Engine failure leads to 'pretty sketchy slide' for Stanaway

Richie Stanaway’s quest for a second Penrite Oil Sandown 500 victory has been brought to a sudden halt after suffering a catastrophic engine failure.

Having started in seventh, Stanaway was running eighth on lap 23 when the engine completely seized down the back straight, leaving the Kiwi to wrestle the car to a safe halt.

Stanaway, who is attempting to secure a ride for next season following Penrite Racing’s acquisition of Kai Allen for next season, became the first retirement of the day.

Upon his return to the Penrite garage, Stanaway’s disappointment was visible, with the engine having been a brand new engine for this weekend.

“It’s really disappointing, we just had an engine failure,” said the 2017 Sandown 500 winner.

“It was a fresh engine for this weekend, so it’s a bit unexpected but that’s motorsport, just really unlucky, I was really looking forward to that one.

“I just got a strange exhaust note at Turn 1, and then it started letting go down the back straight. It locked up pretty solid, and I was going pretty quick when it locked up, so it was a pretty sketchy slide for a while but luckily I didn’t hit anything.”

For co-driver Dale Wood, this is the second straight race that a car he has been sharing has had an engine failure, after retiring from last year’s Bathurst 1000 after the Camaro he was sharing with Andre Heimgartner had a spectacular failure.

“Well I cried a couple of years ago at Bathurst, so I’m not going to do that now,” quipped the Carrera Cup front-runner.

“It’s so gutting, it’s been such an awesome build-up. You always get here going there’s something pretty cool about this one, and then you just can’t believe it.

“It sounds like it’s done a proper job on that engine, it’s a real shame because it was brand-new. We thought we had a really good day ahead of us, but it was a very short day.”

As the Safety Car period began, there was an awkward moment on the front straight as several cars tripped over one another attempting to activate their full course yellow speed limiters.

David Reynolds ran into the back of Will Davison, before Tim Slade was also caught unawares and was lucky not to have a bigger collision with Reynolds.

The 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner was able to see the funny side of the incident, but admits that it could’ve been a much bigger incident.

“The 15 second board had come out, and everyone started slowing down, you don’t need to slow down to that point,” said Reynolds.

“And then there’s a five second countdown, you need to go down to 80kph, and I was watching my dash trying to count myself down, and then I look up and Will [Davison] was slowing down faster than me, so I crashed into him.

“And then I think Slade crashed into me from behind because everyone was caught off guard a bit, but we’ve got new rules these days with the 80kmh, at least we’re safer crashing into each other these days. The old school we would’ve gone around no dramas.”

As of lap 54, Jamie Whincup currently leads the race in Broc Feeney’s Red Bull Ampol Camaro, ahead of teammate Scott Pye in the #87 of championship leader Will Brown.