Erebus Motorsport celebrates best result at Sandown 500

Lee Holdsworth and Craig Baird secured the best result so far for Erebus Motorsport in today’s Sandown 500 with fourth position.
“This has been so rewarding after where we were at Winton. We were really close to the podium, it was rewarding for all of us, the Erebus Motorsport team and all the sponsors for believing in what we could achieve,” said Holdsworth.

The Mercedes duo started a low 19th on the grid but climbed the order steadily during the race and was right on the bumper on third placed Ford duo of Will Davison and Steve Owen over the finishing line.
“From a strategy point, the boys did everything they had to do, they ticked the boxes, stuck to the strategy and didn’t get ahead of themselves, I couldn’t ask for anything more as a co-driver to come into a team such as this,” said Baird.

Team-mates Tim Slade and Andrew Thompson had qualified a solid eighth on the grid and was close to Holdsworth/Baird during the race in the top, only to drop down the order after a fuel filling issue in the final scheduled pit stop.
“It was another great job from Andrew – I didn’t have the pace of Lee and I’m not sure we could have kept with him at the end. I think we had a solid car, we had a lot better pace than other people. We lost some time in the pits with the fuel. Once the drama happened with the fuel fill, we just came in and changed the tyres to some older tyres for the finish. “We never had the outright pace, but we had at times a top five car, which all looks promising heading to Bathurst and for the remainder of the year,” said Slade.

Slade remains as the best Mercedes driver in the championship in 21st position with four races remaining of the season.