V8 Sleuth has plentyof interesting stats out of the Holden Racing Team’s win in the annual enduro classic …
GARTH Tander and Warren Luff won the 45th running of the Sandown endurance classic on the weekend in Melbourne.
Their victory was a timely one for the Holden Racing Team as it chases funding prior to losing that title at the end of the current season.
For Tander itended a winless streak dating back to Townsville 2014, but there were a range of other stats and interesting tidbits to come from the race.
They include:
– Garth Tander claimed his first Sandown 500 victory in his 11th start in the Sandown classic.
– He became the 43rd driver to win the Sandown endurance classic in its history.
– It was Warren Luff’s second Sandown 500 victory (he also won in 2012 with Lowndes for Triple Eight).
– Tander and Luff led 73 of the 143 laps.
– The 0.3485s winning margin was the second closest win margin in the event’s history.
– 11 different cars led laps – Tander/Luff 73, Whincup/Dumbrell 25, Coulthard/Youlden 20, McLaughlin/Wall 8, Percat/McConville 7, Kelly/Campbell 4, Holdsworth/Reindler 2, Courtney/Perkins 1, Kelly/Ingall 1, Lowndes/Richards 1, van Gisbergen/Premat 1.
– This year was the first time the Sandown 500 has run to a time certain finish since 2004.
– The 2016 race saw the first red flag in the history of the Sandown touring car endurance classic (race red flagged on lap 4 during a Safety Car period due to James Golding’s crash on lap 1).
– It’s HRT’s 4th Sandown 500 win and first since 2003.
– Tander broke a 72 race-winning drought with just his second podium of the season.
– It was the 54th race win of Tander’s VASC career and Luff’s 3rd (his first since Gold Coast 2013).
– It was HRT’s 179th race win in the championship and first since James Courtney’s victory at this year’s Clipsal 500.
– It was Alex Somerset’s second VASC race win as an engineer – his first was with James Moffat for Nissan at Winton in 2013.
– It’s the 8th straight win for Holden in the 2016 VASC.
– It’s the 4th year in a row the Sandown 500has been won by a car starting on the front row of the grid.
– 14 cars finished on the lead lap.
