THE SAME Three-car line-up that performed so strongly at Phillip Island a month ago will give TanderSport a level of confidence and consistency ahead of this weekends’ sixth round of the 2008 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship.

An added bonus is a return to Eastern Creek for the second time this year – a track where the team performed strongly in the opening round of the 2008 Australian Drivers Championship season.

”We have always run well at Eastern Creek and it’s a track that we know we are fast on,” championship contender Leanne Tander said, remembering her pole position scored at the 3.9km Sydney layout earlier this year.

”We were very quick there in round one and had the pace to win it from pole – but a slow start dropped me back to third and I couldn’t get past – but we had one of the quickest cars there and there’s no reason why that won’t be the same this weekend – in fact, we should be quicker.”

Tander returns to Eastern Creek coming off the back of a strong performance at Phillip Island hindered by an unfortunate drive-though in the second race after a narrow second-place finish in race one.

Leanne showed her usual flair an tenacity to fly though the field in the second race to score a solid haul of Gold Star points – enough to leave her equal second in the championship with six races – three rounds – remaining.

“I need to make sure I perform the best I can to still have at the shot at the championship,” she said.

TanderSports National Class pair of Ben Crighton and Mathew Radisich will also line up after convincing performances at Phillip Island recently – Radisich having scored two third-placed results in his class whilst Kiwi Crighton showed speed but was innocently taken out of the second race.

Radisich had a solid season opener at Eastern Creek and said that he was keen to return.

”Eastern Creek was a pretty good round for us earlier this year, we were quite competitive,” he said.

”I was happy with my performance at Phillip Island and TanderSport were great to work with. I’m looking forward to the weekend to see if we can get closer to the back of the fastest guys in the National Class, Chris Gilmour and Lee Farrell, and run with them.”

Crighton has past experience at Eastern Creek in open-wheel competition and is looking to build further towards the front of his class after plenty of speed last time out.

”Phillip Island was positive in that we showed plenty of pace,” Crighton said. “It just didn’t bring the kind of results we wanted and knew that we could get. Hopefully Eastern Creek, which is a track I have raced at before, will be better to us.”

TanderSport will be in action this weekend, July 11 – 13.