Garth Tander tips a sub two minute lap in Bathurst 12 Hour shootout

With 13 appearances in the Bathurst 1000’s top 10 shootout, Tander knows all about one-lap flyers at Mount Panorama.

Tander has twice been on pole for the Great Race, while in 2003 he did the quickest qualifying lap in the Bathurst 24 Hour.

But as quick as he has gone at the 6.213 kilometre circuit in the past, Tander knows things will be stepped up a notch in the battle for pole position at this year’s 12 Hour.

In 2016 Shane van Gisbergen claimed pole for his team as he clocked a two minutes, 1.286 seconds effort in a McLaren 650s GT3 during qualifying.

This year the 10 fastest cars from qualifying will go into a top 10 shootout on Saturday afternoon to decide the winner of the Allan Simonsen Pole Award.

Tander, who will share a JAMEC-PEM Audi with Christoper Mies and Christoper Haase, believes a new qualifying record could come in that session.

“There’s a lot of anticipation for this February that the cars will go sub two minutes,” Tander said on Sunrise.

“For a car with a roof on it – we’ve seen open wheelers do sub two minutes at Bathurst – but for a car with a roof on it to go around Bathurst that fast is pretty exciting.

“To be at an event where that is likely to happen, potentially in the top 10 shootout which is a first for the GT cars at Bathurst this year, would be pretty cool.”

The official lap record currently stands at 2:01.567 and was clocked by van Gisbergen during last year’s 12 Hour race.

However, in 2011 Formula 1 driver Jenson Button completed a circuit in a scorching 1:48.88 behind the wheel of his McLaren. That does not stand as the record as it did not come in race conditions.

Lap times have fallen by more than one second per year at the last three Bathurst 12 Hours.

“It’s an awesome race and it’s fast become one of the best GT races in the world,” Tander said.