Sandown 500 winner Mark Winterbottom penalised for burnout

Sandown 500 race winner Mark Winterbottom has been given a 3000 AUD fine for performing his celebration burnout before turn one.

The Prodrive Racing Australia was nonetheless overjoyed after the victory, his first at Sandown since 2006, with co-drover Steve Owen.

“It was an awesome day and to win an endurance race is always special. They are a big day and a lot of effort goes in. It is great to finally get it done. The last time the team and I won this race was back in ’06 and I was in the garage watching (Jason Bright) and cheering him on so it was a totally different feeling. I am really proud of the team and Steve for his efforts,” said Winterbottom.

The Ford driver has thanks to the victory further extended his lead in the championship to 2215 points, a full 198 points ahead of team mate Chaz Mostert who finished second in the race yesterday.

“I was pushing Mark pretty hard and trying to catch him but he got away in the first five to 10 laps. I started to close it up and it was exciting to put on a bit of a show at the end. I tried really hard to catch him but he was just too quick today,” said Mostert.

With Ford colleague David Reynolds finishing fifth in the race, it means that we have got a Ford 1-2-3 in the championship with Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Craig Lowndes dropping to fourth position.

Next up is the legendary Bathurst 1000 race on October 11th.