Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of the 19th to the 21st of August 2022 was the Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint.
This will mark the 52nd event held at Sandown in ATCC – Supercars history. No venue has hosted more rounds than the Melbourne circuit. Its championship race history includes both endurance and sprint events. This weekend’s races will be the 80th, 81st and 82nd championship races to be held at the circuit.
In the opening race Lee Holdsworth will reach a career milestone, his 500th Supercars race start. The defending Bathurst co-champion will be just the 11th driver to achieve the feat, but the first to do so at the same venue as his first career race start. Lee Holdsworth made his Supercars debut at the 2004 Sandown 500. The Friday event will mark the 15th anniversary of the Penrite Racing’s drivers first championship race win at Oran Park in 2007.
Lee Holdsworth has announced his retirement from fulltime Supercars Racing at the end of this season. Congratulations Lee, best of luck for the future.
The weekend kicked off on Friday with the usual practice and qualifying sessions without any surprising results.
- Will Davison was fastest Practice 1.
- Jamie Whincup was fastest in Practice 2 for co-drivers only.
- Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 3.
- Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying.
In race 24 Will Davison started on pole position with Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.
At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen went straight to the inside covering any challenge from Will Brown right behind him. Anton de Pasquale was also making his challenge against Will Brown, but he too couldn’t make the pass.
The cars further back in the pack were settling into their race pace while the leaders were pulling away.
Will Davison had a margin of 0.985 seconds over the defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen.
Meanwhile, Broc Feeney was battling with Andre Heimgartner for positions 8th and 9th. As they approached turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Andre Heimgartner gave Broc Feeney a bump and turned him around. Broc Feeney went from 8th down to 25th position. He had lost 15 spots. The incident immediately went into investigation. After a short while Andre Heimgartner was issued a 15 second time penalty for the driving infringement.
As they crossed the line to commence lap 2 Will Davison only had a 0.720 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.647 seconds back to Will Brown in 3rd place.
James Courtney had gained one place and was up to 6th position.
Mark Winterbottom tried to get up the inside of James Courtney, but he didn’t let the pass happen.
Will Davison couldn’t increase his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen who was sticking to him like glue.
The front of the field was tightly packed. Through lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen was making it impossible for leader Will Davison to make any headway and kept the gap to about half a second. It was another 0.7 seconds back to Will Brown still in 3rd place with Anton de Pasquale just 0.8 seconds back. Thomas Randle was right behind and putting pressure on Anton de Pasquale.
A little further back in the pack, Brodie Kostecki was close in behind Andre Heimgartner. Cameron Waters had gained 2 places up to 10th and Chaz Mostert had moved up 1 spot into 12th.
Shane Van Gisbergen was still on the tail of leader Will Davison, ensuring the gap didn’t get to more than 1 second.
By lap 5 Brodie Kostecki had gained 6 positions to move into 8th place. His next target was 2015 Supercars Champion Mark Winterbottom.
Nick Percat had gained 5 places to move into 16th position right behind Lee Holdsworth, who had gained 3 places and was in 15th.
There were no changes at the tightly packed front of the field. Will Davison was still in the lead followed by Shane Van Gisbergen, Will Brown, Anton de Pasquale and Thomas Randle. Will Davison never being able to break past the 1 second lead.
On lap 6 Cameron Waters did the fastest lap of the race in 108.659 seconds but was still 6.3 seconds off the lead.
The first car to pit was Scott Pye in car 20 on lap 9. When he re-joined, he came back out in 22nd place.
On lap 10 Andre Heimgartner came into the pits and once done had to serve the 15 second penalty issued earlier. When he re-joined it was in 25th position.
On lap 11 David Reynolds broke the fastest lap time at 108.474 seconds.
It was only on lap 13 that Will Davison managed to break past the 1 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen.
Anton de Pasquale had dropped back from the top 5 to 9th place and came into the pits at the same time as James Courtney.
In the middle of the race more of the front runners, Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown came into for their pit stops. They came back out into 15th and 16th position.
At this point there was 14 cars still yet to pit.
Shortly after, Will Davison and Thomas Randle pitted from 1st and 2nd place.
On lap 19 as Will Davison and Thomas Randle were exiting the pits, Chaz Mostert was entering for his 1 and only compulsory pit stop. Will Davison re-joined as the affective lead of the race followed by Shane Van Gisbergen. and
There were still 11 cars yet to pit.
On lap 20 Thomas Randle got a bad sportsmanship flag for careless driving. A bad sportsmanship flag is only warning to tell the driver that he is running out of lives.
Then on lap 22, Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
On lap 23 Cameron Waters, Broc Feeney and Macauley Jones pitted, leaving Lee Holdsworth as the last car to pit.
Cameron Waters and Macauley Jones re-joined in 8th and 9th position.
With 12 laps to go Will Davison was finally making headway and had increased his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen to 3+ seconds. It was only 0.531 seconds back to Anton de Pasquale.
