Leanne Tander will earn some serious frequent flyer miles this year after confirming today that she will drive for Opes Prime Team Meritus for the entire 2008 Formula V6 Aisa championship.

It will give Tander the chance to win two of the toughest Open Wheel series in the region in the same year, as she will dovetail her Asian racing with an attack on the Australian Formula 3 Championship with TanderSport.

Whilst neither calendar is completely confirmed, it looks likely that there will be no schedule clashes, allowing Leanne to contest both series in full.

Tander tested the Opes Prime car successfully in December last year, completing two days at Sepang (Malaysia) in her first drive of the 400hp, V6-powered cars – a step up in performance from her regular TanderSport Dallara F3 car.

In her only dry run of the two-day test Tander lapped within a second of the pole time set earlier in the year, doing enough to impress the right people to secure the full season drive.

Formula V6 Asia cars – formerly used in the World Series by Renault championship – lap at a similar pace to A1GP Cars, Matt Halliday and GP2 star Karun Chandhok having already used the category to progress their careers despite it only having been established for a short time.

In 2007 the championship featured rounds in Indonesia, China, Japan and Malaysia.

Leanne will be the first female driver to race in the growing series after setting several records in Australia in 2007, winning two races and finishing second in the Australian Formula 3 Championship.

She became the first female to win a race in the 51-year history of the Australian Drivers Championship.

Leanne will test the car further before the championship begins to ensure the Opes Prime car is competitive from the first round.

”It’s very exciting and I’m looking forward to the chance to race internationally in 2008,” Leanne enthused.

”The test itself was a great opportunity so to be able to commit for the fulls season and have a chance to race for the championship is even better, I’m very thankful to Anthony Blumberg and Opes Prime for their support.

”The team were great and have proven success as one of the top operations in Asian Motorsport. The series is growing quickly and there are already several strong drivers looking set to compete this year that will make it a very demanding championship.

”It will be a busy year,” she added. “Racing in two championships across several countries will not be easy but its every drivers dream to race as often as possible in lots of fantastic different cars, so this is a huge opportunity for my career and one I intend to take as best I possibly can.”

The Formula V6 Asia championship schedule is yet to be confirmed, whilst Leanne will next be in action between February 1 – 3 for the opening round of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship with TanderSport, the team she co-owns with Australian V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander.

About Formula V6 Asia:

Formula V6 Asia is the most technologically advanced car in its category and has one objective: to train drivers, engineers, mechanics and team managers on their way up to Formula 1. The car with 370bhp, 3.5i 24 valve V6 engine with speeds reaching up to 275kph aims to increase performance while limiting costs, enhance safety and make the Formula V6 Asia as the choice series for all serious single-seater drivers in Asia.

[Source: GirlRacer.co.uk]