Motorsport: Tander sticks under the radar in Abu Dhabi

Garth Tander is letting all the drama happen around him in Abu Dhabi - electing to concentrate on racing. Photo / Getty Images

ABU DHABI - Can Jamie Whincup claim three successive V8 Supercar titles?

Can the TeamVodafone star hold off former flatmate and Holden Racing Team driver Will Davison?

Those are the major talking points going into this year's V8 Supercar championship starting in Abu Dhabi on Friday, and as far as Davison's HRT teammate Garth Tander is concerned, that's just great.

While Whincup claimed last year's crown from Davison, it was Tander who ended the year as the category's form driver.

The 2007 driver's champion steered HRT to victory at both Bathurst and Phillip Island, ending the year with six race wins to finish third on the overall standings.

And the 32-year-old says a low-key approach to this year's championship could deliver him similar results in the opening two races in Abu Dhabi.

"I'm loving the fact that I've had a very stealthy start to the year," Tander said.

"Very little interest and very little chat so it's been good for me, I've been very motivated and just going about my own thing, doing my own preparation and getting ready for Abu Dhabi.

"Me personally, from Phillip Island onwards I scored the most points out of anyone for the rest of the year.

"Certainly the last third of the championship was very strong for me and that's great for momentum going into this year.

"There's a lot of interest around what other people are doing, not so much around what I'm up to so I'm pretty comfortable with all that."

Another factor which has deflected plenty of attention away from Tander going into this year's championship is TeamVodafone's switch from Ford to Holden.

That move adds an extra element to the tussle between the sport's main rivals, with HRT and TeamVodafone now battling to be top dog at Holden, as well as in the wider world of V8 Supercars.

And Tander is expecting nothing less than the best from HRT's great rivals going into the Middle East double-header at Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

"We expect that the Vodafone guys, Craig (Lowndes) and Jamie, will hit the ground running with the new car," Tander said.

"We don't expect that they're going to be behind the eight ball in any way.

"For me traditionally, the last couple of years haven't been great starts for me so in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain I'm really keen to score a really solid bag of points and come back from the fly away races up near the top of the ladder somewhere."

- AAP