2023 Penrite Oil Sandown 500 – Supercheap Auto Wildcard Round Wrap-Up

After making its competition debut back in June at the Betr Darwin Triple Crown, the Bendix-backed #888 Supercheap Auto Chevrolet Camaro made its return at the 2023 Penrite Oil Sandown 500 for the ninth round of the 2023 Supercars Championship. This time around, Craig Lowndes was poised to enter the fray, and with Zane Goddard behind the wheel, the #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro was ready to tackle all 161 laps of Race 23 of the 2023 Championship.

Sporting a fresh new livery, the #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro set out for its first track out of the weekend in Friday morning’s Practice 1 session. The team would set their baseline for the weekend with a 1m09.89s best time around Sandown, placing them at 21st fastest among the pack. Practice 2 later that afternoon would tell a much different story with the #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro clocking the fastest lap in the session by a fair margin thanks to a 1m09.31s best lap. Friday’s Supercars action would end with Practice 3 which would see team Supercheap Auto Racing with the 22nd fastest lap of the pack with a 1m09.55s best lap.

Saturday would kick off with Practice 4 which would see the team back in the Top 10 with a 1m09.05s best lap, placing them at 10th fastest on the grid. Qualifying for the big race would take place later that day and would see Zane Goddard take the wheel, ultimately ending the session with a P23 qualifying result to kick off Race 23.

The lights would go off on the big race on Sunday afternoon and would prove to be a gruelling affair with 161 laps of the 3.1 km-long circuit layout. Craig Lowndes would start things off for the team with tyre conservation being a big part of their strategy as the race progressed. A frightening moment for the team took place on Lap 43 with Lowndes behind the wheel after a collision with the #35 Camaro through the notoriously fast Turn 5 saw the #888 Camaro crossed up towards the grass at 200km/h. However, Lowndes would manage to save the Camaro from disaster and carry on with the race. Later on, Zane Goddard would pilot the Camaro in the final stint of the race, bringing it home to an impressive Top 10 finish in P10 – a far cry from their starting position. Craig Lowndes had the following to say to round out the weekend.

Craig Lowndes: "It was a really good feeling coming into this weekend as a bit of a lead into the Bathurst 1000 but we wanted to still do well.

"Zane did a fantastic job to bring it home under a lot of pressure from the primary drivers to bring home a P10 which was really really good.

"I think the result this weekend is really encouraging heading into Bathurst with the same car, the same group. Zane and I will also take a lot out of this weekend before taking on the mountain.”

After their debut round, Supercheap Auto Racing find themselves with 156 points on the leaderboard. The #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro returns next month when the Supercars Championship heads to New South Wales for the 2023 Repco Bathurst 1000 running from October 5th - 8th.

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