Team Tander and Quinn win

10 November, 2014

 

Tony Quinn and Garth Tander win the Highlands 101 endurance race

Tony Quinn achieved one of the objectives he’d set himself for last weekend’s Highlands 101 race meeting when he and Garth Tander won the endurance race at Highlands Motorsport Park in dramatic fashion. As Quinn told us prior to the November 7–9 event he had his sights set on both the Highlands 101 race win and the Australian GT Championship title, and while he failed to eclipse Richard Muscat in the race to the Championship, a last-minute turn of luck saw him come up trumps on track.

The pair were coming second right up until the very last lap, following behind Richard Muscat and Craig Baird’s Mercedes-Benz, which had been in the lead for more than 90 laps of the 101-lap race. The Mercedes-Benz ran out of fuel only a few metres from the finish line meaning Quinn and Tander could pass them into first place.

When questioned about the last lap of the race Tander said, “The guys radioed me to say keep an eye out for the Merc, it’s going really slow. Coming out of the hairpin going up to the bridge, it wasn’t going at all, so I was yee-hahing on the radio as I went past and that was it. We were actually battling the Merc quite a bit after the earlier pit stop and we were close to going a lap down, but by staying on the lead lap and keeping the pressure on them, they pitted a lap before we did and that was the difference to buy us enough fuel to the line.”

During the 101 laps, Tander managed to break the Australian GT class lap record three times giving him a new lap record of one minute and 31.716 seconds. The same Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was used that Quinn previously won the inaugural Highlands 101 last year, with Fabian Coulthard, as well as taking out the Phillips Island 101 earlier this year with Tander. The weekend’s win marks a record-making three-peat of 101 race wins in Australian GT racing. 

 

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.

NZ Classic Car magazine, May/June 2025 issue 399, on sale now

Who would have thought it would become such a worldwide motorsport star when Ford introduced the humble Escort in 1967?
Its popularity, particularly in Mark 1 form, is now of iconic status. Our cover story for this issue is on a 1968 Ford Escort Mark 1, Alan Mann Racing Tribute. We talked with the owner of this very special Escort, finished in tribute also to the owner’s father.
“Most children love speed, and motorsport typically comes courtesy of a parent, and Elliott is no different. His engineer father, Mark, had a love for motorcycles and going fast; however, when children came along, he swapped two wheels for four, in the form of two Ford Escorts.
Little did Mark know it at the time, but the humble Escort was about to weave its way into the family fabric once and for all.
After emigrating from London to New Zealand, Elliott recalled one evening when he was 14 being invited to tag along by his father, helping a friend convert an Escort road car into a racing car. This was the pivotal moment when Elliott remembers the motorsport bug taking over. He knew he had to have his own one.”