Tag Archives: Jonathan Webb

Rabble Club Sandown 500 2018 Supercars

Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 14th to the 16th of September, 2018 was the Rabble Club Sandown 500.

The preliminaries to the race were almost as exciting as the main event.

In the co-drivers only session which was Practice 1, Paul Dumbrell clocked the fastest time.

Jamie Whincup was fastest in Practice 2.

Chaz Mostert had some really bad luck in Practice 2. He spun off track in his 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Falcon smashing the rear end into the fence.

James Courtney and Jack Perkins started at the back of the grid due to James Courtney having a huge crash on lap 3 of Race For the Grid 2 (Qualifying).

Erebus owner, Betty Klimenko wasn’t at Sandown on the weekend because she was sick with the flu. David Reynolds claiming pole position must have made her feel at least a little bit better as she watched the race from home.

During the 20 minute warm up, the teams were practicing brake rotor change which will be compulsory at Bathurst in 3 weeks’ time. This new requirement for the Bathurst race is being introduced to improve safety. Yes, I know brakes are important but could it introduce other risks to the race. I am still in two minds about it.

Finally at 1:20pm on Sunday The Sandown 500 started.

David Reynolds and Luke Youlden (Erebus) started on pole position. Alongside them were Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell (Triple 8).

As usual most of the co-drivers took the driver’s seat at the start of the race, except James Courtney because of their poor qualifying position. This is the norm in team strategies allowing the seasoned pros to later make up for any mishaps.

The co-drivers have to do a minimum of 54 laps before the main driver can get into the cars.

When the lights turned green to start the 161-lap race Luke Youlden bogged it down, which allowed Paul Dumbrell to take the race lead.

Chris Pither, co-driver with Garth Tander started in car 33 at 9th position on the grid but on lap 1 he was in the fence which put him at the back of the pack. (They eventually recovered finishing 9th which isn’t a bad effort at all)

Dean Canto Co-driver for Mark Winterbottom in the Tickford Racing team made contact with Luke Youlden. I thought there going steering damage as a result but remarkably somehow there wasn’t.

The first Vodafone Safety Car was deployed for Dean Fiore after he contacted the barrier on the exit of turn 4.  Then with the right front wheel wobbling all over the place he limped the Nissan Altama back to the pits

The 3 Triple 8 cars were running 1st, 2nd and 3rd for most of the race, all bar pit stops.

In the middle of race Jason Bright caused the second incident for the Vodafone Safety Car to be deployed because he bogged his car in the sand trap at turn 9 in a really dangerous spot.

Towards the end of the race I thought Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards were going to finish 2nd behind Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell in car 1.

Regardless, no one could catch or upset the 1, 2, 3 of the 3 Triple 8 cars lead. ‘Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner’ as quoted by Jeromy Moore in a race a few years back.

The funniest parts of the weekend was when commentator Chad Neylon was betting on who was going to win the Sandown 500 by using a horse racing tote. My first thought was, Chad this is not Horse Racing. At that point Scott Mclaughlin with Alex Premat were the Favourites to win.

Then on Supercars Trackside, Mark Larkham was trying to explain what the teams will have to do at Bathurst for the brake rotor change. By mishap the burning hot rotor fell off the car onto his foot. Mark Larkham exclaimed on national TV ‘Oh Shit!’. Too funny but glad he wasn’t hurt.

Result for 2018 Rabble Club Sandown 500

1st car 1 Jamie Whincup & Paul Dumbrell – Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
2nd car 97 Shane Van Gisbergen & Earl Bamber – Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
3rd car 888 Craig Lowndes & Steven Richards- Autobarn Lowndes Racing.

Now that Sandown has been run there are only 4 events left in the 2018 Supercars Championship.

Up next is the biggest event of the year, The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on the 4th to the 7th of October 2018.

To keep us all up to date on the event the Bathurst Channel launches on Monday the 1st of October 2018 and finishes on 7th of October 2018.  It should be a lot of fun.

Will Triple 8 Dominate at Bathurst like they did at Sandown with a 1, 2, 3 finish?

If you have any thoughts or opinion on how the weekend and the race panned out please feel free to let me know via my Facebook Fan page.

https://www.facebook.com/williamsperfectride/?ref=bookmarks

Bathurst 1000 2016 – Post Race Report

Hi to all you V8 Supercars fans

On the weekend of the 6th – 9th of October 2016 was the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. This is the one race that both Dad and I stay glued to the TV to watch the race, he goes for Craig Lowndes and I go for Jamie Whincup. We become armchair critics through the whole race… Hehe…

At the beginning of the race we had the main drivers in except for these co-drivers, Tony Dalberto, Renee Gracie and Aaron Russell.

Jamie Whincup started on pole position alongside him was Scott McLaughlin for the 161lap race.

