A little over 50 minutes of combined chaos has had a profound effect on Ford Performance Racing’s dual Championship contenders Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison at the Dick Smith Sandown 500.

Just as most were expecting a tame two 20 lap races to decide the grid for the big 500 race tomorrow both the co-drivers and the main game drivers let loose in the short races but it was the two FPR cars that came out worse, along with Championship leader Jamie Whincup who had dramas of his own.

In what became a terrible day for FPR first Winterbottom’s co-driver Steve Richards was taken out on the first corner of the co-driver race and then Will Davison shuffled from the leaders to 13th with an error in the opening laps. Making matters even worse Richards was also later excluded for a technical rules infringement.

Halfway through the second race of the day Davison broke his steering in an altercation that was out of his control and was effectively out of the race and at the back of the grid for tomorrow.

As all that was going on Jamie Whincup was clear out in front …. until. With six laps to go and well in front, Whincup then made an error or had a minor problem, driving straight into a wall and in a heartbeat was back in 21st position.

Even Lowndes battled after an early spin.

So the four leading Championship contenders start tomorrow’s classic race like this: Lowndes (Warren Luff) 7th, Winterbottom (Steven  Richards) 16th, Jamie Whincup (Paul Dumbrell) 19th and Will Davison (John McIntyre) 27th.

Amongst all the carnage SP Tools’ Kiwi young gun Shane van Gisbergen and his co-driver Luke Youlden won both races, claiming pole position for the prestigious Dick Smith Sandown 500 ahead of David Reynolds/Dean Canto (The Bottle-O Racing) and Garth Tander/Nick Percat (HRT).

The dramas took away somewhat from Van Gisbergen’s maiden Armor All Pole Position but nonetheless it sets up a great day for the Stone Brothers Racing tyro.

“We were laughing about how bad the car was yesterday but now it’s great. We can get a good result with this car tomorrow, it’s a long way but we can do it,” Van Gisbergen said.

In the opening race two veterans started the theme for the day when Paul Morris caused some first turn dramas. Making a run down the inside he pushed David Besnard wide, who in turn banged into Richards, sending him spiralling out of control.

That may not have had much consequence normally but given Richards’ is also in charge of Winterbottom’s Championship during his stints, it was a big blow. It also meant Winterbottom had to battle from the rear of the grid for his race, ultimately deciding the grid for the Sunday 500.

Winterbottom had to bite his lip when asked about it later, not saying what many believe he was thinking. No doubt it was a big blow in the bigger picture.

At the end of race one Richards had battled to 19th from last after the melee.

“What do you do? You get a good start, am cruising towards the corner and some lunatic behind you forgets you have got a 500 race tomorrow,” Richards said. “Unfortunately as a result I didn’t hand the car back where I would have liked. I hope the main guys are pretty pissed about it as well.”

To make matters even worse and nullify Richards’ efforts to battle to 19th the team was then shifted to the rear of the grid for the second race for breaking the rules. The team removed the car from the parc ferme area before it was released by the officials in their haste to start repairs.

The team admitted the mistake and copped the penalty of being excluded from the race.

Whincup’s partner Paul Dumbrell was amongst the form of the co-drivers racing coming from 10th to second in the first race, making amends for an unusually poor qualifying performance from his lead driver.

The Dick Smith Sandown 500 will be held over 161 laps tomorrow afternoon, commencing at 13:30pm local time. A short, 20-minute warm-up session will be held in the morning as a final systems-check prior to the big race – the first of the ‘season of endurance’ this year.

Cole Hitchcock | General Manager - Media & Communications | D +61 7 5630 0315
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