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The season of endurance is upon us as the Sandown 500 starts the Endurance Cup this weekend. Join The Roar for a live blog of qualifying for the Sandown 500 from 12:15pm (AEST).
In the pre-cursor to the upcoming Bathurst 1000, the Sandown 500 provides teams, drivers and co-drivers the perfect chance to race and prepare for the great race in the second week of October.
It also provides the team and drivers with a chance to score 300 points for the overall championship and the Endurance Cup.
The Endurance Cup, which was introduced last year, is awarded to the car and combination that scores the most points in Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast 600.
Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff are the defending champions, but both will be defending the title in different teams.
Lowndes remains with Triple 888 racing and teams up with Steven Richards who won Bathurst last year in a Ford.
Luff moves to the Holden Racing Team and joins Garth Tander in his endurance campaign this year.
Both combinations will be among the contenders this year.
The race will also form a big part of the championship with Jamie Whincup looking to maintain and extend his lead in the championship.
At the last round at the Sydney Motorsport Park, Whincup extended the lead to 135 point over Mark Winterbottom in the championship.
Winterbottom will be looking to reduce the margin with a good performance this weekend.
Today is all about setting the grid though. How they do it at the Sandown 500 is different to other events in the calendar.
At 12:15pm today they will have a 20 minute qualifying session which will set the field for Qualifying Race 1 at 2:15pm.
In that race the co-drivers will have 20 laps to move towards the front and maintain or improve the position that their teammate set in qualifying.
Wherever they finish in this race will set the grid for Qualifying Race 2 at 4:10pm which is raced by the main game drivers.
They then race for another 20 laps to set the grid for the Sandown 500.
Where they finish in the second qualifying race will be where they start the race tomorrow.
It is an interesting way of setting the grid but it makes the qualifying session a team effort rather than an individual achievement of just setting the quickest time.
Last year it was Ford Performance Racing who was on pole position for the race as Will Davison and Steve Owen took out the second qualifying race.
This year it could be one of many teams as combinations showed their pace in practice yesterday.
In the first session it was Jamie Whincup who set the fastest time of the weekend so far with a 1:09.1927 in his Red Bull Holden.
Not far behind him was the Holden Racing Team duo of Garth Tander and James Courtney, who finished second and third respectively.
Scott McLaughlin, driving for Volvo, finished in 4th position with Lee Holdsworth in 5th position for Erebus Motorsport.
McLaughlin’s co-driver, Alex Premat, then dominated the two co-driver sessions as he topped both practice 2 and 3 in the afternoon.
As many as ten cars could be in contention to win pole position as team battles to start on the best spot on the grid.
It promises to be a frantic battle as the drivers and teams try to race their way to pole position.
My prediction for pole position is the 33 Volvo of McLaughlin and Premat.
The pace of the Volvo has been quick this weekend.
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