Photo: Red Bull Racing Australia

Triple Eight 1-2 in the standings after strong Sandown showing

Jamie Whincup has extended his lead in the drivers’ standings after winning the Sandown 500 along with co-driver Paul Dumbrell, while fourth for Craig Lowndes and Steve Richards was enough to move Lowndes into second overall heading to the Bathurst 1000km.

Whincup and Dumbrell dominated proceedings at the 500km Sandown race, while Richards and Lowndes set about moving forward from seventh on the grid, at one point set to finish on the podium until a delay on their final pit stop dropped them behind the Holden Racing Team car of Garth Tander and Warren Luff.

“Our day was pretty straight forward which was perfect for us,” said Whincup. “Paul handed it over with a good lead and even when we had a safety car there was a bit of lapped traffic between us and the Holden Racing Team which worked in our favour.”

The new partnership in the #888 car with Lowndes partnered by Steve Richards, who previous competed with Triple Eight’s chief rival Ford Performance Racing at the endurance events, went well on their first outing, fighting all the way to fourth, finishing just behind the on-form HRT Commodores.

“Steve and I worked really well together today and he likes the car set up the same fashion as I do so that’s definitely an upside,” said Lowndes.

“I suppose the downside was we just didn’t have the race pace that we were after. Jamie and Paul’s car was better than ours today so they were able to sprint when they needed to and conserve when they needed to so that’s something we’ll be working on.”

A tough race for Mark Winterbottom, including a spin for co-driver Steve Owen shortly before the driver change which dropped the #5 car down the order, saw the early season points leader slip behind the two Triple Eight cars, which left him a little downbeat after the race.

“It is a long day when the car isn’t doing what you want it to. Usually in the short races you can make changes in between but that isn’t possible in the Enduros,” said Winterbottom. “Steve did his best with what we had but I actually think we might find something not quite right when we look over it. At least I hope we do. I’m not making excuses, there just needs to be a reason as the front end was bouncing all over the place. That has never happened before so we’ll have a thorough look. Either way it doesn’t change the outcome.”

The next round of the Championship is the Bathurst 1000km race at Mount Panorama on October 12th.