The Grove squad has stepped up its GT3 programme again this year, with a full-time campaign in Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS and a selection of big overseas races, including next week’s 12 Hours of Sepang and October’s Indianapolis 8 Hour at the famous Brickyard.
It will utilise the engineering resources of its Penrite Racing Supercars team for the task, and 2023 Adelaide 500 winner Matt Payne has been named alongside Stephen and Brenton Grove as drivers for Sepang.
However, Speedcafe has now learnt that Tander will join that trio for the 24H Portimao, which takes place at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve which has hosted Formula 1 in recent years and is the home of MotoGP’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
Being a 24-hour race, the Grove Mercedes-AMG needs a fourth driver, and hence the five-time Bathurst 1000 winner has been called up, on top of his Supercars enduro duties with the squad.
Tander was formerly a regular in Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia’s GT3 programme, including the factory-backed entries in the Bathurst 12 Hour.
However, he also has an enviable strike rate in twice-around-the-clock races, having won the inaugural Bathurst 24 Hour in 2002 and finished second in 2003, in a Holden Monaro one-two.
The West Australian combined with David Reynolds to finish fifth in the 2023 Bathurst 1000 despite an early, somewhat controversial penalty.
He had also climbed to fourth position, and first of the Ford Mustangs, when Car #26 lost a wheel in the early stages of that year’s Sandown 500, after which a new spec of wheel nut was instituted.
The 24H Portimao takes place on May 10-12 and is part of the Creventic 24H Series, in which Grove Racing competed in the 6H Abu Dhabi and 24H Dubai in January.
Grove Racing will field a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with the support of Earl Bamber Motorsport, having made the switch this year from Porsche machinery.
The team in fact has two Mercedes-AMGs, with the other to be used in GT World Challenge Australia, of which Round 1 takes place at Phillip Island on April 12-14 as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries.
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