Heimgartner/Wood charge into top five in Sandown 500

Brad Jones Racing’s R&J Batteries Camaro has come forward ten positions over the Sandown 500 to finish fifth.

Dale Wood started in the #8 Camaro, making up positions from the get go and challenging for the top ten, after lining up 15th for the race.

On lap 57, of the eventual 158, Wood handed over the reins to Heimgartner who kept the ship steady for the remainder of the race.

Including holding his nerve under a Safety Car restart late in the race, making his way around team-mate Jack Smith in the SCT Logistics car.

The result means that Heimgartner jumps two spots to fifth in the Drivers’ Championship. 

The Middy’s Electrical crew’s focus on race preparation paid off, with fantastic pace in the #14 Camaro.

Dean Fiore made the most of his early stint in the car, however a pit lane penalty for blocking added 5 seconds to the driver change stop on lap 64.

However engineer Phil Keed was able to bring them back into the fight for 15th, calling for a late stop and putting Fullwood on fresher tyres in the closing stages of the race.

Fullwood came home in 14th. 

The #4 SCT Logistics Camaro showed incredible pace throughout the time certain race, with international superstar Jaxon Evans enjoying a great start off the line.

Evans made up several places as the lights went out and kept the #4 clean before handing the car over to Smith on lap 58.

The Safety Car unfortunately tripped up the #4 crew and Smith took the flag in 18th.

The Pizza Hut Racing duo of Macauley Jones and Jordan Boys had to fight back from an interrupted strategy.

However Jones showed the speed of the car, holding the fastest lap of the race for quite some time before the fuel loads burnt off. 

Considering the circumstances, the effort to finish 19th was commendable from Jones. 

Supercars now heads to the biggest event of the year, the Brad Jones Racing team turns full focus to the Bathurst 1000 (5-8 October). 

Super2

The AWC Commodore steered by young-gun Lochie Dalton had a turn around from yesterday.

Dalton had speed in qualifying and ended up 10th on the grid.

He was making his way forward in the late stages of the race but unfortunately was tagged by another driver on the last lap and fell from 9th all the way back to 16th.

Super2 races again at Bathurst on October 5-8.

Supercars Quoteboard

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Yeah interesting race, I was pleasantly surprised with our pace and we were able to chip away and  the team did some great pitstops which was awesome as well. So really pleased overall, I think considering where we started we couldn't have hoped for much more than that."

Dale Wood
Supercars Co-Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"That's a pretty good day out really from starting 15 fun.  For me, it was one of the most different races I've ever done in the way you have to drive the car and preserve the tyres. And don't get caught up in racing early, knowing that you'll  reap the benefits later on. So it was very interesting for me. I felt like we had a really good car. And like I say, to finish the day up in fifth and behind those two teams was a pretty bloody good result. So yeah, definitely happy with that."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars Driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"Up and down race for us today. I don't feel we had the outright speed that I'd sort of hoped for. Kinda got dealt some average cards early in the race, which put us back a bit. We battled our way through. We sort of hedged our bets on a late race safety car with our strategy. And fortunately, that came and that really helped us and were able to get a few more spots. I feel like it was a good recovery out of a race that wasn't that clean for us. So I think we have a lot to work on behind the scenes, but obviously awesome job for Andre. I think that's a stellar job. I think we've got a lot we can look at but looking forward to going into Bathurst."

Dean Fiore
Supercars Co-Driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"We started virtually off the back and I got a rubbish start. So I thought what I'd do is play the long game and just look after my tyres, which I did.  I started to get a really big yield at the end of the stint, but then the Safety Car came out. So I couldn't really capitalize on that yield and looking after the tyres, so we pitted which is fine. And then the second stint was good. The pace was was pretty strong for the whole stint. And we were sort of edging forward, passing some people. There was a bit going on, but it wasn't sort of out of control.  I handed it over to Bryce and he did his thing and he did a great job right towards the end. We had some really good speed and salvaged a top 15 out of what was  a pretty sad starting position and looking like a pretty average day."

Jack Smith
Supercars Driver, #4 SCT Logistics Camaro
"The race was long and made up a few spots in the race, which was nice. But there were a few mistakes and a few little issues that kind of held us back a little bit from moving further up. But overall the team did a pretty good job we've made up spots but it would have been good to get a few more."

Jaxon Evans
Supercars Co-Driver, #4 SCT Logistics Camaro
"I had a lot of fun starting the race, first Sandown 500 for me first Gen3 race, but it was a lot of fun.  Quite enjoyed the different elements of trying to look after the tyres and make it last for sort of dedicated laps but some things didn't go our way. We  struggled a little bit in the middle there with Jack's first stint, overall finishing but we moved forward. Plenty to work on for Bathurst but a nice Sunday at Sandown."

Macauley Jones
Supercars Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"It's always nerve wracking, watching your car go around. But Jordan did a really good job. We sort of had a bit of a mishap there with one of the first pitstops which was a bit of a setback for us, going down a lot early, but the car had really good speed. [Andrew Donnelly] Donner's, the engineer did a really good job managing that and the strategy and  it was a pretty hectic end to the race. So hopefully, it was pretty entertaining. But it felt like I was in no man's land for quite a while, just in my own little world, which was kind of cool. Driving around for a while, so that was good. At least we've got good speed in the car. The reliability of the whole thing was really good. So pretty good heading into Bathurst."

Jordan Boys
Supercars Co-Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"I got a really bad start which was annoying and then had a reasonable first stint. Got around a few cars, which is good. And then we had a pit stop, then after I came back out I had a lock up unfortunately, we had to have another stop. We just ended up a lot down early and that really really hurt us, so pretty frustrating because I feel like car speed was really, really good today. We'll do a better job at Bathurst and definitely plenty of positives take out of it."

Super 2 Quoteboard

Lochie Dalton
Super 2 driver, #43 AWC ZB Commodore
"We turned the car around from yesterday and we had good speed in quali. Probably didn't maximize the car the most when it was at its best but still an improvement from yesterday.  The race was very interrupted with safety cars. We sort of just kept going for a couple laps then stopping. We had good car pace but couldn't really do much with the safety cars and then on the last lap, we just got turned around and which wasn't ideal but still good to turn around the car from where it was."