An engine drama in race one has cost Leanne Tander her chance at the 2008 Australian Drivers Championship for the CAMS Gold Star despite winning the weekend’s F3 feature race at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains. With Tander out of the first race the title went to English driver James Winslow.

Winslow wrapped up the title by winning race one on the final lap after a rain shower made the 2.4km Symmons Plains circuit slippery and cost race leader Stuart Kostera the win. 

“It is just unbelievable. After the year I have had I don’t know quite what to feel. It hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said.
“I knew that Leanne was out of the race but I was so determined to win the championship in race one I pressed on as hard as I could. That’s why I challenged Kostera when he passed me because I wanted to win to make sure of it.” 

Winslow has battled for funding all year and at the earlier Phillip Island round had told In Pit Lane that he might not even make it to Tasmania.

But make it he did and now for only the second time in the award’s history the most prestigious title in Australian motorsport is going to England.

Making up for her undoubted disappointment, Tander gained some revenge on Winslow by winning the day’s feature race the 30 lap Tasmanian F3 Super Prix. Tander and Winslow swapped places several times in the first ten laps of the race, before Winslow’s Team BRM car began to slip back through the field, eventually retiring after 15 laps with clutch problems.

Leanne Tander held off Caratti in a close on to win the John Bowe Trophy © Dirk Klynsmith Photo

 
Nathan Caratti then took up the challenge and pursued Tander aggressively, eventually closing to within a few tenths and engaging in a dice with a leader for the final few laps. Tander withheld the challenge and crossed the line just .06s ahead of Caratti in the closest finish of the 2008 season to win the second ever John Bowe Trophy. 

”Obviously it’s disappointing to not have been able to win the championship and that is what we came here for, but that was a great race and a great dice with Nathan.” Tander said after the race.

Melbourne driver Tim Macrow, the 2007 Champion made a successful return to the series winning the national class and finishing the main race in third place.  The National class title was won by Chris Gilmour. In the Trophy class for older cars it was Andrew Mill who came out on top despite a DNF in today’s main race.

Sadly for Tander, her chance at becoming the first Women to ever win the CAMS Gold Star seems over. Next year she will line up on the grid in the V8 Supercar development series in a car run by the Tandersport team. Winslow is also looking to move into V8 Supercars although his open wheel ambitions may seem him return home or back to Asia.

Like the Indy Racing League the Australian Formula 3 cars will reconvene for a non-championship race at the Nikon Indy 300 on the streets of Surfers Paradise on the Queensland Gold Coast between October 22 – 26.