Paul Dumbrell has history at the Sandown 500, and he wants to replicate it. The famous Melbourne track has given his a race victory and a pole position, but not in a classic such as the 500.
TeamVodafone took all of this into account when choosing their co-driver for V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup, luring the semi-retired Dumbrell from Ford Performance Racing to their Holden stable.
Dumbrell retired from full-time racing last year to run his giant Autobarn franchise, some would argue as he was hitting his peak as a V8 Supercar pilot. Instantly Dumbrell became hot property on the co-drivers market.
This weekend’s Dick Smith Sandown 500 brings two great challenges: trying to win the traditional precursor to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and not stuffing Whincup’s Championship hopes.
The pair were second in practice for the event today behind Bottle-O Racing’s FPR pair of David Reynolds and Dean Canto with another FPR car in Will Davison/John McIntyre third.
For a man who handles the pressure of big business Dumbrell is relaxed about the next two days when he first drives his own race tomorrow, followed by Whincup to set the grid for the Sunday showdown.
“Having nine or ten years fulltime in the sport you don’t forget how to drive. Maybe two years down the track it might be a different story and take longer to get your head around it,” Dumbrell said.
“I have managed three or four sessions at the other race meetings this year, have been to all four test days and a ride day as well. I’ve done enough laps and in a good car I can steer it around before stepping aside to let Jamie do all of the work.
“Our job is made a little easier with this team but at the end of the day you have still got to push the start button, turn out of the pits and drive the car. It is another race car, there’s many things that can go wrong or you can make a mistake.
“As much as it’s a nice car to drive it doesn’t make it any easier.”
The co-drivers will first contest a 20-lap sprint race tomorrow afternoon before the full-timers do the same, each worth 50 Championship points. That decides the starting grid before the 200 point Sandown 500.
Whincup has every confidence in his co-driver after a challenging, changeable practice day.
“Getting back into hard tyre mode is difficult; we’ve done a lot of soft tyre running lately. You have to get your brain back to that and the track is very slippery. Once we get our heads around that it’s going to be a long weekend,” Whincup said.
Lucky 7 Racing's Tim Slade was fifth fastest, with Mark Winterbottom, Lee Holdsworth, Garth Tander, Greg Murphy and James Courtney rounding out the top ten.
The V8 Supercars will be back on track tomorrow (Saturday) at 9.40am local time for a 40-minute practice session ahead of Qualifying and Qualifying Races 1 and 2.
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