About the TrackLength: 3.104kmTurns: 13Direction: Anti-clockwiseFastest average speed in a V8 Racing Ute: 135kph
1) This will be the V8 Ute Racing Series eighth appearance at Sandown Raceway. The V8 Utes first appeared at Sandown Raceway in their inaugural year in 2001, then again in 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
2) The current Lap Record is held by Kris Walton in a time of 1:21.9415, Walton broke teammate and Multspares driver Ryan Hansford’s 2013 record by almost a second.
Mick Donaher was the first V8 Racing Ute driver to hold the record at Sandown Raceway in a Ford AU. This was the only time that Ford held the lap record at Sandown. Damien White broke Paul Stokell’s 2002 record in Race 2, 2004, with a time of 1:27.136 in a Holden. In 2005, the lap record was broken in every race, firstly by the late Allan Simonsen in Race 1, followed by Marcus Zukanovic in Race 2 and then the next day by Ryal Harris who held it in a time of 1:26.0552.
3) Ford v’s Holden:Two-time V8 Ute Champion, Ryal Harris stood on the podium back in 2009 when he raced a Holden, and won for the first time in a Ford last year making him the only driver to win in both a Ford and Holden. He also gave Ford their second only ever Round win in their 7 years at Sandown. Ford driver Mick Donahue had a clean-sweep of the field in 2001 claiming qualifying and all three races (Damien White is the only other driver to claim a clean sweep at Sandown in 2005 in a Holden), James Moffat was the only other Ford driver to stand on the podium when he placed third outright in 2005 until Kris Walton and Harris broke the drought last year claiming second and first respectively.
Holden have dominated Sandown races having won 16 out of the 23 races.
4) Race Trivia: Race 2 in 2009 was declared a Race, however no points were issued. It was deemed a race because more than 2 laps were completed, but because 75% of the race distance wasn’t achieved, no points were issued. The race was shortened due to an incident when Stephen Robinson rolled his car in spectacular fashion at Turn 1.5) 2002 was the “Great Aussie Ute Race”, which was a two driver format with each driver paired with a legend, some of which included: 3 x Australian Gold Star Champion, Paul Stokell, Touring Car Legend Andrew Miedecke, Country Singer Adam Brand, V8 Supercar star Brad Jones and Formula 1 World Champion (1980), Alan Jones.
6) Dunlop Development Series regular Todd Hazelwood will debut in the V8 Utes this weekend in the All Purpose Pest Control Ford run by Matt Stone Racing.
Australian Super Six Touring Car Driver, Ben Grice will also debut in a V8 Ute this weekend, his father Allan raced a V8 Ute in 2002/ 2003 and 2005 and competed in the Great Aussie race with Alan Jones. Allan is a seven time Bathurst 1000 podium sitter, two of which were wins (1986 & 1990).
7) Six out of the 32 V8 Ute Racing drivers will drive a V8 Racing Ute around Sandown Raceway for the first time including; Todd Hazelwood, Ben Grice, Leigh Nicolaou, Mason Barbera, Richard Mork and Bruce Oaklands, who will be sporting a new livery moving from blue and white to green and black.
Townsville Pole winner, Rhys McNally will miss this round due to work commitments.8) Kim Jane has a long history at Sandown Raceway having had his first race there at the age of 17 in an EH Holden. He celebrated his 200th V8 Ute Race there in 2011.
Nathan Pretty holds the Nations Cup lap record at Sandown Raceway in a Holden Monaro 427 V8, which he set back in 2004.
George Miedecke last raced in a Ford at Sandown in 2009, after taking out Race 1 he had a major incident in Race 3 when Jack “The Hustler” Elsegood made contact with him after he missed a gear causing Miedecke to spin and turn 2008 V8 Ute Champion Layton Crambrook around.
9) Hot Gossip: Ryan Hansford is expecting his first child around the Sandown weekend so will be on call, he might have to drive extra fast to make it to the delivery room on time.
George Miedecke is expecting his first child in February and two-time Champion Ryal Harris was married to long-time partner Casey on the Gold Coast over the weekend.
10) Series leader, Kris Walton, debuted in the V8 Ute Series at Sandown Raceway in 2012 and went on to drive full-time in the Series in 2013, taking out the Rookie title. Walton claimed Race 2 on debut and in 2013 and 2014 stepped on the podium taking out second overall for the Round, which led to his first V8 Ute Championship.
Nathan Pretty and Walton had, a verbal altercation in Parc Ferme following a heated on-track battle in Race 1 2013, which saw Walton push Pretty wide off the track, handing the win to Ryan Hansford. The Rentco Racing driver went as far as posting a dummy (pacifier) onto his on-board camera to make known his thoughts.
11) Rod Wilson, Kim Jane, Gary Baxter and Kris Walton are the only 3 drivers to stand on the podium more than once. Inaugural V8 Ute Racing Champion Rod Wilson is the most successful driver (3 times) with podium finishes in 2001, 2002 with Gary MacDonald in the Great Aussie Race and 2003, Baxter (2004 and 2005), Jane in 2009 and 2011 and Walton 2013 and 2014.
12) There has been a different Round winner every year the V8 Utes have raced at Sandown Raceway.13) Ryal Harris leads the ARMOR ALL Drivers Championship by a mere 13 points after a dismal round in Townsville. He will continue to carry an extra 40kg success Ballast, Adam Marjoram in second place will carry an extra 30kg and David Sieders 20kg for being in third.
14) Qualifying:
There has been a different ARMOR ALL Pole winner every year the V8 Utes have raced at Sandown and 2009 saw one of the closest Pole winning margins in V8 Ute History when Layton Crambrook claimed victory over Grant Johnson by only 0.0125s.
The two session qualifying format will also be run at this Round. The format, similar to the qualifying system used in Formula 1, features a 20 minute session broken up into 2 individual segments. Qualifying 1 will include all 32 V8 Utes and after 10 minutes, the top 10 fastest drivers will continue into Qualifying 2, for a short 5 minute session allowing for a 1 or 2 lap shootout. The fastest lap times will then determine the top ten grid for the start of Race 1, with the balance of the grid filled as they drop off in lap time from each segment.
15) Points: There is a total of 178 points up for grabs over the weekend.
Only 3 points will be issued for Qualifying to the ARMOR ALL Pole Winner, 70 points to the winner of Race 1, 35 points (half-points) to the winner of Race 2 reverse Grid Race and 70 points to the winner of Race 3.
The Grids are determined as follows. Race 1 Grid is determined by Qualifying. Race 2 grid is determined by a random ballot drawn by the Race 1 winner. The number drawn is the number of Utes that will be reversed on the grid for that race. The Grid for Race 3 will be a progressive grid from the finishing positions of Race 2. In the event of a tie, the highest grid position will go to the fastest qualifier.
16) Television Broadcast: All Practice and Qualifying sessions as well as all three races will be televised LIVE through Fox Sports with a one hour highlights package to be broadcast on ONE HD. Race 2 and Race 3 will be televised LIVE as on Channel Ten.
