Flashback: Sandown masterclass ruined in a heartbeat
Repco Supercars Championship
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08/03/2021
By James Pavey
The last visit to Sandown Motor Raceway saw current championship leader Shane van Gisbergen snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Van Gisbergen, who clean-swept the season-opening Repco Mt Panorama 500, had combined with Garth Tander in November 2019 to edge towards a remarkable win.
Sandown hosted the final enduro of the 2019 season, and Triple Eight walked away with a dominant win for the Jamie Whincup/Craig Lowndes combination.
"I knew something in the rear had fallen out. The way it tracked and didn’t move around, I knew it was safe, but how much smoke there was, I knew it wasn’t going to last.
"It was fun last night, going back through strategies and stuff trying to come up with it and we were on a three-stopper before the Safety Car came out.
"The three-stopper was going well, we were using less fuel than we thought and lost less time to the leader than we thought we were going to.
"It would have been interesting to see if the three-stopper worked. I knew we’d be ok, but not that far up."
The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to Victoria for the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint across March 20-21. Tickets are on sale now.