» V8s: Davison/Owen to start from Sandown pole

On the back of co-driver Steve Owen’s hard charge to second place in today’s earlier Qualifying Sprint Race, Will Davison has gone one better in the second sprint race leg to give the pair pole position for Sunday’s Sandown 500.

After Owen had ensured a front-row start for the Ford Performance Racing driver, Davison did the rest, blasting clear of pole-sitter Jamie Whincup as the race got underway before cruising to a 5.6-second win.

Whincup led home teammate Craig Lowndes – who is targeting his fourth ‘500’ win on the trot – to complete the podium in what was a very pedestrian race, compared to the exciting and rather ill-disciplined opener staged by the series regulars’ co-drivers.

Mark Winterbottom was one of a handful of drivers to work his way forward. With co-driver Steven Richards managing to atone for ‘Frosty’s’ disappointing twelfth-placed qualifying effort by finishing sixth in the opener, the FPR driver gained two further positions to net fourth, passing Chaz Mostert on the penultimate lap.

Winterbottom’s FPR stablemate David Reynolds finished in sixth place to give the Blue Oval four of the top-six places, while James Courtney, Tim Slade, Scott McLaughlin and Todd Kelly rounded out the top ten positions.

The one moment of major drama came at the start with Garth Tander completely fluffing his start, falling from fourth to sixteenth by the opening corner. His slow-starting Holden triggered a bit of biff-and-barge in the lower midfield, with Nissan duo Michael Caruso and Rick Kelly triggering spins for Maro Engel and Dean Fiore at Turn 1 in a four-wide squeeze for track position.

Alex Davison took damage in the melee and had to pit for repairs, while Fiore was an instant retiree and will share the back row of tomorrow’s starting grid with the Ford driver.

The action resumes tomorrow with a twenty-minute warm-up that precedes the 500-kilometre, 161-lap main event race. Davison and Owen will have their work cut out to be the first pairing since the 1996 event to win from pole position.

2013 V8 Supercars Sandown 500 – Sprint Race 2 Final Classification (20 laps):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Will Davison	Pepsi Max Crew / Ford Performance Racing	23:19.2166
2.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing AU / Triple 8 Engineering	+ 5.6534
3.	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing AU / Triple 8 Engineering	+ 6.2144
4.	Mark Winterbottom	Pepsi Max Crew / Ford Performance Racing	+ 8.5295
6.	Chaz Mostert	Wilson Security Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 9.0362
6.	David Reynolds	Bottle-O Racing / Ford Performance Racing	+ 9.3283
7.	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team / TWR	+ 9.8601
8.	Tim Slade	Heavy Haulage Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 10.2364
9.	Scott McLaughlin	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 14.8995
10.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 17.0720
11.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 17.6417
12.	Alexandre Prémat	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 18.3745
13.	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team / TWR	+ 18.6760
14.	Shane van Gisbergen	VIP Petfoods / Tekno Autosports	+ 19.2487
15.	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing	+ 23.2755
16.	Russell Ingall	SuperCheap Auto Racing / TWR	+ 28.8479
17.	Tony D’Alberto	HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 29.0968
18.	David Wall	Wilson Security Racing / Brad Jones Racing	+ 29.8171
19.	Lee Holdsworth	IRWIN Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 30.6143
20.	James Moffat	Norton 360 Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 31.7412
21.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 32.1141
22.	Tim Blanchard	Wilson Security Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 32.5073
23.	Jonathon Webb	Darrell Lea Racing / Tekno Autosports	+ 33.8746
24.	Michael Caruso	Norton 360 Racing / Nissan Motorsport	+ 33.9821
25.	Maro Engel	SP Tools Racing / Erebus Motorsport	+ 34.0917
26.	Scott Pye	EKOL Racing / Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	+ 43.1879
27.	Alex Davison	Jeld-Wen Racing / Ford Performance Racing	+ 1 lap
	Not Classified
DNF.	Dean Fiore	Dodo Insurance / Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	0 laps