these cars around… once the landscape settles with the open-wheelers, any interest there?
GT: I am not sure. I am going to be more busy with the GRM stuff going forward so I wouldn’t think I would have time to be involved in open-wheeler ownership.
I am involved with Brett Lupton and Fastlane Racing, in Formula Ford, we are slowly building that up again.
There is some interest in having Leanne in one of those ‘Formula 5000s’, for lack of a better name right now, if that category formulates. We will see where that went first.
AA: How is the ambition side of things? When I speak to you the fire seems about the same as it was 15 years ago.
GT: It’s 100 percent. I am really enjoying this year, the challenge of this year.
Integrating into a new team, a new environment is not something that I have done for 13 years. I have enjoyed that, but that is completed now.
I am enjoying trying to get the most out of the car. We are certainly not as well resources as some of the other teams in the pitlane. To get the most out of what we have is a challenge that I am really enjoying. There is no doubt that I want to be winning races and standing on the podium, all the things that we all want to do. No change there at all.
Garth Tander with Garry Rogers – Photo: LAT
AA: You are in a unique position to make this comment. Is Garry Rogers crazier that he was 20 years ago?
GT: No he is not – he is less! But about 90 percent of the same traits are still there!
Walking into the office for the first five or 10 times at the start of the year, it was like walking back in time. It was so comfortable; it was like we had just picked up where we left off. That has been really cool, to be able to work together again, to see how he operates.
AA: How many more years GT? You are 40 now…
GT: I don’t know. As long as Garry keeps telling me to order another suit!
AA: Doesn’t he buy your suits?
GT: I have to organise it all and we have a deal!
At the moment the driving deal is this year and next, but we have a much longer agreement than that. We will probably start reviewing… I am not sure, we have not talked about it. We will sit down at some stage in the next couple of months and have a talk about beyond next year and what we want to do.
By PHIL BRANAGAN
Article originally published in Issue 1722 of Auto Action.
After our latest interviews? Pick up the current issue Auto Action magazine, on sale now. In the mean time follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or sign up for our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.
