Chahda’s biggest takeout from Sandown wildcard

The Super2 stalwart and his eponymous family team is amid an ambitious two-event wildcard campaign covering Sandown and Bathurst.

Chahda (through sponsor Cavalier Homes) acquired a Triple Eight Camaro for the project, building on a 2022 Bathurst 1000 wildcard undertaken with a leased WAU Commodore.

The 30-year-old plans to step out of Super2 next year to focus on a multi-round Supercars wildcard program and has gained confidence from the Sandown showing.

Chahda and rookie co-driver Brad Vaughan qualified at the back of the 26-car grid and finished on the lead lap in 19th place.

“The target was to beat a few people, which we definitely did, even on pace, and finish on the lead lap,” Chahda told Speedcafe.

“It was a dress rehearsal for some of those things, the driver changes, the pitstops, everything else. Minimising mistakes was one of the objectives as well.”

Chahda’s team brought a much-celebrated privateer spirit back to the Supercars main game, but was wary of looking out of place.

“We’re the only people along the whole grid who don’t do it full-time,” he added, having gained last-minute support from Boost Mobile amid a wave of supportive public sentiment.

“It’s been insanely busy but stoked to not look like we don’t belong. We were genuinely able to race with the field and didn’t look out of place.

“We presented ourselves and acted more professionally than a lot of the professionals out there. That was one of our targets.”

Not everything went smoothly on Sunday.

Vaughan was one of several to pick up a 15-second time penalty for exceeding the 80km/h speed limit under Safety Car.

There was a second punishment post-race; a $1,500 fine and the somewhat inconsequential loss of 30 teams’ championship points for a stray wheel nut during a pit stop.

Chahda noted that Vaughan’s Safety Car error was an easy one to make.

“You don’t get a chance to rehearse this stuff, the first time I saw that screen was at full noise during the race,” he said.

“I was trying to find where the countdown timer was. It’s not simple. You saw it caused some issues throughout the field.

“But I had to get some of those things out of the way before Bathurst. Our objective there is to have a clean race.”

Chahda’s team shared a pit box and crew with Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes/Cooper Murray wildcard, which scored an outstanding fifth place.