Photo: TeamVodafone

Endurance season begins with Sandown 500 return

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This weekend the V8 Supercars’ season of endurance begins at Sandown Raceway in Victoria with the Sandown 500. It marks the return of the Sandown to its traditional place as the Bathurst lead-in race, with the 500km race having being held on the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit since 2008.

After a dramatic two races at Sydney Motorsport Park, Jamie Whincup currently leads the 2012 championship for Triple Race Engineering ahead of Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom. The defending champion’s lead over Winterbottom is slender with a single point separating the pair.

Winterbottom’s team mate, Will Davison, is 122 points behind Whincup in third, with the championship leader’s team mate Craig Lowndes in fourth and 154 points behind. With 200 points on offer to the winner of the 500km race the stakes are high for the championship contenders and their co-drivers.

The last time this event was held at Sandown, in 2007, it was Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes who took the victory for Triple Eight Race Engineering having started from fifth. It was the team’s second Sandown 500 win in three years and the last time they took the 500km endurance race victory for Ford.

Since 2010 V8 Supercars teams have been banned from pairing their regular drivers for the endurance races. The 2011 500km race saw the Triple Eight Race Engineering pairing of Craig Lowndes and endurance co-driver Mark Skaife take their second consecutive Phillip Island 500 victory.

28 cars will be competing in this year’s event, with 43 Australians, 10 New Zealanders, one Dane, one Austrian and one Frenchman in the field. There are no wildcard entries for the Sandown 500.

Qualifying for the Sandown 500, to be held on Saturday, is different to the qualifying of the sprint events with one qualifying sessions and two qualifying races determining the final grid position for each of the 28 cars. In the first session the car is qualified for the first of two sprint races; with the co-driver in the car for race one. The starting position of the lead driver in race two will be determined by the previous race’s finishing positions. The final grid is determined by the result of race two.

The Sandown 500, round 20 of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship, will be held on Sunday at 13:35 AEST and will consist of 161 laps.

Sandown Weekend Schedule

Friday 13th September
Free Practice 1 – 01:15 BST
Free Practice 2 – 03:05 BST
Free Practice 3 – 05:00 BST

Saturday 14th September
Free Practice 4 – 00:40 BST
Qualifying – 02:40 BST
Qualifying Race 1 – 05:45 BST
Qualifying Race 2 – 07:38 BST

Sunday 9th October
Warm up – 01:15 BST
Race – 04:35 BST

Sandown Entry List

No – Driver 1/Driver 2 – Team – Car
1 – Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell – Triple Eight Race Engineering – Holden
2 – Garth Tander/Nick Percat – Holden Racing Team – Holden
3 – Tony D’Alberto/Dale Wood – Tony D’Alberto Racing – Ford
4 – Lee Holdsworth/Craig Baird – Stone Brothers Racing – Ford
5 – Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards – Ford Performance Racing – Ford
6 – Will Davison/John McIntyre – Ford Performance Racing – Ford
7 – Todd Kelly/Tim Blanchard – Kelly Racing – Holden
8 – Jason Bright/Andrew Jones – Brad Jones Racing – Holden
9 – Shane van Gisbergen/Luke Youlden – Stone Brothers Racing – Ford
11 – Karl Reindler/Daniel Gaunt – Kelly Racing – Holden
12 – Dean Fiore/Matthew Halliday – Triple F Racing – Ford
14 – Fabian Coulthard/David Besnard- Brad Jones Racing – Holden
15 – Rick Kelly/David Russell – Kelly Racing – Holden
17 – Steven Johnson/Allan Simonsen – Dick Johnson Racing – Ford
18 – James Moffat/Alex Davison – Dick Johnson Racing – Ford
19 – Jonathon Webb/Scott McLaughlin – Tekno Autosports – Holden
21 – David Wall/Chris Pither – Brad Jones Racing – Holden
22 – James Courtney/Cameron McConville – Holden Racing Team – Holden
30 – Taz Douglas/Scott Pye – Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport – Holden
33 – Alexandre Premat/Jack Perkins – Garry Rogers Motorsport – Holden
34 – Michael Caruso/Greg Ritter – Garry Rogers Motorsport – Holden
47 – Tim Slade/Andrew Thompson – Stone Brothers Racing – Ford
49 – Steve Owen/Paul Morris – Paul Morris Motorsport – Ford
51 – Greg Murphy/Owen Kelly – Kelly Racing – Holden
55 – David Reynolds/Dean Canto – Ford Performance Racing – Ford
66 – Russell Ingall/Christian Klien – Walkinshaw Racing- Holden
91 – Michael Patrizi/Jonny Reid – Tekno Autosports – Holden
888 – Craig Lowndes/Warren Luff – Triple Eight Race Engineering – Holden

All Holdens are Holden Commodore VE IIs.
All Fords are Ford Falcon FGs.