10 Fast Facts: Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint

1) This year’s event marks the 52nd held at Sandown in ATCC/Repco Supercars Championship history. No other venue has hosted more rounds than the Melbourne circuit with its championship race history including both endurance races and sprint events. This weekend’s races will be the 80th, 81st and 82nd championship races held at the circuit.

2) Lee Holdsworth will reach a career milestone in starting his 500th Repco Supercars Championship race in the opening race of the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint weekend. The reigning Repco Bathurst 1000 co-winner will be the 11th driver to achieve the milestone but the first to do so at the same venue as their first career race start: Holdsworth made his championship debut at the 2004 Sandown 500. The Friday of the event also marks the 15th anniversary of the Penrite Racing driver’s first championship race win at Oran Park in 2007.

3) Walkinshaw Andretti United will also reach a major milestone at Sandown this weekend as the team makes its 900th ATCC/Supercars Championship race start in the opening race of the event. The team made its championship debut in the first round of the 1990 season at Amaroo Park as the Holden Racing Team. WAU will be the second team in ATCC/Supercars history to start 900 races.

4) Broc Feeney has one chance left to break Scott McLaughlin’s record as the youngest ever ATCC/ Supercars Championship race winner: Saturday’s first race at Sandown. If the Red Bull Ampol Racing rookie’s first win is on Sunday at Sandown, he will tie with McLaughlin on 19 years, 307 days.

5) Tickford Racing needs one more ARMOR ALL Pole Position to reach a milestone 100 Supercars Championship poles. Recent form bodes well for the Melbourne-based squad – it has claimed the last four pole positions on offer in 2022 dating back to Race 2 at the NTI Townsville 500 – although it hasn’t claimed the prime place on the grid at Sandown since 2017.

6) Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen broke a 56-year-old record at last year’s Sandown round. The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver won the opening race of the weekend from 17th on the grid, setting a new record for the lowest grid position for the winner of a single driver championship race at the circuit. The previous mark was set by Supercars Hall of Famer Norm Beechey, who won the 1965 ATCC at Sandown from 14th on the grid.

7) Shane van Gisbergen’s impressive form in the 2022 season to date is highlighted by his podium tally. SVG has claimed 19 podiums so far: that is the same amount of podium finishes that the Shell V-Power Racing Team has scored between both of its drivers this year, and the same amount of podium finishes scored this year by all the other Ford teams on the grid combined.

8) IRWIN Racing’s Mark Winterbottom has finished all 26 Repco Supercars Championship races he’s started at Sandown. Unsurprisingly, his finishing record is the best at the circuit of anyone in the 2022 field!

9) The most Safety Car periods in a single driver Sandown championship race is five, which occurred in Race 2 in 2002. Won by Marcos Ambrose, the race was a 96-lap single driver race that was also the final race of the season.

10) Brodie Kostecki’s podium finish in the final race of the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend has him rising up an unenviable list. The Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus driver’s fifth podium finish moves him to equal fourth in the tally of podium finishes without a championship race victory, tied with Tomas Mezera. Ahead of Kostecki on that list is Jason Richards (six), Alan Hamilton (also six) and Murray Carter on 20.