On lap 1, Jamie Whincup got the jump and led everybody up Mountain Straight. Scott tried to him catch him at turn 2, Bloodstone bend but wasn’t able to get the move done. Going across the top of the mountain everyone had to stay single file until the cars got onto Conrod straight.

On lap 2, everyone had started to settle down into a race pace. But there were no safety cars for the first couple of hours.

On lap 3, with Jamie Whincup still out in front saying catch me if you can.

On lap 4, Shane Van Gisbergen tried to pass Garth Tander but wasn’t able to get it done unless the other driver left a lot of room.

On lap 5, the crowd did a standing 0oation for the late great Peter Brock. Lee Holdsworth’s car sounded sick.

On lap 6, the Red Bull team was happy to see Jamie Whincup pulling away early on.

On lap 7, the pack settled down Jamie Whincup started his 400th race, Rick Kelly went up the inside of Cameron Waters at turn 1.

On lap 8, Shane Van Gisbergen was in front of the three time Bathurst winner Garth Tander. Russell Ingall made his 25th start at Bathurst on the weekend.

On lap 9, Craig Lowndes was moving up   from 21st to 13th.

On lap 10, Rick Kelly was behind Chris Pither but he made contact with his car at turn 1.

On lap 11, the reason why most of the co drivers were ready just in case there was going to be an early Safety car.

On lap 12 Chris Pither had dropped all the way down to 25th as a result of contact with Rick Kelly.

On lap 13 Craig Lowndes was up to 12th spot after getting passed Tony Dalberto, after that he set his sights onto Will Davison.

On lap 14, the first car to make a pit stop was James Moffatt handing over to the rookie James Golding. The Nissan motorsport crew had to use the pit board due to radio failure.

On lap, Rick Kelly and Dale Wood pitted for a drive change tyre change and fuel. Rick had a 10 second stop and hold penalty at his next stop.

On lap 16, Craig Lowndes was chasing his teammate down for pit priority.

On lap 17, Dean Canto was chasing Jack Perkins.

On lap 18, Steven Richards came in to get fresh air and to not get caught up in traffic.

On lap 20, both Scott Pye and Matt Campbell nearly hit the wall coming out of the cutting and approaching the top of the mountain with the car was stuck in gear. Brad Jones Racing had an oil fire on the right front calliper. I was laughing at Mark Skaife and Neil Crompton when they said its pot of Penguins. Neil’s response ‘was handy if you’re at Phillip Island not so at Mount Panorama’.

On lap 21, then everybody started to file through one car at a time, because teams that have two or three cars have got to have different strategies from those that have only one.

On lap 22, the leaders stayed out on the track, meanwhile the cars further back pitted to not get caught up in traffic.

On lap 24, the leading cars were breaking laps records, Jamie Whincup holds the lap records at Bathurst now.

On lap 25, the next cars to stop were Jack Perkins along with Dean Canto respectively.

On lap 26, Rick Kelly was going off his brain about not having a good race which ultimately cost him any chance of a solid result.

On lap 27, Paul Dumbrell was sitting in the pits watching Jamie Whincup do his stuff in the car.

On lap 28, I couldn’t believe there was no safety car early. Drivers must have been behaving themselves.

on lap 29, the co-drivers were in the cars for their stint.

On lap 30, Paul Dumbrell still had the race lead by over 30 seconds.

On lap 31, Ash Walsh came into to hand car 14 back to Tim Slade in the process the Freightliner Racing doing the brake pad change, there was a fire due to the pistons popping out of the calliper which had put them 2 laps behind.

On lap 33, the leaders were still controlling the race out front Tim Slade was running 2nd behind car Jamie Whincup.

On lap 34, the Team Vortex crew had to put car 888 the defending winners of the great race, into the garage to repair the broken gear linkage.

On lap 35 in the middle of the race the Bathurst 1000 was still under green flag.

The first safety car wasn’t until lap 92, for the crash involving Andrew Jones.

On the restart the two Red Bull cars were in control of the race.

Towards the end of the race there was a safety car to rescue Frosty because he was stuck in the sand trap down at the chase.

With 10 laps to go Jamie Whincup was behind Scott McLaughlin going down the Conrod Straight then he was told to stay behind Scott McLaughlin for the redress due to an small tap previously. This end up causing an incident between Scott McLaughlin and Garth Tander. I’m sure you have heard all about it.

In the end, Will Davison and Jonathon Webb took the Bathurst 1000 victory which is Will’s second win and Jonathon Webb’s first Bathurst win.

Results for the 2016 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

1st – Will Davison & Jonathon Webb – Tekno Autosports.
2nd – Shane Van Gisbergen & Alex Premat – Red Bull Racing Australia.
3rd – Nick Percat & Cameron Mcconville – Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.

The Next event is the Castrol Gold Coast 600 on the 21st – 23rd of October 2016.

Now for some fun…