Caltex Racing’s Russell Ingall believes strategy is the key to success at the Just Insurance Sandown 500, round nine of the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series, to be held in Melbourne at the Sandown International Raceway this weekend.
The 500km event is the first endurance race of 2007 and after enjoying the fruits of victory in 1998, when he was paired alongside Larry Perkins, Ingall is hopeful that good car speed and a strong race strategy will assist him to finish on top of the podium in his 12th start at Sandown.
For the third year in succession, Ingall will drive the Caltex Racing Falcon with Luke Youlden. The duo finished runner-up in the corresponding event in 2004 and believe that outright speed is as important as being able to outsmart the opposition in the pits. With the short lap time and frequent safety car periods, Ingall says that it is essential to be on the ball to stay on the lead lap.
Ingall’s team-mate James Courtney will team up with long-time friend and former Queensland 500 winner, David Besnard. The pair has known each other for almost 20 years with Courtney following Besnard’s progression through the karting ranks in Australia and Europe.
This weekend marks 10 years since Courtney secured the biggest win of his motorsport career, the World Karting Championship. At age 17 he became the first, and only, Australian to win the Title in Salbris, Italy while driving for the illustrious Tony Kart team.
Regular team-mates Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will share the driving duties in the #888 Caltex-backed Ford Falcon BF which set to be a frontrunner from the outset of the 161-lap showdown that demands peak physical and mental strength.
Both Whincup and Lowndes have finished on the podium at Sandown for the last two years, and the drivers are extremely confident that the ever-improving Caltex-backed TeamVodafone Falcons will be quick once again.
The endurance events often require drivers to compromise on settings and seat position, but after a strong test session at Queensland Raceway recently both drivers found that they enjoyed close to an identical setup, a definite advantage in such a grueling race format.
Sharing the driving duties in the #88 Caltex-backed TeamVodafone Falcon will once again be the international pairing of Richard Lyons and Allan Simonsen, two drivers who are renowned for their versatility and ability to adapt to racecars in next to no time.
Both Simonsen and Lyons arrived in Australia earlier this week after competing in rounds of their respective European and Japanese sports car series.
Practice for the Just Car Insurance 500 will begin on Friday afternoon followed by qualifying on Saturday and the 161-lap race on Sunday afternoon.
Russell Ingall - #9 Caltex Racing Ford Falcon
“Heading into Sandown this year, it feels like there is no real pressure; it gives us a chance to wipe the slate clean of previous results this year and have a real go, ” said Ingall.
“SBR has never had the fastest cars at the endurance races but we are usually there at the end in the top half-a-dozen.
“In endurance races, you can overcome outright speed in the pits; you need to outsmart the competition.
“You just have to be very careful at Sandown as it is easy to go a lap down; strategy is very important. You need to make sure you run in the front pack and keep with them to be there at the end. ”
Luke Youlden - #9 Caltex Racing Ford Falcon
“Russell (Ingall) and I are pushing pretty hard for this one; we are both desperate to win it, ” said Youlden.
“Unlike other years, the pressure is off with regard to the championship. I don’t have that thought in the back of my mind that I have someone else’s championship in my hands. We can really focus on winning races outright.
“This is the third time that Russell and I have driven together and we were pretty disappointed to miss the podium at Bathurst last year by such a small margin.
“Now is the time for results. ”
Craig Lowndes - #888 Team Vodafone Ford Falcon
“We had a fantastic test at Queensland Raceway recently, Jamie and I were both running pretty much the same lap times and coming back to the team with similar feedback on the car,” said Lowndes.
“Because we were both after the same thing in terms of car setup we were able to experiment a bit more.
“We are going to run with our strongest combination for each race - Jamie will qualify at Sandown as he has out-qualified me for most of this year.”
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