10 years on: Holdsworth's huge crash, Whincup dominates
There have been plenty of dominant Sandown 500 wins over the history of Melbourne’s endurance classic, but not too many as dominant than Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell’s victory in the 2014 race.
The Red Bull Commodore simply crushed the field, leading a whopping 150 of the 161 laps on their way to back-to-back victories in the 500-kilometre endurance race.
Their #1 Holden started from pole position because of Whincup winning his qualifying race on Saturday afternoon and Dumbrell led the field away to build a solid lead before handing over to Whincup just after half race distance.
The reigning champion brought home victory and a piece of history in the process; the win made he and Dumbrell the first combination to win back-to-back Sandown 500s since Craig Lowndes and Greg Murphy did it in 1996 and 1997.
The race turned out to be a brilliant day for Holden as the Holden Racing Team locked out the podium, second-placed James Courtney and Greg Murphy heading home third-placed Garth Tander and Warren Luff.
The Lowndes/Luff Red Bull #888 car came home fourth with the best Ford in fifth in the form of Dick Johnson Racing’s Falcon of Scott Pye and Ash Walsh that had started a lowly 19th on the grid.
Erebus pilot Lee Holdsworth had little to celebrate at Sandown in 2014, luckily emerging okay from a huge accident when his Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG had a right-ear tyre failure at the end of the back straight on lap 133 and cannoned into the wall.
Holdsworth emerged OK, the Erebus team’s e-cell driver capsule system put to the ultimate test in the high-speed crash.
“I got off the throttle because at that stage I was a passenger and I remember going backwards and sideways along the grass and seeing the fence coming up pretty quick,” Holdsworth said at the time.
“And honestly it was the scariest moment of my life. I was just thinking ‘what’s the best way I can get out of this’ because at that stage it was too far in to think about the car – the car was going to get damaged.
“The next thing to think about was myself, so I took my hands off the steering wheel and tried to relax a bit, but what I was thinking at the time was this ‘is not going to be good’.
“And I remember hitting the wall, nosing in and collecting the side. Before I hit I had actually closed my eyes and put my hands up in the air.”
Holdsworth’s Mercedes was one of three retirements from the 2014 race; the Nissan of James Moffat/Taz Douglas was forced to retire with a fuel leak and the BOC Commodore of Jason Bright and Andrew Jones was sidelined by accident damage.
