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V8 Supercars move into endurance mode |
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Wednesday, 12 September 2007 |
The 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series picks up a gear this
weekend with the first endurance race of the year, the Just Car
Insurance 500, firing into action at Melbourne’s Sandown International
Raceway.
Championship leader Garth Tander will pair up with experienced New
Zealand driver Craig Baird in the #16 Toll HSV Commodore for the two
driver race, while team-mate Rick Kelly who is currently second in the
standings, will be joined by Paul Radisich in the #1 Toll HSV
Commodore.
Tander has qualified on pole position for the past two races at
Sandown but has been unable to transfer that speed into an event
victory. The last person to actually secure a Sandown title from pole
position was Craig Lowndes in 1996 when paired with Greg Murphy.
Lowndes, a two-time winner of the Sandown 500, will this year be
paired with regular team-mate Jamie Whincup in the lead TeamVodafone
Falcon at Sandown. The duo currently sit third and fourth in the
championship standings and a good result at the next two rounds could
prove pivotal in their quest for the title.
Fresh from his first podium finish of 2007 at Oran Park, Ford
Performance Racing’s Steven Richards will have gained in confidence
entering this weekend’s ninth round of the championship.
FPR are the defending Sandown 500 champions as Richards’ team mate
Mark Winterbottom combined with Jason Bright to take the win last year.
For departing V8 Supercar stalwart, John Bowe the Sandown circuit
holds a special place as the venue in which the aspiring Tasmanian race
driver first competed at on the mainland of Australia in 1972.
Seven years after attending the Formula 5000 Victoria Trophy, Bowe
made his competitive debut at the circuit in a Formula 2 open-wheeler.
Throughout his illustrious career Bowe has recorded three wins
(1992, 1994 and 2001), four pole positions and eight podium finishes at
the Sandown 500. This weekend he is paired with rising star Jonathon
Webb in the #111 Glenfords Racing Falcon.
Practice at the 3.1km Sandown International Raceway begins on
Friday afternoon followed by qualifying on Saturday and the 161-lap
race on Sunday afternoon.
After eight rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship, Tander leads by
six points over his Toll HSV team-mate Rick Kelly. Jamie Whincup
remains in third position.
The traditional two-race endurance campaign takes in this weekend’s
Just Car Insurance 500 before travelling to Bathurst, NSW for the Super
Cheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on October 4-7.
The radar is then set for Round 11 of the V8 Supercar Championship
Series during the three-race, V8 Supercar Challenge, as part of the
headline program of the 17th Lexmark Indy 300 on the streets of Surfers
Paradise, October 18-21.
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