With the 2023 Penrite Oil Sandown 500 run and won, we ask which of the 54 drivers in the race impressed you the most, in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
The usual Repco Supercars Championship field of 25 swelled with the addition of enduro co-drivers and two wildcard entries, but the end result was a familiar story.
Triple Eight Race Engineering and Erebus Motorsport went toe-to-toe and it was the former which came out on top, thanks to the exploits of Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro.
Read through our shortlist below, then vote for who impressed you the most; drivers are listed as combos, but voting is on individuals.
1st Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering, #88 Camaro (Start 5th)
Just when it looked like Erebus might have the edge on Triple Eight again, Feeney and Whincup got the job done – just.
Starting from position five, Whincup needed only as many laps to climb to the lead, only to fall behind Jack Perkins again in the pits.
The seven-time champion carved up his fellow co-drivers to earn the track position for Feeney, but then it was left to the 20-year-old to withstand big pressure from Brodie Kostecki in the final laps and clinch his biggest honour so far.
2nd Brodie Kostecki/David Russell, Erebus Motorsport, #99 Camaro (Start 2nd)
Brodie Kostecki was perhaps his own harshest critic post-race when he admitted he “didn’t really play my cards right” in using up his tyres trying to catch Feeney before the second and final Safety Car period of the race.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course, and it is with the benefit of hindsight that his slightly untidy Top 10 Shootout lap becomes even more significant, given the provisional pole-sitter left David Russell to start to the outside of Perkins on the front row in the sister Coca-Cola Camaro.
As Kostecki had pondered on race eve, track position proved critical when Car #99 had to stack behind Car #9 under the first Safety Car period and, while Russell was able to recover most of the track position before completing his driving, it was a bridge slightly too far for them.
3rd Shane van Gisbergen/Richie Stanaway, Triple Eight Race Engineering, #97 Camaro (Start 19th)
A podium looked unlikely when Shane van Gisbergen made a mess of qualifying but, if anyone could salvage something from there, it would be him.
Richie Stanaway gradually drove from 19th on the grid to hand over Car #97 in an effective ninth or 10th position, and van Gisbergen did the rest.
A stellar effort, or merely making up for a poor showing on Saturday afternoon? You be the judge.
4th Will Brown/Jack Perkins, Erebus Motorsport, #99 Camaro (Start 1st)
Will Brown and Jack Perkins looked on for a podium until the former squirmed off the road with less than five laps to go, ceding third position to van Gisbergen.
A day earlier, he had qualified on pole position before Perkins won a race to the first corner which, as noted above, proved very significant indeed.
They gave themselves a fighting chance when their team-mates appeared to have slightly more pace but Brown put his hand up for the late error, while also revealing that tyre life was a relative struggle all race as well.
5th Andre Heimgartner/Dale Wood, Brad Jones Racing, #8 Camaro (Start 15th)
The showing of Brad Jones Racing’s #8 R&J Batteries Camaro was certainly one which went under the radar, considering the 10 positions which it made up over the course of 158 laps.
After none of the Albury squad’s four cars qualified in the top half of the field, Dale Wood gained a handful of positions during his stints before Andre Heimgartner continued their stride deep into the top 10.
He was kept on his toes in the closing stages too, with both Heimgartner and fellow New Zealander Matt Payne lighting up the timing screen in the battle for fifth.
6th Matt Payne/Kevin Estre, Grove Racing, #19 Mustang (Start 7th)
Speaking of which, Payne and Kevin Estre are looking like two shrewd signings for Grove Racing, and for similar reasons.
The young Kiwi was quick but crash-prone in Super2, yet is showing why team owner Stephen Grove plucked him from relative obscurity and put him on a fast-track to the Repco Supercars Championship.
Estre pushed the limits in testing and practice but the Frenchman is a factory Porsche driver for a reason, and was more than capable of mixing it with far more experienced Supercars co-drivers on Sunday.
While the parity debate rages, it is worth noting also that the #19 Penrite Mustang was the top finishing Ford.
10th Craig Lowndes/Zane Goddard, Triple Eight Race Engineering, #888 Camaro (Start 23rd)
It was an up and down afternoon for Triple Eight’s Supercheap Auto-backed wildcard entry, which ran as high as sixth on merit.
In something of a co-driver role, although not officially, Craig Lowndes showed why he is still a force to be reckoned with in the enduro arena.
Credit also to Zane Goddard for earning qualifying duties in the #888 Camaro.
DNF David Reynolds/Garth Tander, Grove Racing, #26 Mustang (Start 8th)
Rare it is that first retirement makes the shortlist, it is worth at least acknowledging Garth Tander’s speed in David Reynolds’ Grove Racing Mustang before the wheels – one, anyway – quite literally fell off.
From eighth on the grid, he was fifth after one lap and sat fourth when he pirouetted into the fence at Dandenong Road on Lap 19.
Which of the aforementioned drivers, or even another, impressed you most at the Sandown 500? Cast your vote below in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
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