No.1’s moment in sun
Rain, hail likely to upset plans for Dumbrell, Whincup
CAR No.1 has enjoyed a perfect start to the Sandown 500, where Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell both topped the timing charts in practice for the Supercars endurance classic.
Dumbrell burst out of the blocks to smash the practice lap record — set by Whincup in 2014 — with a 1:07.8467 lap around the Melbourne circuit yesterday morning.
Main game driver Whincup followed that with a 1:07.9688 result, meaning the endurance team were the only two men to crash through the 68-second barrier. The ZB Commodore’s pace marks the Triple Eight outfit as clearly the team to beat at Sandown this season.
But a beaming Dumbrell said the combination of wellbalanced cars and a quick track wouldn’t count for much today, when up to 10mm of rain is forecast.
“The track is great today but it will be diabolical (on Saturday),” he laughed.
Even hail is forecast today. There’s a small chance the race, tomorrow, will also be affected by rain. Whincup said the team was delighted with their first-up efforts. “The car’s good. We stuck to our program and got through what we wanted to,” he said.
The 500-kilometre classic comes before next month’s Bathurst 1000 and the Gold Coast 600 as the defining races of the Supercars series.
In the drivers championship, Scott McLaughlin sits just 19 points behind leader Shane van Gisbergen, with a major gulf to Whincup in third.
McLaughlin didn’t finish in- side the top 10, but co-driver Alex Premat charted seventh and 0.74 seconds behind Dumbrell in the co-drivers session. Van Gisbergen was one-tenth of a second behind Whincup while new teammate, well- credentialed Kiwi Earl Bamber, finished slightly off the pace during in 14th. Qualifying for the long-distance race takes place today before tomorrow’s race begins at 1.20pm.