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GARTH Tander’s extraordinary run as a one-make driver did not enter into his calculations when weighing up a shock switch at Ford’s Grove Racing for 2023.
All 642 of Tander’s Supercars Championship starts to date have come in Holden machinery – not to mention a further 68 non-championship races all with the Lion.
But that streak will end at the Sandown 500 next September, when he will join David Reynolds or Matt Payne in a Gen3 Mustang.
“There was a lot of chat about that, but honestly that wasn’t really a consideration,” Tander told V8 Sleuth.
“It’s more about my role in the team, obviously the co-driving role but also the role in the team coaching Matt and then helping to shape what the Grove Junior Team will look like.
“You get a lot of feedback on social media, obviously, and a lot of it centers around me walking out on Holden and all of this, but the truth is you can’t stay true to something that ‘ gone.”
Holden, of course, has retired from the main game, replaced by the new Chevrolet Camaro for next season.
“I still feel very honored and very proud that I won my last race in a Holden at Bathurst, and I got to drive a Holden product for the entirety of my Supercars career that Holden was involved in Supercars, Tander continued.
“The whole switching of brands was not on my mind, it was more about the opportunity to join the Grove.”
MORE: Tander’s road from Ford to Holden
MORE: Whincup’s reaction to Tander’s exit
The 45-year-old says retirement has not crossed his mind, as he prepares to reunite with his trio of former race engineers: Alistair McVean, Grant McPherson and David Cauchi.
McVean worked with Tander at the Holden Racing Team and was his race engineer in 2011 when he and Nick Percat took over The Mountain.
During his time co-driving with Shane van Gisbergen at Triple Eight Race Engineering, Tander worked with both McPherson (including winning the 2020 Great Race) and Cauchi, who is now technical director and team principal respectively at Grove Racing .
That brainpower, combined with the Gen3 reset, has him hoping a sixth Bathurst crown is within reach – and Groves could be a match for the likes of Triple Eight before long.
“I’m definitely very impressed with the vision of the team and the ambition of the team and the effort that’s going to be put in to try to get the team to where they want to be and that’s what caught my attention,” he said.
“The opportunity to be a part of that is exciting.
“I don’t think there are many organizations in Australian motorsport that have the ability and the ambition and the drive to try to have a crack in the way that they’re going to have a crack, so that’s what’s exciting for me.”
Tander’s departure from the Triple Eight leaves an intriguing vacancy alongside van Gisbergen for the 2023 Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000, with Richie Stanaway among the early favourites.
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