THE man who dominated in New Zealand has rejected suggestions to ditch the current three-race format in Hamilton in favour of a Clipsal 500-style double header.

Garth Tander backed the retention of the three sprint races for the Hamilton 400 declaring he did not want the event to be simply a clone of the Adelaide season opener.

Last weekend V8 Supercar chief executive Wayne Cattach said the Hamilton event could be improved by having one long race on Saturday and a second long race on Sunday.
He said the longer races would "  bring some ceremony” to the event.

“It would build the moment a lot more - that's what makes the Clipsal special,” Cattach said.

But Tander warned against making drastic changes to the Hamilton 400 after running the event in its current format just once.

"I think we need to be careful not to make all race meetings the same,” the Holden Racing Team driver said. “We should look to have a great event in Hamilton, not just a carbon copy of Clipsal.

“The strength of our series is having the different formats. There's variety having three sprint races at some meetings, a couple of long distance races at others and the enduros. If we make them the same then each event loses its uniqueness.  
“It's hard to comment (on the lack of passing) because I wasn't in a position to do much passing. Maybe they need to alter the chicane a bit

“But I don't know if two long distance races would make the racing any better.”

Tander said, far from improving the New Zealand round, using the Clipsal 500 format might actually detract from the Clipsal 500 itself.

Tander won all three races in Hamilton to move into second place in the V8 Supercar Championship with 626 points, 46 behind series leader and former team mate Rick Kelly.

Author:Gavin McGrath
Source:BigPond Sport - copyright