Well, that was quick, wasn’t it? It didn’t exactly feel like that long ago we were busy getting prepared for a couple of shifts around the Mountain in February and all of a sudden, it’s enduro season!
We love endurance racing, and we are extremely stoked to have Scotty Pye and the GOAT 😉 jumping in to help the main-game Bulls on their quest to conquer the big ones! There ain’t no missing JDub’s presence come enduro time, but what may be slightly lesser known is that Scotty has actually driven for Triple Eight Race Engineering previously– albeit back in 2012, in a Super2 Car!
We make an eagerly anticipated return to Sandown Raceway, where the Bulls can claim recent successes to be on their side. With a famous victory at his first Sandown 500 crack last year, BFeen is itching to build on his recent form to help get Car #88 on top of the box late Sunday afternoon.
“I’m excited. Enduro season is my favorite time of the year. We’ve come off a pretty unfortunate weekend, so for us, it’s about trying to win and get some points back on the board. But of course, it’s such a big race and it meant so much to win it last year, so I’m excited to go back.”
For JDub, the history of the Sandown 500 stands out massively for him. “It’s a good simple track,” said Jamie when speaking about the Sandown layout. “It just reeks of history. It’s been around forever, Formula 1 used to race there back in the sixties – that’s how long it’s been around. You can’t help but feel that history when you get down there.”
“However, past results don’t guarantee anything this weekend or in the future,’ said Jamie. “We’ll have to be on our ‘A’ game. There’ll be some serious competition, but we’ll put our heads down and see if we can get a result.”
Broc suggests that although there is a love for the track, the Victorian weather knows how to bite throughout the 500km affair. “The weather’s always up in the air. You never know what it’s going to do at Sandown, so it always adds another element. But 500km around there is a lot of fun. It goes pretty quick, but it’s pretty full on all race.”
For the operators of Car #87, the mixture of experience and recent form could be the winning recipe for Will and Scott on Sunday afternoon. “It’s always a great time of the year to go racing with a co-driver and an exciting time getting into these longer races’ said Will, “but I’m feeling confident we’ve done all the prep we can and now we have to see what happens”.
Even though BFeen and JDub might’ve nabbed a famous 2023 win, a certain someone landed themselves a pole position – something that Will is looking to repeat in 2024. “I enjoyed the track last year, actually qualifying on pole, so that was awesome. We didn’t get the race win but had really strong pace, so I’m hoping we can be similar this year and have that race pace again.”
“It’s crazy to wake up and it’d be race week again,” said Scott on his return to Supercar racing. “It feels like it’s not come soon enough. I’m excited to get the helmet back on and contribute to what’s been a pretty solid year for the team. I think I’d only driven a supercar four times before I went to Sandown the first time (in 2012), and I’ve done 340 races since, so my approach to this weekend is a lot more routine than it would’ve been then.
Experience aside, Scott believes the role of the co-driver is more crucial than ever. “The level of competition from the co-drivers is higher than I think it’s ever been. The pace that’s required from a co-driver to keep you in contention throughout the day is pretty high.”
Sandown 500 actions begins this Friday at 10:45am, with 3 practice sessions kicking the weekend off, hard and fast. Our main event, 161 laps and 500km worth of Sandown Raceway, starts at 2:05pm on Sunday afternoon.
We can’t wait to see all our Victorian Bulls fans down there, it’s sure to be another one for the record books!
