Tander, Feeney join Australian GT field at QR

Garth Tander and Broc Feeney have joined the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS field for the penultimate round of the season at Queensland Raceway.

Tander will pair up with championship leader and last-start winner Liam Talbot, whose co-driver in the #65 Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II, Fraser Ross, is unavailable this weekend.

However, the five-time Bathurst 1000 winner is hardly an unfamiliar face in the Melbourne Performance Centre/Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia stable.

Tander was a regular with the squad until recently and scored a race win in last year’s Queensland Raceway round when paired with Yasser Shahin.

The round also represents extra miles ahead of his Supercars enduro campaign with Grove Racing, which will include a return to Carrera Cup at The Bend this month.

“I’ve had a long relationship with Melbourne Performance Centre and earlier this year they asked if there was an opening, would I be keen to drive – and of course I said yes,” explained Tander of his GTWC call-up.

“Fraser can’t make it this weekend, so they rang and I said yes straight away.

“I’ve not driven the car this year but thankfully the practice sessions are a bit longer now which will give me time to play myself in.

“I’ve done some miles in the last weeks between ride days, a test day in a Porsche, Supercars testing and now the GT car so I feel good about it.

“Based on how we went there last year we should be somewhat in the mix.

“My role is not about me doing laps, it’s about solidifying Liam’s position in the title.

“I’ve always gone into these races with the approach of supporting the Am driver the best I can and that’s the approach I will take with Liam this weekend.”

Less than one race win covers the top four in the championship, with MPC Audi stablemates Geoff Emery/Max Hofer EMA Motorsport Porsche duo Yasser Shahin/Garnet Patterson nipping at the heels of Talbot.

Meanwhile, after a clash with his Supercars duties in Round 4 at Sydney Motorsport Park in recent weeks, Feeney is back in Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Mercedes-AMG programme, sharing Car #888 with Prince Jefri Ibrahim while Jamie Whincup partners Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim in Car #88.

The weekend will feature a unique element, with a Top 10 Shootout to finalise the starting grid for Race 2.

As usual, Qualifying 1, for the Am drivers, sets the grid for Race 1, before the Pros head out for Qualifying 2.

The Ams will then get back into the 10-fastest cars from Q2 for a one-lap dash on the Sunday morning.

Stan Sport’s live and ad-free coverage of the Queensland round of the Shannons SpeedSeries starts on Saturday at 11:30 AEST.

Entry list: Round 5, Queensland Raceway