Supercars: Faultless Sandown 500 victory for Waters/Stanaway

Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway have scored their first V8 Supercars victory in the Wilson Security Sandown 500, the 19th race of the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship season and the first endurance race of the season.

A duo in the Prodrive #6 Ford Falcon started from pole and won the race after exciting 125 lap at Sandown Raceway, beating DJR Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Premat by 0.7 seconds to the finish line. Chaz Mostert and Steve Owen completed a podium, making it a 1-2-3 victory for Ford.

Sandown 500’s victory is the maiden win for Cameron Waters in his second full-season in the championship. Richie Stanaway captured his maidenwin in his first ever Supercars race, after he joined Prodrive Racing in several Dunlop Super2 Series races earlier this season.

Cameron Waters celebrates a victory

The best-placed Holden drivers were Garth Tander and James Golding in fourth place, after a last-lap pass on the second Shell Ford of Fabian Coulthard and Tony D’Alberto. Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell recovered from a right-rear puncture to finish sixth.

The Sandown classic lasted for just 125 of the scheduled 161 laps because the race was red-flagged after Taz Douglas’ heavy crash at Turn 6 on the opening lap. Repairs to the tyre wall caused a delay of more than an hour.

In the championship standings, McLauglin stayed in the lead with 84-point gap over Whincup. Fabian Coulthard is further 77 points down. The next round of the championship is Bathurst 1000 on October 8.