THERE is one moment that stands out to Garth Tander as a regret from his illustrious Supercars career.
His high-speed clash with Fabian Coulthard, 10 years ago on the Gold Coast.
Tander was coming off a rollercoaster few weeks: he’d won the Sandown 500 with Warren Luff, days later been cut loose by the Holden Racing Team for 2017, and then challenged for Bathurst 1000 victory until a controversial incident with Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin.
Come the streets of Surfers Paradise, he was growing increasingly frustrated trying to clear Coulthard for fifth place as the Saturday race edged towards its completion.
Then came a wild exchange that Tander describes as “far and away the biggest regret of my Supercars racing career”.
“It was late in the 300-kilometre race and I’d been stuck behind Fabian Coulthard for laps on end. Lap after lap I was stuck behind him. I was faster but couldn’t quite nail a passing move,” Tander wrote in his new autobiography, The Finish Line.
“And then I hit him.
“At a rapid 265 kilometres per hour on the front straight past the pits, the relatively light hit into the left rear sent his DJR Team Penske Falcon hard left in an instant. It flew into the trackside wall made up of concrete blocks that each weigh a tonne.
“His car was smashed to pieces but still I felt I had done no wrong. Only when I reviewed the video post-race did I see I was at fault, though I didn’t admit it publicly at the time.”
The stewards took a particularly dim view of the matter, handing Tander a drive-through, as well as a 10-place grid penalty for the following day’s race.
“It was a moment where my race brain flicked back to its original programming from my hot head days,” he wrote.
“I’d love to have my time over on that one.”