Dumbrell breaks Sandown record

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.

Main game driver Whincup followed that with a 1:07.9688 result, meaning the two men were the only ones to crash through the 68-second barrier.

The ZB Commodore’s pace marks the Triple Eight outfit as the team to beat at Sandown.

But Dumbrell said the combination of well-balanced 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 tomorrow,’’ he laughed.

Yesterday’s sunshine is set to be replaced by storm clouds today, when heavy rain is forecast, with a possibility of hail.

There’s a small chance the race tomorrow will also be affected by rain.

Not surprisingly, Whincup said the team was delighted with their first-up efforts.

‘‘The car’s good. We stuck to our programme and got through what we wanted to,’’ he said.

The 500km 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 and fellow New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, with a major gulf to Whincup in third.

McLaughlin didn’t finish inside the top 10, but co-driver Alex Premat charted seventh and 0.74sec behind Dumbrell in the co-drivers’ session.

Van Gisbergen was one-tenth of a second behind Whincup while new team-mate, wellcredentialed Kiwi Earl Bamber, finished slightly off the pace in 14th. Chris Pither was 17th.

In the main game driver’s session Fabian Coulthard was the eighth quickest, one place behind fellow Kiwi Andre Heimgartner, who was the quickest of the four Nissan drivers.

Qualifying for the longdistance race takes place today before tomorrow’s race begins at 1.20pm.