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David Reynolds has described Garth Tander’s set-up feedback as “unbelievable” following two days of Gen3 Supercar shakedown running with Grove Racing’s new enduro driver.
The signing of Tander represents a major coup for the Braeside-based squad given he has won two of the past three Repco Bathurst 1000s as co-driver to Shane van Gisbergen at Triple Eight Race Engineering.
He and Reynolds have in fact been team-mates before, but that was more than a dozen years ago when they were part of the Walkinshaw Racing stable which included the Holden Racing Team of the day.
Grove opted to take all three of its confirmed 2023 drivers, including rookie Matt Payne, to Winton to shake down the latter’s #19 Penrite Ford Mustang last week and then the sister #26 entry earlier this week.
Speaking in a ‘first date’ video with new full-time team-mate Payne, Reynolds noted, “Garth, I have known a long, long time.
“I was in [Payne’s] position and [Tander] was in my position when I first started so he was a bit of a mentor for me at the start and then we were sort of racing against each other for a long time.
“But Garth is the ultimate professional; he is one of the best drivers in our country. Does not matter what he drives, he is unbelievable.
“So, to hear how he speaks about the car even though he jumps out the car and says a similar to me, he might say it in a different way that might trick the engineers into thinking a different way, so the feedback is unbelievable.”
Grove Racing’s next outing with its two Gen3 Mustangs will be at the official Supercars pre-season test day at Sydney Motorsport Park this coming Wednesday.
