V8 Supercars Wilson Security Sandown 500 - day 1

The ever interesting V8 Supercars championship is back for another racing weekend, this time on Sandown Raceway near Melbourne, Victoria. In contrast to previous events, the Wilson Security Sandown 500 is not sprint type race but an enduro cup which means there won’t be three short (up to one hour) races but one long 3.5 hours (160 laps) race on Sunday. Because of that, each car will be driven by two drivers — a regular driver and a co-driver and there will be practice and qualifying sessions just for co-drivers as well.

The Sandown Raceway is well known Australia’s racing track with a total length of 3.1 kilometers. Circuit consists of two long straights (which serve as drag strips) , two fast chicanes  and slow and fast turns. The Wilson Security Sandown 500 got its name because 160 laps is almost 500 kilometers.

Friday, the day 1 of the event was a practice day with three free practice sessions of which first (30 minutes) was for all drivers and other two (30 minutes also) were co-driver only. The first practice session was won by last year’s champion Jamie Whincup in a Holden with the time of 1:09.5169. This season wasn’t good for him and it is good to see that he is still fast and up there with the best. Second was Chaz Moster with very close time and Mark Winterbottom was third. The second and third co-driver only practice sessions were dominated by Ford’s Pepsi Max Crew team, first with Cameron Waters who achieved the time similar to Whincup’s and then with Steve Owen. Two perspective drivers showed that they were very fast in practice but they are still to prove themselves in an actual race. Click HERE for full results and stay tuned for the rest of the V8 Supercars racing weekend coverage.