Sandown will host the 306th, 307th and 308th race in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia history and the 104th round in series history.
This is the 10th time Sandown has hosted a round of PCCA. It was part of the calendar for the first six years of the category’s history in this country (2003-2008) before a gap of six years until the next visit in 2014. The category has been competing there ever since.
The round will also feature the first of three Endurance Cup races for the PCCA with a longer Race 3 on Sunday at Sandown over 25 laps. It will be the longest PCCA race held at Sandown and the second longest single driver race in PCCA history (77.5-kilometres). The longest was 89.4-kilometres held on the Gold Coast in 2004 won by Alex Davison.
The Endurance Cup will be determined by the points scored in the longer, endurance race at each of the next three rounds at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast. The points from these three races will be tallied up to determine a Professional Endurance Cup champion and a TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge Endurance Cup champion.
Alex Davison will make his 50th Porsche Carrera Cup Australia round start at Sandown, becoming just the fourth driver after Marc Cini, Craig Baird and Rodney Jane to reach this milestone. He’s won 16 of his 49 rounds (32.7%), had pole for 15 of them (30.6%), finished on the podium in 35 of them (71.4%) and won 45 of his 141 races (31.9%).
Stephen and Brenton Grove will create PCCA history at Sandown, becoming the first father and son to race against one another in the all-Porsche series. Father and son Indiran and Duvashen Padayachee shared a car together in the Pro-Am round at Phillip Island in 2015 but this is the first time in PCCA history a father and son combination will compete against one another in a round.
Brenton Grove, John Morriss and Jordan Love all make their PCCA debuts at Sandown. They become the 195th, 196th and 197th drivers to compete in the series since it kicked off back in 2003.
Only one driver – Nick Foster – has managed to clean sweep all three races in a PCCA round at Sandown. Jim Richards (2003) and Michael Patrizi (2014) each won two races in a round with no third race officially declared given one race on each of those weekends was declared a ‘no race’.
Four different drivers – Andre Heimgartner, Cameron McConville, David Wall (co-driven by Shane Smollen at Phillip Island) and Jaxon Evans – have won the first five rounds of the 2017 championship.
Wall is the only repeat winner so far this season. Four different drivers – Heimgartner, Nick McBride, Stephen Grove and Wall – have taken the first five pole positions of the 2017 championship. Wall is the only multiple Professional Class pole winner so far this year.
The closest PCCA race winning margin at Sandown is 0.1694s – Nick Foster beat home Matt Campbell by this slender margin in Race 3 in 2015. The biggest winning margin is 4.9185s set in Race 2 in 2003 when Jim Richards led home Kevin Bell.
The closest PCCA pole-winning margin at Sandown is 0.0207s – David Reynolds beat Alex Davison to pole in 2006 by this margin. The biggest PCCA pole-winning margin at Sandown is 0.6468s Matt Campbell over Nick McBride last year.
SANDOWN LAP RECORDS
Race Lap Record: Michael Patrizi, 1m10.5295s, 2014
Qual Lap Record: Matt Campbell, 1m09.6782s, 2016
SANDOWN ROUND WINNERS
2003 Jim Richards
2004 Jim Richards
2005 Jim Richards
2006 David Reynolds
2007 Alex Davison
2008 Craig Baird
2014 Michael Patrizi
2015 Nick Foster
2016 Alex Davison
3 – Jim Richards
2 – Alex Davison
1 – David Reynolds, Craig Baird, Michael Patrizi, Nick Foster
SANDOWN RACE WINS
2003 Peter Fitzgerald, Jim Richards, Jim Richards
2004 Jim Richards, No Race, Jim Richards
2005 Jim Richards, Fabian Coulthard, Jim Richards
2006 Alex Davison, Craig Baird, David Reynolds
2007 Alex Davison, Alex Davison, Craig Baird
2008 Craig Baird, Craig Baird, David Wall
2014 Michael Patrizi, No Race, Michael Patrizi
2015 Nick Foster, Nick Foster, Nick Foster
2016 Matt Campbell, Matt Campbell, Alex Davison
6 – Jim Richards
4 – Craig Baird, Alex Davison
3 – Nick Foster
2 – Michael Patrizi, Matt Campbell
1 – Peter Fitzgerald, Fabian Coulthard, David Reynolds, David Wall
Note: Race 2 in 2004 was red-flagged before enough distance was covered for points to be awarded.
