TRIPLE EIGHT Race Engineering dominated the Rabble.club Sandown 500 in a way that hasn’t been seen in a Virgin Australia Supercars Championship race for some time. 

And it wasn’t just with one car – it was with all three.

While it looks impressive enough on paper – a 1-2-3 result for their three cars, an enhanced championship lead for contender Shane van Gisbergen and an enormous margin in the teams’ championship – when you crunch the numbers it becomes even more impressive.

It wasn’t just raw pace that won the team the Sandown classic, it was their relentless, raw pace across the entire distance.

They absolutely routed the field at Sandown and they did it for the entire motor race.

Take, in isolation, the penultimate stint of the race that showcased their crushing advantage as they set themselves up for their final stops and the subsequent run to the flag.

Craig Lowndes, who was running second, stopped first of the trio on lap 89.

His next 39 laps came at an average 1m10.427s, the car fading late before the stop, with a best lap of 1m09.82s.

Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 92 and then punched out 35 green-flag laps at an average of 1m10.074s, the fastest of anyone on the track in that period of the race. His best lap during the stint was 1m09.59s – so the average only differed from the fastest by 0.5 seconds.

Leader Jamie Whincup stopped a further two laps later and then went an extraordinary 39 laps on his tank, storming to his final stop at an average lap speed of 1m10.154s with a best of 1m09.60s.

On their own those numbers are impressive, but they become more so when you compare them to every other car racing at the same time.

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Scott Pye was best of the rest, his 32-lap stint that started at lap 90 was completed at an average lap time of 1m10.498s – just behind Lowndes’ average.

Championship contender Scott McLaughlin, just further up the road, was in even worse shape – his stint of 34 laps completed with an average lap of 1m10.625s, with a best of 1m09.902s.

In McLaughlin’s case, not only was the one-lap speed not in the same ball park as the Red Bull Holdens – their average lap speed was a full 0.47s per lap faster than the retro-looking Falcon.

Think about that – that’s almost half a second, per lap, every lap for 30-35 tours of a 3.1km circuit.. with a lap time of 69-70 seconds per lap.

If they had maintained that pace advantage from lap one to lap 161 and there were no Safety Cars, they would have won it by a lap. As it was, only 11 cars remained on the lead lap at the end of (the scheduled) 161.

Of course, it was solid work from the three co-drivers who backed up the remarkable late-race pace from the team’s leading stars.

Paul Dumbrell’s opening 23-lap stint was more than 0.7s per lap faster, on average, than Alex Premat in the #17 Shell Falcon. It was crushing.

Earl Bamber and Steven Richards both had traffic to deal with as they worked their way forwards through the field from lower starting positions.

Typically quick, efficient pit stops and good strategy helped the cause, as did luck – the stop for car 888 moments before a Safety Car helped their track position significantly – all contributed.

It may not have made for an especially thrilling race but if you can get around that you can only sit back and marvel at what this team achieved at Sandown.

They have clearly found something extra in the ZB Commodore development race that has left other Holden teams behind.

While Erebus, in particular, and Walkinshaw at times were strong they weren’t the ones sailing past the DJR Team Penske Fords with ease.

The Triple Eight cars punch out of slower corners miles better than anyone and that was helping their straight-line advantage.

Of the others? Tickford Racing were terrible and were lucky to get one car home in 10th position. Nissan’s Rick Kelly and Garry Jacobson were decent while Garth Tander and Chris Pither’s recovery to 9th was very solid. 23 Red’s 11th position, most thought, was entirely decent and saw them home in front of three of the four Tickford Falcons.

Outside of that there were not many positive tales to tell.

The first dance in the Pirtek Enduro Cup has shown that Triple Eight have all the moves.

The rest of the field is on the outside, looking at their feet awkwardly, with no idea of what to do next.

Bathurst awaits..

WORDS: Richard Craill
IMAGE: Red Bull Holden Racing Team