Garth Tander etched himself into Bathurst 1000 history on Sunday afternoon, joining an elite list of legends who have won the famous race more than five times.
With Tander’s win, he joins the likes of Peter Brock, Mark Skaiffe, Jim Richards and Larry Perkins as the only drivers to win at Mount Panaroma five times or more.
Tander drove an exceptional race as Shane van Gisbergen’s co-driver, setting the fastest lap of the race, whilst helping him maintain first place.
Speaking on the success, Tander feels he played a genuine role in the victory.
“It was obviously a great day and it’s still sinking in to be honest, the team has had a great year and Shane has had a ripping year, so to be a part of that success, it’s pretty cool,” Tander said on SEN 1170 Mornings.
“When you transition from the primary driver to the co-driver, it’s hard to know where you fit in to it all.
“When we had the win in 2020, I didn’t know how much I contributed, this year the car was fast, and I hit the ground running in that first practice.
“Surviving that first part of the race with the rain and the change of the conditions just showed how tricky it was, in the second stint, being able to gap the field and give the team plenty of strategy options, I felt like that helped a little bit towards the success.
Tander’s partner, van Gisbergen, was lucky to escape a massive incident into the first straight on lap one, where two cars spun and a further two slammed into the barriers.
“Even though your co-driver, the level and quality of co-driver should be very high as an athlete, I was really surprised at the start of a 1000-kilometre race some of the risks that people were taking in those conditions,” Tander said.
“It felt like a lot of the younger co-drivers were looking to job auditions for full-time drives, that didn’t look like that worked out to well early in the race.”
Although Tander seemed to recover well, van Gisbergen was notably absent from a lot of media interviews on Monday morning, with Tander confirming he'd enjoyed a big night celebrating the win.