FEENEY AND WHINCUP CLAIM 2023 PENRITE SANDOWN 500

Broc Feeney teamed with his Red Bull Ampol Racing team boss to win the 2023 Penrite Sandown 500.

Jamie Whincup provided the winning edge during the opening stanza of the race where most teams elected to start with the co-drivers.

Whincup started the race from the third row of the grid and made short work of Tander and Moffat for third. He trailed the Coca Cola Racing by Erebus Camaros by the second lap, with pole sitter Jack Perkins taking the early lead in the #9 while Dave Russell rode shotgun in the #99 entry.

It didn’t take long for Whincup to work his way past Russell and then Perkins for the lead. His cause perhaps helped by the two drivers ahead balancing the merits of track position against the possibility of race ending incidents for their championship aspirant teammates.

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A move up the inside of Russell at Turn 4 brought Whincup onto the tail of Perkins on Lap 4. He then took control of the race with a more conventional overtake at Turn 1 two laps later.

It was a very different story for the second of the Red Bull Ampol Racing cars. Shane van Gisbergen had qualified the #97 in a lowly 19th position and co-driver Richie Stanaway was tasked with the job of moving the car back up the field. He gained two places in the opening lap, well aware that another 160 stil lay ahead.

International driver Kevin Estre held third place during the opening skirmishes in the race, just ahead of the sister car of David Reynolds and Garth Tander. It was no mean feat for a driver that had never before raced at Sandown and in his Supercar debut.

The second Grove Racing Penrite Camaro became the first casualty of the race after a high speed incident at The Esses.

Garth Tander had just crested the rise on the approach to The Esses on Lap 19 when things went horribly wrong. The car shed the left rear wheel, sending Tander on a series of high-speed spins and into the armco barriers. The car eventually came to a halt in the Turn 9 sandtrap.

The errant wheel bounced across the circuit, taking out the rear wing of the Monster Energy Mustang in the process.

“It turned around the wrong way at the end of the hill,” Tander said after the crash.

“I felt on the lap before that something was either bending, or something was going on in the left-rear. I was about to ask [race engineer] Al [McVean] up the back straight, because we were expecting a wind direction change, and I thought it was pulling the car around a bit.

“At no point did I think the wheel was loose. I didn’t get any alarms on the dash that the tyre was going down.

The incident brought out the Safety Car, triggering a flurry of pitstop activity. A shorter stop for the #9 Coca Cola Racing by Erebus entry saw Perkins regain the advantage over Whincup as differing race strategies began to unfold.

Whincup repeated his earlier overtake on Perkins at Turn 1 to regain the lead of the race as the lap chart ticked over to 41 laps. Estre had moved into third, followed by the Caruso/Winterbottom,  and Blanchard/Hazelwood machines. Triple Eight Race Engineering wildcard entry of Lowndes and Goddard had leapfrogged the second Red Bull Ampol Racing for 14th place.

By the time the regular drivers were handed the wheels of their respective machines, Broc Feeney enjoyed a twelve plus second gap over his rivals.

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On lap 119, it was Brodie Kostecki who finally got the better of Will brown in their intra-team battle for second place, while a combination of great driving and pitstop strategy had Shane van Gisbergen in third, nine-seconds behind the Coca Cola Racing by Erebus cars.

Brown later admitted to having trouble to maintain rear-end grip in is Camaro, which affected the life of the tyres. The issue played a key role in the eventual battle for a podium finish.

Kostecki had halved Feeney’s lead when a second Safety Car was called with 21 laps of the race left to run. Cameron Hill had run wide at the exit of The Esses and run along the fence into the Turn 9 gravel trap.

Racing resumed on Lap 143 with just the lapped Nulon Racing #31 of James Golding between Kostecki and the leader.

Feeney controlled the restart to perfection and edged away from the field, contrary to the popular belief that Kostecki would simply overpower the leader.

An incident between Fraser, Mostert and Courtney had the Tradie Mustang facing the wrong direction at the exit of Turn 4, though all three were quickly back in the race with no obvious damage.

The gap between Feeney and Kostecki closed to within two-tenths of a second as the race approached the 150 lap mark, though the Red Bull car appeared to grow wings just as a possible overtake loomed large on the horizon.

The countdown to the end of the race moved from laps to a time certain finish as Feeney continued to fend of Kostecki and Brown.

It became a Red Bull Ampol Racing 1-3 on Lap 144 when a small misjudgement on a gear change saw Brown run across the tarmac run-off and handing third place to van Gisbergen in the process.

Feeney managed to maintain a gap of just under a second for the remaining moments of the race to take his first Sandown 500 race win from Kostecki and van Gisbergen. Brown, Heimgartner, Payne, Davison, De Pasquale, Slade and Goddard completed the Top 10.

“Today was awesome, there’s no other way to describe that feeling,” Feeney said to Red Bull Ampol Racing media.

“It was pretty special to win today and under the circumstances at the end was very tough. My co-driver Jamie did a fantastic job to get us in the position up the front so we could get clean air, but the safety car got rid of that and it was game on until the end.”

Jamie Whincup was more than happy to share another Sandown 500 victory as a co-driver.

“The feeling of winning another Sandown 500 is incredible,” he told Red Bull Ampol Racing Media.

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“ I’ve always said that is doesn’t matter if you cross the line or you’re a co-driver, it’s still the same feeling that’s for sure. I don’t think you should underestimate the job Broc did in the last stint. That was as tough as it gets with all three cars breathing down his neck and it was a true four-way battle. To keep your nerve at a huge event like the Sandown 500 is very difficult and he did a fantastic job.”

With the new Gen 3 cars due to front the Repco Bathurst 1000 in a little over two and a half weeks, the first distance race 2023 provided an invaluable guide on what might lay ahead. With concerns over possible fuel related fires or brake failures now somewhat relieved after a relatively trouble free half distance event at Sandown, teams can prepare for what promised to be another epic battle in what has been billed as the 60th Bathurst event.

SEE VELOCITY’S FULLSANDOWN GALLERY HERE 

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