Therefore it has been declared a ‘no race’ in PCCA record books. Race 2 in 2014 was red-flagged after a Safety Car period due to a multi-car accident. The race was not restarted and therefore was also declared a ‘no race’.
SANDOWN POLE POSITIONS
2003 Jim Richards 1m14.2031s
2004 Fabian Coulthard 1m13.0387s
2005 Jim Richards 1m13.3503s
2006 David Reynolds 1m12.1631s
2007 David Reynolds 1m11.8984s
2008 Craig Baird 1m11.9524s
2014 Warren Luff 1m09.9816s
2015 Matt Campbell 1m09.6854s
2016 Matt Campbell 1m09.6782s
2 – Jim Richards, David Reynolds, Matt Campbell
1 – Fabian Coulthard, Craig Baird, Warren Luff
SANDOWN PODIUMS
2003 Jim Richards, Jonathon Webb, Peter Fitzgerald
2004 Jim Richards, Alex Davison, Jonathon Webb
2005 Jim Richards, Cameron McLean, Fabian Coulthard
2006 David Reynolds, Craig Baird, Alex Davison
2007 Alex Davison, David Reynolds, Craig Baird
2008 Craig Baird, David Wall, Bryce Washington
2014 Michael Patrizi, Shae Davies, Craig Baird
2015 Nick Foster, Matt Campbell, Richard Muscat
2016 Alex Davison, Nick McBride, Steve Richards
4 – Craig Baird, Alex Davison
3 – Jim Richards
2 – Jonathon Webb, David Reynolds
1 – Peter Fitzgerald, Cameron McLean, Fabian Coulthard, David Wall, Bryce Washington, Michael Patrizi, Shae Davies, Nick Foster, Matt Campbell, Richard Muscat, Nick McBride, Steve Richards
SANDOWN TAG HEUER CARRERA CHALLENGE ROUND WINNERS
2004 David Thexton
2005 Dean Grant
2006 Rodney Jane
2007 James Koundouris
2008 James Koundouris
2014 Stephen Grove
2015 Tony Bates
2016 James Bergmuller
2 – James Koundouris
1 – David Thexton, Dean Grant, Rodney Jane, Stephen Grove, Tony Bates, James Bergmuller
SANDOWN TAG HEUER CARRERA CHALLENGE POLE POSITIONS
2004 Peter Hill
2005 Dean Grant
2006 Rodney Jane
2007 Rodney Jane
2008 James Koundouris
2014 Tony Bates
2015 Tony Bates
2016 Tony Bates
3 – Tony Bates
2 – Rodney Jane
1 – Peter Hill, Dean Grant, James Koundouris
SANDOWN TAG HEUER CARRERA CHALLENGE RACE WINS
2004 Peter Hill, No Race, David Thexton
2005 Tony Quinn, Dean Grant, Dean Grant
2006 Rodney Jane, Rodney Jane, Rodney Jane
2007 Rodney Forbes, Rodney Forbes, James Koundouris
2008 James Koundouris, Peter Hill, James Koundouris
2014 Tony Bates, No Race, Stephen Grove
2015 Tony Bates, Tony Bates, Tony Bates
2016 Tony Bates, Tony Bates, James Bergmuller
6 – Tony Bates
3 – Rodney Jane, James Koundouris
2 – Dean Grant, Rodney Forbes, Peter Hill
1 – David Thexton, Tony Quinn, Stephen Grove, James Bergmuller
