It’s the Supercars Semi Finals this weekend at Sandown Raceway.
Chaz Mostert is still in the final seven, ready to battle it out this weekend to make the Grand Final in Adelaide. Ryan Wood will be pushing hard for race wins as he is still competing for P8 in the championship.
Format
Friday kicks off the on-track action with two 30-minute practice sessions for the cars to get up to speed.
Saturday and Sunday follow the same format with a two-part qualifying with Part 1 setting the grid for P19 to P24, Part 2 setting the grid for P11 to P18. The top 10 drivers battle it out for pole in the Top 10 Shootout.
The lights go out for the 250km Race 30 on Saturday at 3.20pm and Race 31 on Sunday also at 3.20pm.
The Finals Explained
There are seven remaining drivers in the semi-finals at Sandown. Their championship points have been reset for 4000 with their standings from post-Gold Coast defining the semi-finals bonus points: 150 points for first, with a decreasing bonus of 120, 96, 78, 66, 57 down to 58 points for seventh.
Similar to the Gold Coast, if a driver wins either race at the Sandown round, they are automatically into the Grand Final round at Adelaide.
After the two races at Sandown, the three Finals drivers with the lowest points in the championship (fifth, sixth, seventh after Sandown) are eliminated, unless those drivers have won a race at this event. In that case, the next driver with the lowest points in the championship would be eliminated, leaving four drivers in contention for the title at Adelaide.
The Track
Built in the early 1960’s, it is one of the most historic circuits on the calendar, draped with history.
It’s a short lap, at 3.1kms, but filled with action in the 13-corners that wrap around the horse racing track in the middle. The best passing opportunity is into turn 1 and 10, the heavy braking zones.
Tyres
Similar to the Gold Coast 500, for Saturday’s 250km race we will be running the Dunlop Super-Soft tyre and the Dunlop Soft tyre for Sunday’s on track action.
Pitstops
There are two compulsory fuel stops throughout each 250km race. How much fuel you take, and when, will be the big question.
Weather
It looks like it could be a wet weekend with showers on Saturday and up to 10mm of rain on Sunday.
How to Watch
Fox Sports and Kayo will cover every session live, while Channel 7 have you sorted Saturday and Sunday.
Ryan Wood
“Looking forward to hitting the track this weekend, the focus for us is on winning races and getting Chazzie into the final four in Adelaide.
“The new finals format has encouraged some awesome racing, as a driver it’s been so much fun to be a part of, I’m sure the fans have enjoyed it too!
“It’s been a tight turnaround since the Gold Coast, the team have done an awesome job turning the battered and bruised cars around for this weekend, I couldn’t thank them enough.”
Chaz Mostert
“We had an awesome weekend in the Gold Coast, we know we have a solid foundation on the race car to continue to build on.
“We go into this weekend with the same mentality as we did at the Gold Coast, win and you’re in.
“It looks like rain could be a spanner in the works this weekend, that’ll definitely create some entertaining racing, I’m looking forward to it.