Garth Tander turns 37 this year and his family life is almost as full as his bulging trophy cabinet. There’s Garth’s wife (and one of Australia’s most successful female racers) Leanne and his young kids Scarlett and Sebastian, with Sebastian having just turned one. Alongside being a full time V8 Supercar driver, husband & dad, Garth somehow finds time to run a motorsport team with wife Leanne (TanderSport) as well as being an avid cyclist and coffee drinker (well, the later two are according to his Twitter & Instagram accounts).
The man known as GT joined the V8 Supercar Championship back in 1999 and has finished inside the top ten of the V8 Supercar championship every year since 2005, including winning the championship with the HSV Dealer Team in 2007. After joining the Holden Racing Team (HRT) in 2008 and finishing 3rd in the first two years with the team, many consider the following years lean in terms of results, even when one of those years includes a Bathurst win. But what does season 2014 bring for the man known as GT?
With the series staying within Australia & New Zealand for the first time in many years Garth certainly does not lack knowledge of the tracks, having won races on nearly all of them. He has a rejuvenated team supporting him with successful team manager Adrian Burgess (previously with Triple 8 & Dick Johnson Racing) on board and Garth’s previous and championship winning race engineer Matthew Nilsson rejoining the team.
Alongside him at HRT there is 2010 series champion James Courtney, as well as the wider Walkinshaw Racing organisation that returns to a 4 car team, including Nick Percat securing a fulltime ride and Tim Slade slotting into the Supercheap Auto Racing garage.
Having won the opening round in Adelaide in 2000 and 2010, will the event known as Clipsal bring joy to the Tander household and return GT to the top step of the podium? I guess we’ll know soon enough…