Leanne Tander will join her husband Garth on the grid of the TCR Australia series at Phillip Island this weekend, as she races an Audi RS3 LMS entered by the Melbourne Performance Centre.
Tander, 39, will be part of the same team as her husband Garth in one of the Audi cars, making her the fourth female driver on the grid.
She will join Molly Taylor, Chelsea Angelo and Alexandra Whitley as the female representation in the 18-car field which will take part in the second TCR Australia event.
Tander has an extensive racing CV, having started out in karting in the early 1990s before moving on to single-seater racing by the end of the decade. Throughout the 2000s she raced in Supercars, including starting the Bathurst 1000 twice.
In recent years she has returned to Formula Ford, coming close to winning the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2016.
“I’ve been hopeful of some sort of drive in the TCR Australia Series,” said Leanne Tander. “It has been bubbling along for a while now, so I’m really glad that we’ve finally been able to pull it together for this weekend.
“I’m really excited about driving it at Phillip Island. I’ve done plenty of laps around there in a wide range of categories, but this is a different type of car to what I’m used to.
“I drove one of the Audi TCRs in Sydney last year, but I didn’t get a lot of laps to really feel what it was about, so I’m looking forward to having a go and seeing what it can do.
“It is fantastic to be sharing the track with three other female racers too. I’ve never raced at this high-level level in the sport with some many girls in the same race. It’s really a huge step forward and a big tick for TCR.
“To have four out of 18 drivers being female – that’s a pretty good ratio, given you generally only ever have one in the field.
“I respect Molly, Chelsea and Alexandra as drivers. I thought they all did a great job in the first round in Sydney, and as the year progresses, I reckon we’ll see them get towards the front of the field.”