5 storylines to watch as title fight hits enduro mode
The season of endurance is upon us, and the fight for the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship is only going to get more intense.
The sprint portion of the season has left the title race in a tantalising position, as Will Brown, Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney, and Cam Waters all fight for their first Supercars title.
The two biggest races of the season are set to add multiple variables to the championship fight, as co-drivers are thrown into the mix for the first time this season.
Supercars.com takes a look at five of the key storylines to follow at the upcoming Penrite Oil Sandown 500.
It takes two
For the first time this season, co-drivers add an extra variable to what has already been a highly competitive season. Whilst the primary drivers are now mandated to start the races, the co-drivers are still set to play a pivotal role in the story of both the Sandown 500 and the Repco Bathurst 1000 in October. Whilst Bathurst is the undoubted jewel in the crown of the Supercars season, Sandown is arguably second on that list, and a win at either are some of the biggest single achievements in Australian motorsport. Whilst some co-drivers, namely Scott Pye, Lee Holdsworth, Jamie Whincup, and James Moffat, have the extra pressure of aiding a championship challenge, everyone else will be solely hunting for a Sandown trophy. A season of struggles would be quickly forgotten with a strong enduro campaign at Sandown and Bathurst.
Co-driver field: Youth versus experience
This year’s co-driver field features a fascinating blend of young rising stars, familiar enduro season faces, and bona fide legends of the sport. Among the 26 nominated co-drivers in the field for the enduros, there are nine combined Sandown 500 wins and 18 podiums. The likes of Garth Tander and Jamie Whincup need little to no introduction, whilst Warren Luff, Lee Holdsworth, and David Russell have all made names for themselves as enduro guns for hire. Six of the co-drivers make their Sandown 500 debuts this weekend, namely Kai Allen, Cameron McLeod, Cameron Crick, Cooper Murray, Aaron Cameron, and Brad Vaughan. Vaughan will be co-piloting a wildcard Camaro with Matt Chahda, who is the seventh of eight Super2 representatives on the grid - the experienced Jack Perkins being the eighth.
Big points, potentially big title ramifications
The 81-point margin between Will Brown and Chaz Mostert at the head of points standings is the closest pre-enduro points battle since 2018. However, the next two races at Sandown and Bathurst have the potential to completely reshape the complexion of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship. 300 points are on offer at both Sandown and Bathurst, the largest point allotment of the season. Though most of the attention has been focused on Brown and Mostert, Broc Feeney and Cam Waters are by no means out of the equation either at 198 and 350 points off the pace. Any finish outside the top 10 could be as much as a 156-point swing at a minimum, and a DNF at the enduros would be catastrophic. The pressure is on both the drivers and each of Red Bull Ampol Racing, WAU, and Tickford to make no mistakes.
How will recent silly season movements affect performance?
The Supercars silly season went into overdrive following the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, with three seats being snapped in a remarkable 48-hour chain reaction. Both Anton De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki have new homes for next year and beyond at Team 18 and Dick Johnson Racing respectively. For Kostecki in particular, 2025 will begin a new chapter after what has been a difficult title defence that didn’t begin until the third event of the season in Taupō. Do we see the 2023 version of Brodie Kostecki return now that a line has been drawn in the sand? Kostecki’s replacement for next season at Erebus will be Cooper Murray, who has a plum drive alongside six-time Sandown 500 winner Craig Lowndes. Now that his full-time promotion from Super2 has been secured, do we see a more mature Murray in the enduro season, playing the apprentice to the ultimate enduro master?
Can WAU avoid another horror Sandown 500?
There were plenty of questions surrounding Walkinshaw Andretti United and Chaz Mostert heading into the previous event in Tasmania. The team's struggle for pace on the Super Soft tyre in Darwin was not repeated, with Mostert nearly storming to victory on Saturday and claiming fourth on Sunday. Sandown is another question mark based on prior performance, with 2023 being a disastrous weekend for the Walkinshaw squad. Mostert headed Nick Percat in qualifying, though that only mustered 16th and 26th on the grid. Things didn't get better on Sunday, Mostert and Lee Holdsworth finishing 22nd after being involved in early contact. If the Red Bull Camaros finish first and third like they did last year, another finish in the 20s would destroy the championship momentum Mostert has built in recent races. Mostert and Holdsworth can be unstoppable on their day, whilst teammate Ryan Wood was at his aggressive and exciting best in the Sandown Super2 round last year, and could be a dark horse alongside Fabian Coulthard.
