Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway win 2017 Sandown 500

The Prodrive Racing Australia duo of Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway claimed their maiden Supercars Championship victory in the 2017 Sandown 500, the first endurance round of the season.

The race was red-flagged after the first lap as Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport driver Taz Douglas suffered a puncture and went into the wall, escaping unharmed.

The race was resumed after the tyre wall had been repaired, meaning that the race was shortened from 161 laps to 125.

Waters and Stanaway were in control for the majority of the race, although being challenged in the first part of the race by the Triple Eight Race Engineering duo of Paul Dumbrell and Jamie Whincup.

However, a puncture ruined the race for the Holden duo, dropping them back to finish sixth.

Instead it was the DJR Team Penske duo of Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat that came closest to challenge Waters and Stanaway, but never got close enough to seriously challenge for the lead, crossing the line just seven tenths of a second behind in second place.

The second Triple Eight Race Engineering duo of Shane van Gisbergen and Matthew Campbell looked set to challenge for a podium finish after a strong first part of the race where van Gisbergen climbed from 19th on the grid to third at best, but a puncture on lap 107 dropped the Holden duo down to finish 16th after an extra pit stop for a tyre change.

Prodrive Racing Australia’s Chaz Mostert and Steve Owen were involved in the fight for third with van Gisbergen and were left alone to secure the final podium spot, following van Gisbergen’s puncture.

Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers Garth Tander and James Golding, who won the race last year, fought their way past DJR Team Penske driver Fabian Coulthard on the very last lap to finish fourth.

McLaughlin has strengthened his championship lead, currently 84 points ahead of Whincup. The next Supercars Championship round is the legendary Bathurst 1000 on October 8th.