The Supercars pecking order ahead of Bathurst 1000

James Golding is the man on the move in the drivers’ standings after his third place finish at Sandown.

The PremiAir Racing driver surged from ninth to sixth in the standings and is within striking distance of the top five with a 145-point deficit to fifth-placed Matt Payne of Penrite Racing.

Will Brown’s win with Scott Pye at Sandown helped him to extend his lead, growing the advantage over Chaz Mostert from 81 points to 189 points.

The title picture could have been a lot worse for Mostert after some late fortune earned he and co-driver Lee Holdsworth a seventh place finish.

The Mobil 1 Optus Racing duo looked like they might not even crack the top 10 after Holdsworth’s mid-race misfortune between Turn 1 and Turn 2.

Brown’s Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate Broc Feeney narrowed the gap to Mostert from 117 points to just 33 after he finished second.

“I’m pumped for the team,” said Feeney after the Triple Eight one-two finish.

“A one-two and a fifth is unreal, so great for everyone. Will and Scotty did a great job all day. We certainly had the pace. It was pretty close at the end; I gave my everything.

“Would’ve preferred to be up on the top step, but we’ve got to hold our heads high. What we did today, I don’t think we could have done a whole lot more.

“Just ready to go for Bathurst. It was a really good effort as a team, not only us but Supercheap Auto Racing as well.

“Still another 300 points at Bathurst and a lot more for the rest of the year. So, still plenty to play for, we’ll just be going to Bathurst and trying to win that.

“I’m not too worried about the championship at Bathurst. You have to go all out for a win and see what happens.”

Inside the top 10, Bendix Racing’s Nick Percat dropped one place while Will Davison dropped two places to ninth just ahead of his Shell V-Power Racing Team stablemate Anton De Pasquale.

Richie Stanaway suffered the biggest fall in the points, dropping four places from 14th 18th after his early DNF when the engine in his Penrite Racing Ford Mustang let go.

Supercars drivers’ championship points (After Race 19 of 24)

Erebus Motorsport takes a dive in teams’ standings

The teams’ championship continues to yo-yo with the second through fourth chopping and changing round-on-round.

Tickford Racing has edged ahead of Walkinshaw Andretti United to move up to second in the standings. Behind them, Grove Racing has dropped Dick Johnson Racing to fourth.

PremiAir Racing was rewarded for its third and 12th place finishes at Sandown, moving from ninth to seventh in the championship.

Erebus Motorsport suffered the biggest slump of all. Their weekend was one of what could have been.

Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood had the pace to be podium contenders but were blighted by an early puncture before a mechanical failure meant they suffered a DNF.

Jack Le Brocq and Jayden Ojeda were running fourth in the final laps of the race until contact with the Matt Payne/Garth Tander car put them off the road, finishing 20th.

Erebus Motorsport collected just 90 points, dropping them to 10th in the teams’ championship.

With Brad Jones Racing’s four cars pitted together, the result means Erebus Motorsport will be third-to-last in the pit lane order at the Bathurst 1000 ahead of the Matt Chahda Motorsport and Triple Eight Race Engineering wildcards and the Blanchard Racing Team.

Supercars teams’ championship points (After Race 19 of 24)