It's here!

We seem to split our season up into the thirds. The first part is always exciting as it's all of the unknowns - new teams, new drivers, new formats - everything is new, shiny and fresh.The second part is the Pirtek Enduro Cup, and then we finish off with a bang.

After what has been a thrilling opening part to our season we are here!! We are about to commence event 10 of 14 and so far we have had 11 different winners, 15 different podium finishers, eight different guys have started from ARMOR ALL Pole Position and currently less than this weekend's worth of points (247 points) covers the top four in the Championship!

This is always such an exciting time in the season. I find everyone can start to get a little tired around the middle of the year.It's winter, we do a lot of traveling, the sydney.com pre-season test in February seems like a lifetime ago, the guys and girls in the teams and the drivers work so hard in between race meetings to be as competitive as possible. They are kept busy with sponsor commitments and back at the workshop -but then everyone seems to get a spring in their step when we start talking about Sandown.

It's hard to put in words what it's like. But it's different.You can feel it's different. It's like an unspoken understanding up and down pit lane, everyone knows how hard each other has worked in the lead up to these next three events.

And from the moment cars are on track Friday morning for the first practice session, tension is high. Team managers are on edge, mechanics are fired up, engineers have that focused 'do not disturb' look on their faces and drivers are in a state of constant nervous restlessness.

It's a cycle of driver change practice, helmet check, strategy talk, watch race footage, analyse data, talk to engineers, driver change practice, strategy talk, track map, watch race footage, data etc (I know this because I see it from the pit lane all day!). It's almost like nobody really breathes properly until about 5.15pm Sunday night.

Fifty drivers, 300 points, 20-minute qualifying session, two sprint for the grid races and 500km around the historic Melbourne 3.104km circuit.

Many drivers see this as an opportunity to reset their Championship. Getting a result in an enduro can sometimes make up for what has been an otherwise poor season.

Sandown is known for its two big drag strip-like straights and it loves a good engine. It has plenty of 90-degree corners and if you can brake and rotate well and get the power down, drivers say you will enjoy your day much more on track. It also requires a bit of a compromise between having a nice setup for riding the kerbs at turn 1 and having a car that can tackle the track across the top.

There are varying grip levels around the circuit due to differing age of tarmac most recently turn 4, which was resurfaced last year. This becomes most concerning for drivers in the wet where finding the grip level can just be an absolute nightmare, as we saw last time out at SMP.

I think what is going to be really interesting is the fact that the primary driver will only be in the car for 40 minutes on Friday morning, before Saturday. This means the co-driver will do the majority of the base setup! You will be hoping that your co-driver has solid feedback and a similar driving style to the primary driver to ensure that the Friday sessions are not getting led up the garden path!!

Riana's Wrap Up

- Defending Champs Whincup and Dumbrell will be hard to catch.

- Winterbottom is in damage control and needs to get himself back on track. He needs to stop looking at everything else, focus on himself and get on with the job.

- The Volvos will get along nicely with Sandown.

- I think Courtney and Murph got all of their bad luck/misfortune/disaster out of the way in 2013 and will be a good shot at the podium.

- Davison brothers on the podium at Sandown would tear at the heartstrings for the 'sentimentals' out there on the 50th anniversary of the first running of the Sandown Touring Car Endurance Classic.