V8 enduro to be a thinking man`s event

The driver who "thinks on his feet" will emerge the winner in this weekend'scomplicated and radical new V8 Supercar enduro. That's the view of current championship leader Garth Tander, who finished second
fastest in practice in a tune-up to Satursday's two sprint races and Sunday's 500km run.

Fords dominated the later sessions on Friday with the Falcon of Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards heading the timesheets. Tander and experienced co-driver Mark Skaife in their Holden were second ahead of
the Ford of James Courtney and David Besnard.

Under the new schedule the two drivers in each team will drive in separate sprint races and their combined results will determine the grid positions for the team in the Sunday enduro.

Tander said quick-thinking would be vital as each driver fought to adapt to the unique program and tyre wear would be a key. "Everyone's been here before, it's just that we haven't been in this format before," Tander said. "It's just going to be the team that thinks on its feet tomorrow afternoon in the shorter races and the team that's thought about it the most for the longer race and what strategy's going to work the best for the 500km.

"I think everyone's run through various scenarios as part of their preparation but until we actually get into it a bit ... no-one's going to know what the tyres are like until you've done 20 or 30 laps on them."

Tander's Toll Holden Racing Team got off to a rocky start before the drivers were able to reel in their rivals in the third session. "The day didn't start too well for us," Tander said. "We had a steering issue so the boys had a crack at fixing it and we went out again and it was still there so we basically only did three laps.

"The guys had to change a lot of stuff in the front of the car and we got out for the main practice session and we were 10 laps behind the eight-ball.

"But once we got on top of all that the car was actually very, very good - a few balance issues that we need to address, but the car was there or thereabouts."

Winterbottom, who lost his lead in the series to Tander at the last round at Winton, said his Ford Performance Racing outfit had worked to produce an almost flawless car. "The day's obviously gone well, we did equal laps in the car and shared the set-up changes and went through the program that we had," Winterbottom said. "We had no problems so when you finish the day and you have no problems and the
car's quick we'll go to bed pretty happy tonight.

"There was plenty of wind and when you're at high speed it obviously upsets the car and dealing with that is I guess a bit of an issue.

"But we're pretty happy with how it was and we'll see how it is tomorrow."