MELBOURNE - Holden's Garth Tander has fired a sharp psychological barb at V8 Supercar series leader Jamie Whincup ahead of this weekend's Phillip Island round.
Whincup was cruising towards a big points gap over his Holden rivals when he crashed at the last meeting at Surfers Paradise.
He had a
horror weekend, watching his points break whittled back over two races as Will Davison and Tander closed on the Triple Eight racer.
Whincup, his edge now down to 32 points over Davison, pulled out of this week's Race Of Champions event in Shanghai as a result.
While Davison is the closest, Tander is 289 points behind Whincup, but with a maximum 900 points still on offer in the closing rounds, he retains more than just a mathematical chance of winning the title.
"After what transpired on the Gold Coast I wasn't totally surprised he withdrew from the Race Of Champions," Tander said.
"I'm sure the team wanted him to concentrate on the V8 championship.
"Externally it shows the pressure is on him and if he's to retain his title the need to focus solely on the V8 Supercar Championship ... I'm sure his team had input into that decision.
"I have no influence over Whincup and Will's results so I've just got to go out and do the best job and try win as many races as possible - what happens from there happens."
With Davison and Tander having won races at each of the last five events, including their enduro double at Phillip Island and Bathurst, the pair are looking to wind up the pressure on their rival even further.
After Phillip Island two rounds remain - Barbagallo in Western Australia and the finale, the Sydney 400 at Homebush.
Whincup and Team Vodafone partner Craig Lowndes are anxious to atone for their recent poor form and ramp up the pace.
"It's great to go back to Phillip Island as it is one of my favourite tracks," Whincup said.
"The pace we showed there are the 500 (enduro) gives us great confidence heading in, however I'm expecting the temperatures to be much hotter this time around which will make things hard on the tyres.
It's time to turn around our run of results and use the team's strengths to our advantage."
Lowndes said he was confident the team would be on top of car setup.
"We were here a few months ago and the second place finish was pretty disappointing given we were in the box seat to win," Lowndes said.
"The format is completely different this weekend. We return to hard, fast sprint races and it will be the driver that best manages the available bank of tyres who comes out on top.
"A good result here is important as it will give our hard-working crew a real morale boost heading into the final few events."
- AAP
Garth Tander leading traffic at the Gold Coast. Photo / Getty Images
MELBOURNE - Holden's Garth Tander has fired a sharp psychological barb at V8 Supercar series leader Jamie Whincup ahead of this weekend's Phillip Island round.
Whincup was cruising towards a big points gap over his Holden rivals when he crashed at the last meeting at Surfers Paradise.
He had a
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