Tander in good shape for the opener

All the Victorian teams in the V8 Supercar Championship, along with those from the division-two Fujitsu Series, took to the twisting Winton racetrack in north Victoria yesterday.

It was the first time they were allowed to track test their new or rebuilt cars for 2008, with the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

New champion Garth Tander's move to HRT, with a few senior engineers from HSV going with him, already looks successful.

In a brand-new racing VE Commodore, Tander set the fastest lap time at Winton, 1min 23.6sec.

Next was another Holden driven by his former team-mate and 2006 champion Rick Kelly, still with HSV, on 1:23.88.

Lee Holdsworth, in a Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore, was a good third quickest (1:23.89) and Mark Skaife, Tander's HRT team-mate, fourth fastest (1:24.02).

Team BOC has ex-HRT Holdens and its driver Andrew Jones was high on the charts early. The best Ford driver through the day was Steven Richards, although FPR team-mate Mark Winterbottom's late lap of 1:24.29 was .02sec better. Tander was happy with the new car and its lap speed as he eyes the Clipsal 500, the opening round of the 2008 championship.

“Today's been great preparation for the Clipsal,” he reported late in the day.

“We've been ticking all the boxes in time for the event."

“The new car is great and we've been doing long runs to get miles on the new car and test all the components."

“I believe we're in very good shape - even better than last year, so I'm confident of a good result.”

HRT has been the most successful team in the past 10 years of the 500 in Adelaide.

HRT team manager Rob Crawford said the Clipsal 500 was the toughest race of the year for drivers, cars and teams and Winton's test had been used as much as possible to replicate the Adelaide conditions.

“Adelaide is Holden's home and it's important to Holden and HRT that we perform well,” he said.

“I don't think we could have had a better preparation.”