TeamVodafone is investigating its double disaster during the qualifying races at Sandown Raceway today.
After the team’s co-drivers Paul Dumbrell and Warren Luff finished second and fourth in the first race, both regular drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes endured similar off track excursions during their race.
In one its more uncharacteristic performances in recent memory, Whincup and Lowndes both slipped off the track at Turn 9, while Whincup endured another spin later in the race. Lowndes finished seventh, while Whincup was a lowly 19th.
The incidents followed similarly troubled final practice and qualifying sessions for the two cars, which included multiple offs for both Whincup and Lowndes, as well as Dumbrell spinning into the Turn 4 tyre wall.
While the drivers blamed themselves for the incidents, team owner Roland Dane said that the team will investigate the issues this evening.
“We’ll wait and see and have a look at the data on the cars and see if it’s something similar between the two,” Dane told Speedcafe.com.
“Dandenong is a classic corner for locking up on the inside and running wide. It’s happened a thousand times there over the years. It might just be driver error, but we’ll wait and see.
“It’s not the normal thing that we’d expect, but it happens sometimes. It made for a pretty interesting race.”
Dane is not letting the issue get to him, though, knowing tomorrow’s 500km race won’t be won in the opening laps.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s a 500km race,” Dane said.
“We’ve come from that far back to win races a lot shorter than that. It’s up to us to go fast and do a good job. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
The Dick Smith Sandown 500 will start at 1335.
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Sandown 500 Race Guide
