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Supercars Sandown 500

Supercars Sundown 500: Brown and Pye seal victory after late contact

The pair led home a Triple Eight 1-2 despite clashing with team-mate Feeney late on

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Will Brown and Scott Pye led a dominant one-two result for the Triple Eight Chevrolet Camaros at the Sandown 500 in Melbourne.

Not even late-race contact between Brown and Broc Feeney or a sprint to the flag after a late safety car could derail the dominant result, though it did lead to red faces at the end of 155 laps, the race shortened by six laps due to time constraints.

The two drivers clashed, fortunately without damage, when Feeney, who was sharing with Jamie Whincup, rejoined after his final pitstop, allowing the championship points leader to stretch his advantage and give him his first win at the iconic circuit.

“I was a bit nervous at the start but I did not want to put a foot wrong, with Broc right there,” Brown said after the team's third 1-2 Sandown result.“I saw him rejoin and he ran wide, I was hoping there was no damage. I got some new tyres and I just got out back in front of him.”

“I couldn't watch in the race,” admitted Brown's co-driver, Pye. “Broc is so fast, [but] I am so stoked for Will.

“I have learned so much, my tyre management in the middle of the race was so good.”

The two cars dominated the second half of the race, after Brown made a near-perfect start from pole position and controlled the opening laps. The pair swapped positions during the pit cycles, but Brown had a fraction too much pace over the final five laps.

The only team that looked to have the pace to truly challenge was PremiAir Racing, with James Golding vaulting into the top five early in the race and aided by an excellent stint from his first-time co-driver, veteran David Russell, who got the car into a solid position mid-race to complete the podium.

Brown and Pye claimed victory in Chevrolet Camaro

Brown and Pye claimed victory in Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Supercars

“It's about bloody time!” said Golding. “The team did a really good job, Dave did a really awesome job, I can't thank him enough.”

“We knew we needed to work on our race car, even when it was wet on Saturday, we knew it was going to be dry,” said Russell.

The best of the Ford Mustangs was that of Grove Racing's Matt Payne, backed up by former Holden legend Garth Tander in fourth.

Fifth was an astonishing result for the pairing of Craig Lowndes and Cooper Murray. In Triple Eight's wildcard Chevrolet entry, Lowndes made good early ground from 18th on the grid before handing over to the 23-year-old Super2 regular, who survived an off-road moment in the closing laps to complete T8's amazing day.

Cameron Waters and James Moffat had a struggle in the Tickford Ford, which finished sixth, while Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth finished seventh in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford, Holdsworth spinning out of fourth place at one-quarter race distance.

The other fancied runners were the Erebus Motorsport Chevrolets. Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood ran as high as second place, only for Hazelwood to fire off the road at high speed when a tyre went down after contact while overtaking Whincup for second place.

Then Kostecki copped a 15-second penalty for spinning the wheels during a tyre change, and although they mounted a strong recovery, Kostecki stopped with 20 laps to go with a blown engine.

Team-mate Jack Le Brocq and Jayden Ojeda were in contention for a top-five finish until the final laps, Le Brocq making contact with a wall after being forced wide as they dropped to 20th.

With the win Brown stretches his points to 2280, well clear of Mostert on 2091 and Feeney on 2058.

   
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Cla Driver Car Laps Time Interval Retirement Points
1 Australia W. Brown Australia S. Pye Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

-

    150
2
B. Feeney
Australia J. Whincup Red Bull Ampol Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+0.475

0.4747

0.475   138
3 Australia J. Golding Australia D. Russell PremiAir Nulon Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+2.880

2.8804

2.406   129
4
M. Payne
Australia G. Tander Penrite Racing
Ford Mustang GT 154

+3.275

3.2745

0.394   120
5
C. Murray
Australia C. Lowndes Tickford Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+3.649

3.6492

0.375   111
6 Australia C. Waters Australia J. Moffat Monster Castrol Racing Ford Mustang GT 154

+4.124

4.1244

0.475   102
7 Australia C. Mostert Australia L. Holdsworth Mobil 1 Optus Racing Ford Mustang GT 154

+4.534

4.5343

0.410   96
8 Australia D. Reynolds Australia W. Luff Tradie Beer Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+5.468

5.4678

0.934   90
9 Australia B. Fullwood
J. Robotham Middy's Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+5.827

5.8272

0.359   84
10
C. Hill
C. Crick Tyrepower Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+6.101

6.1012

0.274   78
11 New Zealand A. Heimgartner
D. Fraser R&J Batteries Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+6.394

6.3939

0.293   72
12 Australia T. Slade
C. McLeod PremiAir Nulon Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+8.631

8.6311

2.237   69
13 Australia T. Randle
T. Everingham Monster Castrol Racing
Ford Mustang GT 154

+9.317

9.3172

0.686   66
14 Australia A. De Pasquale Australia T. D'Alberto Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT 154

+9.868

9.8682

0.551   63
15
R. Wood
New Zealand F. Coulthard Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing
Ford Mustang GT 154

+10.148

10.1479

0.280   60
16 Australia M. Winterbottom Australia M. Caruso DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+11.573

11.5726

1.425   57
17
A. Love
A. Cameron Brad Jones Racing
Ford Mustang GT 154

+13.040

13.0395

1.467   54
18 Australia J. Courtney J. Perkins Snowy River Racing Ford Mustang GT 154

+13.665

13.6649

0.625   51
19 M. Chahda
B. Vaughan Matt Chahda Motorsport
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+15.403

15.4026

1.738   48
20 Australia J. Le Brocq
J. Ojeda Erebus Motorsport Penrite
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 154

+1'09.809

1'09.8094

54.407   45
21 Australia M. Jones
J. Boys Pizza Hut Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 151

3 laps

    42
22 Australia J. Evans Australia D. Fiore SCT Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 148

6 laps

    39
23 Australia N. Percat
D. O'Keeffe Bendix Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 147

7 laps

    36
24 Australia W. Davison
K. Allen Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang GT 118

36 laps

    33
 
B. Kostecki
Australia T. Hazelwood Erebus Motorsport Penrite
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 140

 

  Retirement  
  New Zealand R. Stanaway Australia D. Wood Penrite Racing Ford Mustang GT 22

 

  Retirement  

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