THE stars have aligned to have Lee Holdsworth hunting two Sandown 500 podiums on the trot.
Holdsworth made his Supercars Championship debut in the 2004 Sandown enduro; 15 years later he was on the podium following a strong run with Tickford Racing co-driver Thomas Randle.
For the historic event’s return this weekend, he’s reuniting with Chaz Mostert at Walkinshaw Andretti United – a combination which won the 2021 Bathurst 1000 in their only previous start together.
That Mount Panorama triumph helped Holdsworth secure a swansong full-time season with Grove Racing, after which he happily hung up the helmet as a primary driver and committed to working in the commercial real estate sector.
This weekend, he’ll delve back into the Supercars world in a high-profile effort to deliver Walkinshaw Andretti United its first win as a Ford squad.
“I’m back!” said Holdsworth, who celebrated his 500th main game race at last year’s Sandown SuperSprint, shortly before announcing his retirement.
“I’ve been itching to get back behind the wheel with Chaz since our Bathurst 1000 win in 2021.
“It’s great to have Sandown return to the endurance calendar for the first time since 2019, it’s a great lead-up to Bathurst at the beginning of next month.
“Looking forward to being back with the boys, the test days have been really productive so I can’t wait.”
Completing a stellar enduro roster is the Car #2 pairing of Nick Percat and Fabian Coulthard, who has been described by Percat as “one of the best co-drivers in the field”.
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Coulthard co-drove with Mostert to second place in the 2022 Great Race.
“It’s great to be back with the WAU team again, we had some good success last endurance season and we are looking to repeat that this year,” he said.
“Really looking forward to teaming up with Nick, I’ve spent heaps of time with him and the team this year, as well as the test days behind the wheel so I’m ready to get out there.
“It’ll be a lot to learn, a lot to adjust to but I am feeling confident going into this weekend with what we can achieve.”
Sandown is located just 4km down the road from WAU’s new base in Clayton South.
Practice starts on Friday.
V8 Sleuth’s coverage of the 2023 Penrite Oil Sandown 500 is proudly presented by Biante – Fuel your passion with winning model cars. Visit Biante here to check out their range of model cars in a range of scales from 1:64 to 1:10.
