Will Brown, Scott Pye head Red Bull 1-2 at Sandown
Will Brown and Scott Pye secured victory in a chaotic Sandown 500 as the Triple Eight-run Red Bull Racing squad scored a 1-2 finish in the opening enduro race of the Supercars season.
The pair were separated by less than a second in a race that ran to time after multiple caution periods throughout the race, the last of which came with only a handful of minutes left to run.
The #87 Chevrolet would spend most of the race running at the sharp end of the field after Brown scored pole position on Saturday although various incidents ensured there was no opportunity to break away during the opening half of the race.
Engine failure for Richie Stanaway, a spin into the wall for Jordan Boys and then a clash between Kai Allen and Dylan O’Keeffe that left debris littering the circuit all seeing the race go under caution as it proved to be difficult for the race to get into any kind of rhythm.
They weren’t the only drivers to run into issues either, with Todd Hazelwood lucky to escape a trip into the tyres when he ran off going into the Esses and a various cars handed time penalties for unfair releases in the pits.
Even the battle between the Red Bull pair at the front didn’t pass without incident, which came after Feeney had jumped ahead of Brown following a stop in the second half of the race.
Brown had come in earlier and had tyres that were already up to temperature whilst Feeney was on cold rubber, which saw him run wide at turn one – with the pair making contact as Feeney then rejoined.
The demise of Brodie Kostecki’s car late on resulted in a fourth caution of the race that backed up the field with Brown leading Feeney and James Golding, with Jack Le Brocq and Matthew Payne behind for the restart with under ten minutes left to run.
Even then, there was no simple run to the flag as Payne tried to make a move on Le Brocq for position only for the pair to clash – putting Le Brocq into the tyres and bringing the caution back out.
Only three minutes were left when racing resumed again and Brown was able to fend off Feeney to score the win, with Golding behind in third able to fend off Payne and the wildcard of Cooper Murray and Jamie Whincup – which had started back in 18th on the grid.
Payne had been the best placed of the Ford entrants, with Cameron Waters and Chaz Mostert in sixth and seventh being the only other non-Chevrolet races to make it into the top ten.
The cars of Kostecki and Stanaway were the only ones that would fail to finish the race, although the DJR car shared by Allen and Will Davison was 36 laps down after being forced to pit for repairs after the earlier incident.
In total, 20 cars finished onto the lead lap, the last of which was the Le Brocq car after his late trip into the tyres.
