Endurance Co-Driver Chris Pither has had limited laps in the lead-up to the Sandown 500 but says last week’s test day has prepared him despite another interrupted session today.
Rain showers fell throughout the Wilson Security Racing Co-Driver’s practice session at Sandown Motor Raceway this afternoon, making improvements difficult.
Pither, who will partner regular driver David Wall, has had a run of bad luck at the co-driver sessions but says his confidence was given a boost after extended running at Winton last week.
The fourth practice of the weekend starts at 9.40 before qualifying at 11.40.
Chris Pither
Wilson Security Racing Co-Driver
“I did part of session two but unfortunately it rained so we lost a bit of that session. I felt reasonably comfortable in the car. We put some better tyres on it for the start of P3 and improved the lap time but it started raining again on my first flying lap.
“Up until a week ago I had done quite a limited amount of laps in the car, which was a bit worrying. Every car is so different especially with V8 Supercar. It’s a unique car to drive and people coming into the category usually take a decent amount of time to get on the case; normally a season or two!
“Fortunately I got to do a decent amount of laps at the test day at Winton last week and the weather was good so I started to build my confidence and there was definitely a big improvement. I could just have a good crack at it at the end of the day rather than be unsure about what’s going to happen next.”
David Wall
Wilson Security Racing
“The last session was a bit compromised with the weather. We had some things to tick off so I went out on older tyres to start with.
“We did manage to get one run on our good set of tyres at the very end. I had some traffic so I pulled up, which made my last lap a bit rushed when it didn’t need to be, and I’m pretty sure we’re better than the 1m11.2s we managed.”
2012 Dick Smith Sandown 500 – V8 Supercars C’ship Race 20
SANDOWN INTERNATIONAL MOTOR RACEWAY
V8 SUPERCARS – Practice Combined
01 D.Reynolds/D.Canto, The Bottle-O Racing Team, 1:10.5812
02 J.Whincup/P.Dumbrell, TeamVodafone, +0.0123
03 W.Davison/J.McIntyre, Trading Post FPR Ford, +0.0420
04 C.Lowndes/W.Luff, TeamVodafone, +0.0486
05 M.Winterbottom/S.Richards, Orrcon Steel FPR Ford, +0.1162
06 T.Slade/A.Thompson, Lucky 7 Racing, +0.1361
07 S.Owen/P.Morris, VIP Petfoods, +0.1920
08 G.Tander/N.Percat, Holden Racing Team, +0.2064
09 L.Holdsworth/C.Baird, Irwin Racing, +0.2756
10 F.Coulthard/D.Besnard, Lockwood Racing, +0.3016
20. D.Wall/C.Pither, Wilson Security Racing, +0.6507