Even under severe duress, Holden duo Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell won the Sandown 500, extended Whincup’s V8 Supercar championship lead, and cemented themselves as the team to beat at Bathurst next month.
Even a botched pit-stop and a drive-through penalty couldn’t stop Whincup and Dumbrell winning the 500km event at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway – the lead-up to next month’s Bathurst 1000.
Whincup admitted he thought his race was over and his championship lead would evaporate as a botched driver change led to Dumbrell spinning their car’s wheels illegally while on jacks in the pits.
Instead, Whincup fought the most brilliant of rearguard actions to rise from 25th in the 28-car field after taking his penalty, to passing Red Bull Racing teammate Craig Lowndes with 10 laps remaining to win running away.
Lowndes and co-driver Warren Luff finished second, with Ford duo Will Davison and Steve Owen third.
“I thought it was definitely all over, so I just put my head down and said let’s see how many spots we can make up,” said Whincup, whose performance was made even more meritorious with no cool suit for his final stint at the wheel.
Dumbrell had been mistakenly told he was staying in the car on the radio as he approached the pits, before being hastily ordered out of it once stopped.
Amid the mayhem as Dumbrell tried to unbuckle himself from the car, second gear was engaged in error and a drive-through penalty ordered.
Flawed pit-stop strategy hurt Davison and Owen – Davison struggling to contain his disappointment post-race as he slipped to third in the championship as a result.
Despite sitting third in the race at the time, Ford Performance Racing had them double-stacked in pit lane behind worse-placed teammates Steve Richards and Mark Winterbottom in a mass pit-stop following a huge lap 34 crash involving Ford’s Ash Walsh.
The delay sent Davison and Owen sliding from third to 22nd and playing catch-up for the rest of the day.
Davison had no answers except obvious disappointment when pressed why the situation occurred.
But he believed there was a clear pre-race agreement that the car best placed on-track would receive preferential pit-stop treatment.
“It was obviously frustrating. At that moment, I thought the race was ruined,” Davison said.
“We knew it was a potential scenario. We’d discussed all these scenarios before the race.
“But we’d also discussed if a car was ahead in position … we wouldn’t have to queue behind a car.”
Walsh was lucky to emerge unhurt from his crash, ploughing his Falcon head-on into the fence at more than 200km/h as he locked up a rear tyre on lap 34.
V8 newcomers Mercedes managed their best finish since joining the series this season, with Lee Holdsworth and Craig Baird fourth for Erebus Motorsport.
Whincup remains in control as he chases a fifth V8 Supercar championship.
He leads Lowndes by 96 points, with Davison a point behind Lowndes.
