Van Gisbergen on pole for Sandown 500

The Stone Brothers Racing pairing of Shane van Gisbergen and Luke Youlden will start from pole position for the 500km race at Sandown Raceway tomorrow.

The grid for the Sandown 500 was set by one qualifying session and two qualifying races. As expected the main drivers were in the car for the qualifying session. This determined where the co-driver started the first qualifying race with their result determining where the main driver started the second qualifying race. The two drivers of the winning car each received 50 points for the race win.

Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison was at the top of the timesheets after the first qualifying session with a new qualifying record. This saw co-driver John McIntyre start on pole for qualifying race one. After getting off to a good start McIntyre was overtaken by the Stone Brothers Racing Falcon of Luke Youlden at Turn 4 on the second lap. Youlden was able to hold onto the position until the end of the 20 lap race in spite of coming under increasing pressure.

There was drama on the opening lap of the first race with Paul Morris making contact with the Brad Jones Racing Commodore of David Besnard who made contact with Steven Richards as a result. Richards fought back to finish 19th but his efforts were in vain as the car was excluded post-race as it was taken from Parc Ferme after the race prior to receiving the Category Technical Director’s permission. As a result Mark Winterbottom did not earn any points for the race, allowing Jamie Whincup to increase his championship leading margin.

Youlden’s efforts meant that Shane van Gisbergen started on pole for the second qualifying race. However it was second placed Jamie Whincup who led the field after the opening lap. The safety car was brought out on lap six for the retrieval of the Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport Holden of Taz Douglas after an off at Turn 12. Van Gisbergen took the lead in the latter stages of the race after an off by Jamie Whincup at Turn 9, who then slipped further back through the field after making contact with the wall at Turn 4.

Van Gisbergen held onto the position and as a result he and co-driver Luke Youlden will start on pole for tomorrow’s 500km race. The pair’s win in both of the races netted them each the maximum 100 points on offer for qualifying. Lining up in second on the grid will be Ford Performance Racing’s David Reynolds and co-driver Dean Canto. Garth Tander and Nick Percat will start third for the Holden Racing Team.

The Stone Brothers racing pairing of Tim Slade and Andrew Thompson will start five places lower than their qualifying position of fourth as a result of a penalty received after the first practice session yesterday.

UPDATE: The Dick Johnson Racing pairing of James Moffat and Alex Davison were also given a five-place grid penalty for the Sandown 500 race. The pair were penalised for Moffat’s involvement in an incident in the second qualifying race and will start from 16th as a result.

The Sandown 500 race will be held on Sunday at 13:35 AEST (4:35 BST).