Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of the 15 – 17 September 2023 was the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, round 9 of the 2023 Supercars Championship.
Sandown International Raceway was first opened as a horse racetrack in 1888 (135 years ago) and known as Oakleigh Park. Four years later it was renamed to Sandown Park.
It boasts to be one of the first locations for a motor racing event way back in 1904. However, it didn’t have a dedicated track for motorsports until 1962. The first big event was held in 1965 with a record crowd of 52,379 attending causing traffic chaos in the quiet suburb of Springvale, Melbourne Victoria.
The track is known to be a fast run consisting of two straights, the main straight and a back straight allowing for speeds between 250 and 260kmph. Its layout and high speeds lends itself to endurance races and Supercars have consistently made the Sandown 500 a warm up to the Bathurst 1000.
I imagine its not the favourite track for the Triple 8 team. They have had wins at this location but some very bad luck as well.
In 2012, on lap 159 out of 161 Jamie Whincup was in 2nd place chasing down the lead. Mark Winterbottom made contact with Jamie Whincup forcing him off the track and losing a spot to move back to 3rd.
In 2019 again with only a few laps remaining, Shane Van Gisbergen received a puncture while leading the race. It not only robbed him of a sure win but took him off the podium all together. The only consolation was it gave the lead and win to car 888 of his teammates Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes.
In this year’s event there were no surprises in the pre – race sessions.
- Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 1
- Zane Goddard was fastest in Practice 2
- Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 3
- Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 4
- Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying.
- Will Brown was fastest in the Top 10 Shootout
- David Reynolds and Garth Tander were fastest in the warmup.
In Race 23 the two Erebus cars started in the front row. Co-driver Jack Perkins started in the number 1 spot after Will Brown earned them pole position. Alongside them was David Russell, the co-driver for season leader Brodie Kostecki.
The majority of the co-drivers started behind the wheel except for Craig Lowndes and Aaron Love.
At the start of the race Jack Perkins got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 161 laps.
The 2 Erebus cars took the lead into the first turn followed by James Moffat, co-driver to Cameron Waters.
Richie Stanaway was co-driver to Shane Van Gisbergen. He started 19th on the grid and was stuck behind the main pack trying hard to look for a gap to move ahead. It was too tight and he just couldn’t do it.
The leaders were starting to edge away while the cars behind settled into their race pace.
Up the front the leaders were tightly packed. Jack Perkins had a slender lead of 0.290 seconds over David Russell.
On the commencement of lap 2 Jamie Whincup passed Garth Tander for 4th position and James Moffat for 3rd. Jamie Whincup was now only 0.328 seconds behind David Russell.
By lap 3 Jamie Whincup seemed to do the impossible and passed David Russell to take 2nd place and find himself only 0.792 seconds away from the lead.
On lap 5 he took the number 1 spot off Jack Perkins at turn 1. From that point on Whincup didn’t make any mistakes.
Just outside the top 10 cars, Zak Best went off the track between turns 1 and 2. The lost time put him to the back of the pack.
On lap 19 the left rear wheel parted company with the car of David Reynolds / Garth Tander. The car slid, turned around, collided into the guard rail and came to a stop. Meanwhile, the wheel continued along the track on its own. After bouncing off the ground it freakishly landed on the rear of the passing Monster Energy Mustang driven by James Moffat and tore the rear wing completely off the car.
With debris all over the track plus Garth Tander stranded with only 3 wheels and facing the wrong way, the first safety car was deployed.
It was truly a bizarre incident! The Reynolds / Tander car was towed from the track and was in such poor shape it wasn’t able to return. Main driver, David Reynolds didn’t have a chance to get behind the wheel.
Lee Holdsworth pitted for repairs while the safety car was still out. The main issue was with the rear diffuser but the team wasn’t able to get it off straight away. They sent the car back out on the track and then called Holdsworth back in once they got appropriate tools ready. The repairs were done before the safety car left the track.
The restart was on lap 26 and Jack Perkins was back in the number 1 spot for Erebus.
Tony Dalberto, co-driver to Anton de Pasquale received a 15 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release.
Jordan Boys had a massive lock up going into turn 1 and went off the track. Surprisingly there was no damage, except for maybe a flat spot on the tyres.
Race leader Jack Perkins exceeded track limits and received a bad sportsmanship flag. This is more a warning than a penalty.
By lap 41 Jamie Whincup regained the race lead pushing Jack Perkins back to 2nd place.
Jaylyn Robotham, co-driver to Cameron Hill made contact with Craig Lowndes. Lowndes managed to keep control and avoided hitting the wall. I have no doubt that any other driver would have suffered significant damage but Craig Lowndes’ experience showed.
Soon after James Moffat got spun around at turn 1 by Dylan O’Keeffe.
On lap 47 Richie Stanaway did the quickest lap of the race.
Jayden Ojeda went off the track dropping him from 3rd to 6th place.
After receiving previous warnings, Mark Winterbottom received a 15 second time penalty for exceeding track limits.
After Jamie Whincup had earlier taken the race lead, main driver Broc Feeney was now behind the wheel. In the middle of the race he had a 6.3 second lead over Will Brown. Brodie Kostecki was a further 12.5 seconds back.
The gruelling length and high speeds of the race were really showing. Macauley Jones was next to receive a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Craig Lowndes dropped a spot to Andre Heimgartner.
Towards the end of the race Broc Feeney was still holding the lead. On lap 130 he pitted with 18.798 seconds over teammate Shane Van Gisbergen. Shane Van Gisbergen had to wait until lap 131 to take his last pit stop.
On lap 140 of 161 Cameron Hill had to be rescued from the sand trap at turn 9. For such a long race it was surprising that this was only the second time the safety car was deployed.
On lap 147 Chaz Mostert received a 15 second time penalty for making contact with another car.
The gap at the front of the race was closing. Broc Feeney was still out front but only by 0.203 seconds over Brodie Kostecki.
In addition, this was a time certain race and time was running out. The pressure was really on.
With 2 minutes 59 remaining Will Brown ran wide at turn 9 and Shane Van Gisbergen squeezed past to take 3rd place. Shane Van Gisbergen had moved up 16 spots throughout the race. What an amazing drive.
However, a champion like Shane Van Gisbergen is never satisfied with being third and put the pressure on Brodie Kostecki. Kostecki kept his cool and made no mistakes but the pressure from Gisbergen didn’t allow him to pressure Broc Feeney for the win.
In the end Broc Feeney crossed the line with a 0.9816 second margin over Brodie Kostecki with another 2.2 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen in 3rd place.
The win earned 888 Race Engineering their 250th race win in Supercars. Wow! What an amazing achievement. Congratulations team.
On the season scoreboard Brodie Kostecki has extended his championship lead to 155 points over Shane Van Gisbergen. Broc Feeney is 3rd with 204 points off the lead. Will Brown is 4th and 294 points off the lead.
Erebus are still leading the Team’s Championship but only by 95 points over the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.
Jamie Whincup is now a 6 time winner of the Sandown 500. Can he and Broc Feeney do it again at Bathurst?
Results for Race 23
1st Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki and David Russell – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway – Red Bull Ampol Racing
There are 3 events to go in the 2023 Supercars championship.
900 points left on the table across the final 3 events.
The next event is the Repco Bathurst 1000 on the 5 – 8 of October 2023.
The Bathurst channel begins Monday October 2 on Fox Sports channel 506.