Feeney leads wet and wild qualifying
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 14 September 2024
Broc Feeney has put the #88 in provisional pole by topping a tense weather-affected qualifying for the 2024 Sandown 500.
Feeney’s 1:12.8980 was just 0.0404s clear of Chaz Mostert and Matt Payne in a 20-minute session punctured by a heavy crash for Aaron Love at Dandenong Road.
But the big objective was managing to survive the slippery conditions and secure a berth in the Top 10 Shootout which the likes of Ryan Wood, Cameron Waters, Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki, Richie Stanaway, Andre Heimgartner and Anton De Pasquale also managed to do.
With so much going on, Feeney was relieved to take provisional pole, especially after starting the session in the Turn 1 grass.
“It was pretty hard work to be honest,” he said.
“I think we have been pretty quick in the wet this weekend, but nothing is locked in yet with the shootout so it is good to get a top 10 starting spot.
“I have gone off so many times and I nearly got stuck at the start.
“We thought it was going to be dry and then it hailed just before the start!”
Teams had to adapt on the fly as on the eve of qualifying Sandown was soaked by a huge sudden hail shower. But when cars ventured onto the slippery track, the sun arrived.
Wood produced a good opener, recording a 1:17.1289 on the first attempt which was two tenths clear of his teammate Mostert.
The pace stepped up significantly on the second lap with De Pasquale posting a 1:15.1380 ahead of Feeney and Golding, while Cooper Murray pushed the wildcard up to fourth.
As the track improved, Brown became the first driver into the 1m13s window but was just beaten by Mostert, Percat and Payne.
Reynolds was able to lower the benchmark to a 1:13.5800 ahead of Heimgartner moments before the red flag arrived.
Love lost it by taking too much of the kerb in the right hander of the Dandenong Road complex.
By finding the extra water the #3 Mustang spun out of control head on into the outside fence before coming to rest in the gravel.
The stoppage arrived roughly at the halfway mark with 12 minutes remaining and the full field aside from the Team 18 Camaros hit the track as soon as possible.
Wood was the first to fire a shot when the session resumed, just falling short of Reynolds’ marker, which was just beaten by De Pasquale.
The DJR driver started a game of musical chairs with Payne and then Mostert taking turns in P1 as the pace continued to step up.
Mostert laid the killer blow by being the first to record a 1m12s time of the session with the likes of Waters and Wood coming close.
Stanaway was hoping to join them but lost the best part of 2s in the final sector but eventually rose to fifth.
With three minutes to go the track was continuing to improve with no more rain falling and Feeney joined Mostert in the 1m12s threshold.
His Triple Eight teammate Brown was in the danger zone sitting 16th, but importantly improved to sixth.
Inside the final two minutes the sun arrived to add one more obstacle with Percat on the bubble in 10th.
The MSR driver ended up getting knocked out at the very end after De Pasquale snatched it with his final lap, rising from 15th to 10th.
With the classic Melbourne weather living up to its reputation, the grid could be further shaken up in the Top 10 Shootout at 17.25 AEST.
Image: DMAC Photography
2024 Sandown 500 Qualifying results
2024 Sandown 500
Practice 1: 1: C. Waters 1:08.7478 2: C. Mostert +0.1445 3: D. Reynolds +0.1834
Practice 2: 1: S. Pye 1:08.8398 2: D. Fraser +0.0780 3: D. O’Keeffe +0.0785
Practice 3: 1: J. Le Brocq 1:08.2772 2: W. Brown +0.0394 3: A. Heimgartner +0.1377
Practice 4: 1: R. Stanaway 1:14.4910 2: B. Feeney +0.0361 3: L. Holdsworth +0.0422
Practice 5: Sat 12.00
Qualifying: Sat 14.10
Top 10 Shootout: Sat 17.20
Warm up: Sun 9.55
Race: Sun 14.05 161 laps
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