Lee Holdsworth pitted on lap 24. On the way back out his car stalled which cost a lot of time and he dropped to 24th position.
By lap 25 Will Davison resumed the physical lead of the race and now 3.8 seconds ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen and Anton de Pasquale.
Back in the pack cars in positions 14 to 17 were pretty vigorously battling. I thought Chris Pither was going to make contact with Nick Percat but didn’t. At one stage I thought they were all going to go off the track but somehow, they all stayed on.
On lap 28 Cameron Waters in car 6 also got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Chris Pither was dropping down the order quickly because of a delaminating tyre.
With 10 laps to go Broc Feeney was still fighting and got up the inside of Tim Slade for 16th position.
By lap 29 Will Davison had squeezed almost another second onto his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was now 4.765 seconds.
On lap 30 Will Davison broke past the 5 second mark on his lead.
With a clear track and not having to worry about defending his position he kept increasing his lead. In the end Will Davison absolutely dominated the race crossing the line 8.4 seconds clear of Shane Van Gisbergen, followed by Anton de Pasquale.
This was Will Davison’s 21st career victory in Supercars. Congratulations and happy 21st!
Results for Race 24:
1st Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing.
In race 25 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position and alongside him was Cameron Waters.
Will Davison started 11th on the grid due to an electrical problem during qualifying. There was no fire but a lot of smoke that filled the cabin of the Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang. Will Davison had to pull into the pits and get out of the car. Amazingly they got back out on the track before the end of qualifying and even with this interruption they managed to get a place just outside the top 10.
Chaz Mostert had problems of his own. Engine issues had Walkinshaw Andretti United stumped. Just prior the race they decided to do an engine change! To my amazement they managed this in 8 minutes. Can you imagine dropping your car off at the mechanic and having an engine change in under 10 minutes! I don’t think so.
As they took off from the start line Shane Van Gisbergen got the jump and Chaz Mostert stuck right behind him. Broc Feeney who started in 4th had a good run but was blocked in and had nowhere to go.
As Shane Van Gisbergen led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps, Cameron Waters was 1 back and 1 wide to Chaz Mostert.
Jack le Brocq went off the track between turns 2 and 3. As he was re-joining he made contact with another car. Unfortunately, it was his own teammate, Todd Hazelwood. The impact broke the left side steering arm of car 34 driven by Jack le Brocq. Todd Hazelwood in car 35 also had damage. He dropped back to 25th place and car 34 dropped 10 places to 24th. They bath limped around the track to make it back to the pits so were the first car in.
Within the first half lap Will Davison had gained 3 spots up to 8th place.
On lap 2 the front runners were still tightly packed. Chaz Mostert was only 0.250 seconds behind Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.416 back to Broc Feeney in 3rd place.
At turn 7 James Courtney went straight ahead over the top of the curb leaving the track. He recovered quickly enough to block an effort from Tim Slade trying to get up the inside of him so managed to hold onto his position in 14th.
Chaz Mostert’s attack on Shane Van Gisbergen was blocked and the leader was even able to edge further ahead a little to 0.499 seconds.
Broc Feeney was right behind Chaz Mostert putting in an effort to take his place in 2nd.
On lap 5 Cameron Waters and Will Davison made contact. After starting on the front row in 2nd position Cameron Waters had dropped 5 places from 2nd down to 7th position.
As the pack was approaching the end of the back straight, Andre Heimgartner made contact with Scott Pye. As a result Andre Heimgartner went straight ahead at turn 7 leaving Scott Pye and Cameron Waters in a messy battle still on track.
On lap 6 Lee Holdsworth was back in the pack. He was getting held up so pitted to try and get some clear track. No one else followed him into the pits.
The leaders were still bunched closely and Shane Van Gisbergen managed to only just get ahead of Chaz Mostert by 1.1 seconds. Chaz Mostert was tailed by Broc Feeney by a mere 0.563 seconds.
James Golding was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 7. He dropped all the way down to 21st position on his return to the track.
Thomas Randle also pitted on the same lap.
By lap 8 Shane Van Gisbergen could only manage to extend his lead to 1.7 seconds over Chaz Mostert.
Further back in the pack, Mark Winterbottom was putting pressure on Andre Heimgartner for 9th position.
They both pitted on the next lap and re-joined the race in 17th and 18th position.
At this point there were 16 cars yet to pit.
On lap 10 David Reynolds made contact with Cameron Waters on the exit of turn 1 and again on the exit of turns 2 and 3. Cameron Waters then copped another whack, this time from Brodie Kostecki in car 99.
By lap 11 Shane Van Gisbergen had increase his lead to 2.255 seconds over Chaz Mostert. Chaz Mostert had also finally shaken Broc Feeney off his tail and had a gap of 4.223 seconds.
On lap 13 Will Davison pitted but on leaving the crewman still had the rattle gun on the wheel. It didn’t cause any accident but the team was issued a pit lane infringement.
