The Stone Brothers Racing Ford of Shane van Gisbergen and Luke Youlden will start the Dick Smith Sandown 500 from pole position after sweeping the two Saturday qualifying races.
While Youlden led every lap of Qualifying Race 1, Van Gisbergen dropped from pole to third on the opening lap of the second encounter.
The Kiwi inherited second nine corners in when Will Davison ran off at Turn 9, before taking the top spot from Jamie Whincup when the TeamVodafone driver made the same error 12 laps later.
Whincup rejoined third, before dropping a further 20 places with a second off at Turn 4 on the following lap. The #1 Holden is set to start the 500 from a season-worst 19th.
The David Reynolds/Dean Canto Ford will share the front row with the SBR entry after Reynolds took the chequered flag 3s adrift of Van Gisbergen.
Garth Tander and Tim Slade took third and fourth respectively after exchanging places on the final lap. The latter’s car will start tomorrow’s race from ninth however due to a grid penalty for a practice incident on Friday.
Michael Caruso finished Qualifying Race 2 in fifth place from Rick Kelly, Craig Lowndes, James Courtney, Jonathon Webb and Jason Bright.
Like his team-mate, Lowndes endured a frantic race – dropping as low as 13th with an off of his own at Turn 9 while running third.
Fellow title contender Davison finished just 27th after being forced to pit for a new steering arm mid-race. The Trading Post Falcon had been following James Moffat and Lee Holdsworth when the two came together at Turn 1 – bouncing the IRWIN Ford into Davison’s path.
FPR team-mate Mark Winterbottom finished 16th having started from the back after car #5 was excluded for a perc ferme infringement following Qualifying Race 1.
Rounding out the field in Qualifying Race 2 was Taz Douglas, who triggered the only Safety Car period of the afternoon by becoming stuck on the grass at the entry to Turn 12.
The gap between Whincup and Winterbottom in the championship now stands at 44 points after the pair of qualifying races.
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s Qualifying Race 1 report and results
See below for the Qualifying Race 2 result, which doubles as the starting grid for the Dick Smith Sandown 500
| 1 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:32.6693 |
| 2 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:35.6967 |
| 3 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:38.6409 |
| 4 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:40.0281 |
| 5 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:45.2923 |
| 6 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:45.4817 |
| 7 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:49.1528 |
| 8 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:50.1379 |
| 9 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:50.9158 |
| 10 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:50.9172 |
| 11 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:51.6226 |
| 12 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:53.0977 |
| 13 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:53.6085 |
| 14 | Team Hiflex | Tony D’Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:54.6905 |
| 15 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:54.9763 |
| 16 | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:55.3857 |
| 17 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:56.2987 |
| 18 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:56.6273 |
| 19 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:57.1467 |
| 20 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 25:59.0237 |
| 21 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 25:59.8946 |
| 22 | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Ford Falcon FG | 20 | 26:00.9751 |
| 23 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 26:03.0019 |
| 24 | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 26:05.0472 |
| 25 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 26:07.1345 |
| 26 | Pepsi Max Crew | Greg Murphy | Holden Commodore VE2 | 20 | 26:18.9078 |
| 27 | Trading Post FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 18 | 26:12.8789 |
| 28 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas | Holden Commodore VE2 | 18 | 26:36.3899 |
See below for the updated points standings
| 1 | Jamie Whincup | 2300 |
| 2 | Mark Winterbottom | 2256 |
| 3 | Will Davison | 2164 |
| 4 | Craig Lowndes | 2153 |
| 5 | Shane van Gisbergen | 1734 |
| 6 | Garth Tander | 1604 |
| 7 | Tim Slade | 1534 |
| 8 | Fabian Coulthard | 1461 |
| 9 | Lee Holdsworth | 1329 |
| 10 | David Reynolds | 1268 |
| 11 | James Courtney | 1223 |
| 12 | Michael Caruso | 1211 |
| 13 | Jason Bright | 1197 |
| 14 | Russell Ingall | 1184 |
| 15 | Todd Kelly | 1118 |
| 16 | Rick Kelly | 1114 |
| 17 | Steven Johnson | 1069 |
| 18 | Jonathon Webb | 1006 |
| 19 | Michael Patrizi | 1000 |
| 20 | Steve Owen | 982 |
| 21 | Dean Fiore | 891 |
| 22 | Tony D’Alberto | 869 |
| 23 | James Moffat | 700 |
| 24 | Taz Douglas | 688 |
| 25 | Karl Reindler | 674 |
| 26 | David Wall | 651 |
| 27 | Alexandre Premat | 604 |
| 28 | Greg Murphy | 338 |
| 29 | Luke Youlden | 100 |
| 30 | David Russell | 99 |
| 31 | Dean Canto | 89 |
| 32 | Nick Percat | 77 |
| 33 | Andrew Thompson | 70 |
| 34 | Warren Luff | 69 |
| 35 | Greg Ritter | 65 |
| 36 | Paul Dumbrell | 62 |
| 37 | Scott McLaughlin | 60 |
| 38 | Cameron McConville | 54 |
| 39 | Alex Davison | 50 |
| 40 | Andrew Jones | 48 |
| 41 | John McIntyre | 48 |
| 42 | Craig Baird | 43 |
| 43 | Dale Wood | 40 |
| 44 | Tim Blanchard | 36 |
| 45 | Matthew Halliday | 34 |
| 46 | Chris Pither | 32 |
| 47 | David Besnard | 29 |
| 48 | Jack Perkins | 27 |
| 49 | Owen Kelly | 23 |
| 50 | Paul Morris | 21 |
| 51 | Jonny Reid | 21 |
| 52 | Daniel Gaunt | 21 |
| 53 | Scott Pye | 20 |
| 54 | Steven Richards | 19 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Sandown 500 Race Guide
