Frantic driving carried high costs at Sandown Motor Raceway today but Team BOC’s Jason Bright managed to navigate the chaos to finish tenth in his qualifying race.
The result, which determines the starting order for tomorrow’s 500km marathon, was hard won and afterwards Bright was scathing of driving standards, picking out James Moffat for special attention from the stewards.
Earlier in the day Endurance Co-Driver Andrew Jones finished 13th in his 20-lap qualifying race, despite an incident with Alex Davison. That result determined Bright’s starting position this afternoon.
Among the victims of today’s dubious driving were Team BOC team-mate David Besnard, who was sent off by Paul Morris as well as Will Davison and Lee Holdsworth, who were sent off by James Moffat.
The Dick Smith Sandown 500 starts tomorrow at 13.35 after warm-up at 10.15.
Jason Bright
Team BOC
“They’ve got to give James Moffat a holiday after that. He ran into me at Turn One. I was already on the inside and he pushed me into Tony D’Alberto and just kept pushing. He took two people off later in the race as well when he pulled out under brakes on the dirty line. There was no way he was going to pull it up. It’s definitely not cool and they’ve got to give him a big penalty. He should have to start a lap down as far as I’m concerned.
“On the last lap I had to defend from James Courtney after he went down my inside at Turn Two and couldn’t pull it up. He ran off and came back in front of me. I was in front of him on the straight in the braking area so that’s going to have to be looked into as well.”
Andrew Jones
Team BOC Co-Driver
“I got a reasonable start and got around the Kelly car but down to Turn Two I was the meat in the sandwich. I got down the inside of Alex Davison and we were two abreast down the hill until he squeezed me onto the curbs. To be honest, I was on the inside at the top of the hill and gave him plenty of room but he didn’t return the favour. I really should have just run him into the sand.
“As a result I locked a front and from there we touched and I flat-spotted a tyre, which gave me vibrations throughout the race. Despite that, the car speed was reasonable by the end and we learned a little in terms of what we need tomorrow.”
2012 Dick Smith Sandown 500 – V8 Supercars C’ship Race 20
SANDOWN INTERNATIONAL MOTOR RACEWAY
V8 SUPERCARS – Qualifying
01 Will Davison, Trading Post FPR Ford, 1:09.3670
02 Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team, +0.0072
03 Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing, +0.0813
04 Craig Lowndes, TeamVodafone, +0.0949
05 David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing Team, +0.1165
06 Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Steel FPR Ford, +0.1757
07 Steve Owen, VIP Petfoods, +0.2045
08 Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, +0.2906
09 Jonathon Webb, Tekno Autosports, +0.3134
10 Jamie Whincup, TeamVodafone, +0.3489
14 Jason Bright, Team BOC, +0.4332
2012 Dick Smith Sandown 500 – V8 Supercars C’ship Race 20
SANDOWN INTERNATIONAL MOTOR RACEWAY
V8 SUPERCARS Qualifying Race One
01 Luke Youlden, SP Tools Racing
02 Paul Dumbrell, Team Vodafone
03 Dean Canto, The Bottle-O Racing Team
04 John McIntyre, Trading Post FPR Ford
05 Warren Luff, Team Vodafone
06 Nick Percat, Holden Racing Team
07 Scott McLaughlin, Tekno Autosports
08 Andrew Thompson, Lucky 7 Racing
09 Greg Ritter, Fujitsu Racing
10 Alex Davison, Team Norton
13 Andrew Jones, Team BOC
2012 Dick Smith Sandown 500 – V8 Supercars C’ship Race 20
SANDOWN INTERNATIONAL MOTOR RACEWAY
V8 SUPERCARS Qualifying Race Two / Sandown 500 Grid
01 Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing
02 David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing Team
03 Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team
04 Tim Slade, Lucky 7 Racing
05 Michael Caruso, Fujitsu Racing
06 Rick Kelly, Jack Daniels Racing
07 Craig Lowndes, TeamVodafone
08 James Courtney, Holden Racing Team
09 Jonathon Webb, Tekno Racing
10 Jason Bright, Team BOC