Getting close to the halfway mark of the race on lap 14, two of the front runners came into pit; Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney. They were fast stops and they came back out in 9th and 10th position.
Jack Smith in car 4 got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding the track limits.
On lap 21 Shane Van Gisbergen pitted with a + 14.8 second lead over Cameron Waters who had assumed 2nd place.
Towards the end of the race there were only 3 cars to pit, Tim Slade, Nick Percat and Bryce Fullwood. Once they pitted Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race once again.
From that point on Shane Van Gisbergen was in control. He had 3.8 second lead over Chaz Mostert and it was another 7.7 seconds back to David Reynolds.
As the race got close to the finish, Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging away. He just could not be caught. It was faultless driving and he crossed the line 7.5 seconds clear of the rest of the field. Chaz Mostert in 2nd place was followed 4+ seconds by Will Brown.
This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 15th win out of 25 races this season. That is 60% of the time he has been on the top step of the podium. That is the stuff legends are made of!
Results for Race 25:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
3rd Will Brown – Boost Mobile Racing.
In Race 26 Will Davison started on pole position with the defending Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.
As they took off at the start Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps.
Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to go around the outside of Will Davison but couldn’t make the ground and had to tuck back in behind.
The gap that the leaders had on the on rest of the field was huge.
At turn 3 four cars made contact and spun around to face the wrong way. The drivers involved were Jake Kostecki, Chris Pither, Macauley Jones and Todd Hazelwood. The drivers all got the cars moving again so there was no need for a lap 1 safety car to be deployed. The incident went into investigation but Motorsport Australia took no further action.
On lap 2 Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge looking for the lead of the race which he got at the second last corner.
Will Davison’s teammate Anton de Pasquale made contact with him and as a result Pasquale’s two front wheels were in the air. He had to come straight into the pits to have the damage on car 11 looked at. While in the pits he had dropped all the way down to 23rd position.
Will Davison also had damage on the front left corner of car 17. The guard was rubbing on the tyre, but he didn’t want to lose 2nd place so didn’t pit. The gap between Shane Van Gisbergen in 1st and Will Davison in 2nd was only 0.141 seconds.
Due to damage caused by the incident on lap 1, Todd Hazelwood had to also pit at the same time as Anton de Pasquale.
During lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen made a mistake coming out of turn 4. Will Davison tried to take advantage and regain the lead but Gisbergen recovered quickly and fended off the attack.
Behind the two leaders, Broc Feeney was putting pressure on Cameron Waters for 4th position. Chaz Mostert was unaffected in 3rd place.
On lap 6 Will Davison was proving a headache to Shane Van Gisbergen and had done the fastest lap of the race so far 109.365.
Chris Pither who was involved in the 4-car accident on lap 1 finally had to pit for rear tyres and bonnet repair on car 22.
Jack le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner also pitted on this lap.
In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen pitted. On the re-join to the race he only dropped to 8th position.
Shane Van Gisbergen had Chaz Mostert right behind him in 9th but in effect they were battling for 1st and 2nd with the 7 cars ahead still yet to pit. Broc Feeney was behind them in 3rd but was 38 seconds further back.
On lap 20 Cameron Waters and Will Brown pitted from 4th and 5th.
Andre Heimgartner left the track at turn 7. He was issued a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
On lap 23 Will Davison who was in the lead had to pit. Now Lee Holdsworth was the only one left to do so. Once that happened Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race.
When Will Davison re-joined the race it wasn’t long before he returned to 2nd place just 2.2 seconds from Shane Van Gisbergen.
Within the last 10 laps Chaz Mostert was under pressure from his ex-teammate Cameron Waters. Right behind them was Broc Feeney trying to look for a gap to make his move.
Mark Winterbottom was further back and he got a bad sportsman flag for exceeding track limits.
Tim Slade had gained 5 spots and was now up to 7th position.
For 2 laps in a row Chaz Mostert was under attack from Cameron Waters trying to earn 3rd place. Chaz Mostert was able to hold him off.
Will Davison was desperate to catch Shane Van Gisbergen and did the fastest lap of the race 108.613 seconds.
Heading down into turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Cameron Waters locked up the front right brakes and went off the track. He came back on in 10th position. It gave Broc Feeney the opportunity he was looking for and he moved up to 4th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.3 second lead over Will Davison. It was another 6.6 seconds back to Chaz Mostert then only another 0.605 seconds back to Broc Feeney.
On lap 33 Broc Feeney finally passed Chaz Mostert for 3rd position.
Shane Van Gisbergen held his lead but only just. He crossed the line a mere 0.4611 seconds ahead of Will Davison.
Broc Feeney crossed the line 11.3437 seconds later in 3rd place.
This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 2nd win for the weekend, earning him a commanding 500 points lead over Cameron Waters in the Driver’s championship for the season. It was also his 70th career win in Supercars. This is the stuff legends are made of. Congratulations Shane!
Results for Race 26
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
The next event is the ITM Auckland Supersprint September 9th to the 11th.