Garth Tander has described himself as “privileged” to witness Shane van Gisbergen’s prowess as an insider at Red Bull Ampol Racing.
The two combined to take victory for the second time in three years at the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000, making for a 50 percent winning record as a duo in the Great Race.
Van Gisbergen took the chequered flag at Mount Panorama a week on from his World Rally Championship debut, when he drove a Skoda Fabia R5 to third in the WRC2 class at Rally New Zealand and outright points in ninth position for the event.
Earlier in the year, he made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut with a fifth in the GTE-Pro class of the French endurance classic, while his triumph at Bathurst broke Scott McLaughlin’s record for race wins in a single Repco Supercars Championship season of 18, set in 2019.
“As we were walking in, I just said to him, ‘It’s a reasonable week for you, really, when you think about it,’” noted Tander, himself already a three-time Bathurst 1000 winner and a Supercars champion before their partnership, post-race.
“He’s scored points in WRC, finished inside the top 10 In a WRC event, and then, seven days later, delivered what he delivered [at Mount Panorama].
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“I said to Shane after the Pukekohe result [presumably the win from eighth in a thriller] that I’ll never blow wind up is his arse, but he’s going okay right now; I mean, it’s hard not to.
“I feel very, very privileged to be able to get close, see the data, see the vision, work with him, and see how he goes about it.
“And, you know, I’m an old bastard, but I’m still getting the opportunity to learn a lot, and that’s been really enjoyable.”
Nevertheless, Tander admitted that having to watch the closing stages of the Great Race, when van Gisbergen was kept honest by 2021 winner Chaz Mostert in a tense run home, was not always so enjoyable.
“It’s funny; Jamie [Whincup, nowadays a co-driver] came over with about 10 [laps] to go and he goes, ‘Geez, this being out of the car and watching other people do it sucks,” he recalled.
“And he’s right, it does, it does suck.
“But, having Shane in the car at the end of the race and watching the three guys go at it – and Chaz and Cam[eron Waters] and Brodie [Kostecki] as well going at it like they did after that last Safety Car restart – it’s mega to watch.
“I go a bit race fan and just enjoy the show, but then you realise you’ve got a fair bit of investment in the result as well.
“So, Chaz threw everything at him in those last four or five laps and I didn’t know how it was going to play out, so that’s as nervous as I’ve been outside of a race car ever, I reckon.”
The victory was van Gisbergen’s second in the Great Race and Tander’s fifth, moving the latter into a share of sixth all-time.
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