2016 Sandown 500 Results: Tander, Luff Hold Off Holden Rivals

By Daniel Hall | Sep 20, 2016

Jul 31, 2016; Lexington, OH, USA; A general view of the Firestone logo on a tire during the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /

As V8 Supercars had its throwback round before Bathurst, many of the league’s teams returned to their old form in the Wilson Security Sandown 500.

Several of the V8 Supercars teams looked back on track at this weekend’s Wilson Security Sandown 500. One such outfit was the Holden Racing Team, which returned to the top step of the podium courtesy of Garth Tander and Warren Luff.

Victory was anything but easy for the drivers of the No. 2 Holden Commodore, as a loose piece of bodywork and Shane Van Gisbergen left the result in doubt to the very end. As the body panel dangled precariously – maybe it too wanted to switch to a Triple Eight car – and the threat of a black flag loomed, the No. 97 steadily closed the gap.

Tander and Luff’s lead narrowed to just 0.3 seconds as the clock ticked down on the time-shortened event, but Tander held on for his first V8 victory in two years. And the last time Holden Racing Team won the Sandown 500, they went on to also be tops at Bathurst.

Van Gisbergen’s second-place finish was enough to claim the Supercars championship lead after Jamie Whincup had a rough outing. Whincup’s co-driver Paul Dumbrell’s error in loosening his belts before reaching the No. 88 car’s pit bay resulted in a drive-through penalty. A similar incident occurred in 2013, but Whincup did his whole “best driver ever” thing and rallied back to win the race. This time around, the man with the best Twitter in racing could not conjure the same magic, coming home 13th.

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Whincup and Dumbrell really seem to enjoy trading miscues. The rest of the field is a bit lucky these two are sloppy at this time of year, or else they might never lose.

But no superteam has been more mistake-prone at endurance time than Ford Performance Racing, and this weekend Prodrive wound back the clock to those days. Though their Supercheap Auto Falcon came home fifth, none of the other three entries finished higher than 17th.

The weekend was especially disastrous for defending champion Mark Winterbottom. After first corner contact and a drive-through penalty in the co-driver qualifying race, Frosty had to work his way forward in the second heat. Then in the 500, his team elected to stay on slicks as the rain began to fall, eventually resulting in a wrecked Bottle-O Ford.

A 23rd place finish at Sandown means Winterbottom is now 340 points behind Van Gisbergen. With the 300-point Bathurst race and duel 150-point Gold Coast runs coming up, it has never been more important for the Ford fighter to outclass his Red Bull rivals.

Things were both up and down for the Volvo teams this weekend. Scott McLaughlin and David Wall scored a fourth place finish at Sandown, but the other Volvo S60 had a terrifying moment to start the showing.

James Golding’s tire let go at the end of the back stretch, causing the front end of his car to sustain severe damage and leaving Golding himself saying he is lucky to be alive. Thankfully he walked away uninjured and will be back for October’s big one at Bathurst.

Next: Simona De Silvestro To Run V8 Supercars In 2017

Below are the complete results for the Wilson Security Sandown 500:

Tander/Luff
Van Gisbergen/Premat
Davison/Webb
McLaughlin/Wall
Mostert/Owen
Coulthard/Youlden
T. Kelly/Campbell
Lowndes/Richards
Percat/McConville
R. Kelly/Ingall
Courtney/Perkins
Holdsworth/Reindler
Whincup/Dumbrell
Caruso/Fiore
Pye/D’Alberto
Slade/Walsh
Pither/Stanaway
Wood/D. Russell
Heimgartner/A. Russell
Blanchard/M. Jones
Bright/A. Jones
Davies/van der Drift
Winterbottom/Canto
Waters/Le Brocq
Moffat/Golding
Reynolds/Baird

Next for V8 Supercars is the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on Oct. 8-9.