Holden Sets Sights On Manufacturers' Award At Phillip Island Finale
Release Date: 21/11/2005
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Garth Tander’s victory in the penultimate round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Symmons Plains has brought GM Holden one win away from clinching yet another Champion Manufacturers Award in the top touring car category in the world.
The Manufacturers Award is determined by the most number of round wins by a manufacturer in the championship. It was first awarded by AVESCO in 1999 and Holden has clean-swept it ever since, save for 2003.
If the same method were applied to the early years of the V8 Supercar category from 1993 onwards, Holden was been the Champion Manufacturer nine out of 12 times.
In a further confidence boost to Holden, the final round of the series will be run at Phillip Island, which is the test track of Tander’s HSV Dealer Team, the Holden Racing Team and Super Cheap Auto Racing.
All three teams have plenty of recent experience of the flowing 4.45-kilometre layout, a circuit that hasn’t hosted a V8 Supercar race since early in 2003.
It’s another venue that has truly been Holden country. From 1996 to 2002 Holden drivers won every time at Phillip Island, the seven-year streak only broken by changeable weather in 2003 that helped Craig Lowndes steal a win for Ford.
Tander and HSV DT teammate Rick Kelly head to the final round with plenty of confidence following their double-podium result at Symmons Plains as well as wanting to wrap up the crown for Holden on their home track.
The HSV team tested at Phillip Island last Thursday along with the Holden Racing Team and are confident that their track knowledge, particularly on the current generation Dunlop control tyre, will put them in a strong position.
“The Manufacturers Award is pretty important to Holden and if we could win two wins in a row to clinch it, particularly when Ford basically came out and announced they had it wrapped up pre-Tasmania, would be great,” said Tander.
“Naturally enough, we expect to be right up the front at our home track. It’s great to be back racing at Phillip Island. We’ve missed having a fast circuit like it on the calendar. It rewards you if you’re brave but punishes you if you do something out of control.”
HRT drivers Todd Kelly and Mark Skaife, fourth and fifth in points, are still mathematically in the title race at the final round but it would take an incredible turn of events for either of the ‘Team Red’ drivers to step onto the top step of the 2005 podium.
Of more concern for them is Castrol Team Perkins Racing’s Steven Richards. The sixth-placed driver in the series, Richards is only 21 points behind Skaife and 31 points behind Kelly in addition to coming off a second-place result at Symmons Plains.
Richards finished fifth in last year’s championship and sixth for the two years prior but is not heading to his team’s test track, as is the case with HRT. The Perkins team tests at Winton along with Dodo Racing and Garry Rogers Motorsport
Practice begins at Phillip Island on Friday at 1.00pm with a two-hour session. Qualifying, the Top 10 Shootout and a 100-kilometre race will be held on Saturday before two 140-kilometre races complete the 2005 season on Sunday.