THE need to match up drivers based on their height for the Repco Supercars Championship’s endurance season may now be a thing of the past.
New Grove Racing signing Garth Tander has highlighted the adjustable pedal box feature of the incoming Gen3 cars as something of a gamechanger.
Tander will drive a Penrite Mustang next year, the first time he has raced a Ford Supercar, at the Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.
It’s not yet clear whether he’ll partner fellow Great Race winner David Reynolds or rookie Matt Payne, who he has been assigned to mentor.
Payne and Tander are two of the taller drivers on the grid, but as the latter noted on this week’s Castrol Motorsport News podcast, that isn’t necessarily a factor now.
“There’s no rush whatsoever to make any decision on any of that,” Tander said when prompted on the potential for him to pair up with Reynolds.
“A lot of people have already pencilled me in to share with Matt, given our physical size and that I’ll be mentoring him. But that’s not necessarily the case.
“You have to remember that with the Gen3 cars you can move the pedal box in a heartbeat, so the whole height thing is far less of an issue than it’s ever been before.
“It’s more like a GT car now. The height thing is not a problem.
“A lot of people may have dismissed Dave and me teaming up because of our heights but that’s not the case at all.
“We won’t make a decision on that any time soon.”
Grove Racing still has one co-driver seat to fill, with retiring full-timer Lee Holdsworth heading back to Walkinshaw Andretti United and international commitments likely to rule out incumbent Matt Campbell.
