Saturday at the Sandown 500 saw Jamie and PD dominate the day’s three sessions to give the five-time series champ his 100th V8 Supercars front row start as the duo put the No.1 Red Bull Holden on pole.
Qualifying for tomorrow’s 500km enduro consisted of one 20 minute qualifying session and two 20 lap qualifying races. The result of the last race set the grid for tomorrow’s marathon, which will see Craig and Richo start from seventh.
The pole position also marks Triple Eight’s first at the Sandown 500, though JDub admits the day wasn’t 100 percent smooth from the get go: “We were a little bit behind the eight ball in the first qualifying session, but we managed to get it all sorted. It was a good start to the weekend for the No.1 Holden.
“It’s always interesting watching the co-drivers go round, but Paul did a great job in the first qualifying race by keeping us at the start of the grid and also tuned the car up for our final qualifying race of the day.
“There was the call that he’d had a potential jump start but once the footage was replayed in sync with the starting lights we knew the stewards had made the right call in clearing in.
“Now we’ve just got to keep the momentum and energy up for the first endurance race of the season tomorrow.”
Despite not quite finding the speed they were after, Lowndesy and Steve remain positive that there’s plenty of time to make a charge in tomorrow’s 161 lap race.
“I’m happy enough to be starting from the fourth row on the grid because it keeps us out of the mischief at the beginning of the race,” Craig said.
“Having said that, tomorrow is a long day so it doesn’t really matter where you start as long as you can keep it clean for the first half of the race and of course strategy plays a big part. We’re still working on the car but it’s good for me and Steve to both have a race under our belts so we know its strengths and weaknesses.”
The 500km classic kicks off at 1.40pm EST tomorrow. Find out where you can catch the action here.
