Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup wins the Sandown 500
Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup won the first endurance race of the 2023 Supercars Championship season in the Sandown 500.
Triple Eight Race Engineering team manager Whincup took the #88 Chevrolet Camaro to a strong lead in the first part of the race before handing over to Feeney.
But a late safety car period meant that Feeney lost the comfortable lead and instead came under under attack from Erebus Motorsport driver Brodie Kostecki.
A first safety car session came as Grove Racing driver Garth Tander dropped his left-rear wheel, spinning off into the gravel at Turn 9.
Tander’s wheel then hit the rear wing of James Moffat’s Ford Mustang, forcing him to pit for repairs.
The field was released again on lap 26, with Jack Perkins then leading ahead of Whincup and Michael Caruso.
The second and final safety car session came with 20 laps remaining as Cameron Hill beached his car in the gravel at Dandenong Road due to a steering issue.
Feeney was ahead by just below six seconds at that stage as Kostecki was gaining behind him.
The field was released with 18 laps to go, with Feeney, Kostecki and Will Brown close in the fight for the top three.
But Brown made a mistake with four laps left and lost third place to reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen.
Feeney won the race ahead of Kostecki and van Gisbergen, while Brown, Andre Heimgartner and Matthew Payne rounded off the top six.
Kostecki heads the standings on 2171 points, van Gisbergen is second on 2016 and Feeney is third on 1967.
Next up for the Supercars Championship field is the Bathurst 1000 on October 5-8.
