Team 18 is set for the first endurance race of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship, with the most experienced co-driver line ups on the grid for this weekend’s Sandown 500 at Sandown Raceway, 13-15 September.

The Sandown 500 is the traditional precursor to the Bathurst 1000, and is a home race for Team 18 with the Sandown circuit conveniently located just 7 kilometres away from their Mount Waverley headquarters in South-Eastern Melbourne.

Team 18’s lineup features four Sandown 500 wins, with two-time winner Mark Winterbottom to be joined by Michael Caruso for the fourth consecutive year in the Cub Cadet Racing Camaro, while David Reynolds will be joined by two-time winner Warren Luff in the TRADIE Beer Racing Camaro.

The team’s lineup features the equal two most experienced pairings in the field, with a combined 24 Sandown 500 starts each.

The Sandown 500 features its traditional format featuring a single 161-lap, 500km two-driver endurance race on the Dunlop Super Soft tyre.

Endurance races add an extra layer of strategy, with engineers calculating driver time and fuel strategy. Co-drivers will be required to complete a minimum of 54 laps, with the option for brake pad and rotor changes.

The race weekend commences on Friday with three 30-minute practice sessions, including a dedicated session for co-drivers. Saturday brings two more 40-minute practice sessions and a single 20-minute qualifying session for the full field culminating with the Top 10 Shootout, setting the stage for Race 19 of the season.

A 20-minute Sunday morning warm-up session will precede the start of the Sandown 500, which is scheduled to take off at 2:05pm AEST. Fans can catch all of the action live on Fox Sports and Kayo. Check your local guides for further details.

QUOTES

Mark Winterbottom, driver #18 Cub Cadet Racing Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

“We’ve had pretty good results at Sandown, it’s a track I really love and getting to race with Caruso again is really cool.

“We’ll be trying to go out there and do the best job we can and hopefully we have a fast car and, tyre life is going to be important too, but qualify at the front and try and stay there, that’s the plan for the weekend.

“It’s going to be tough. I think there’s a lot of good cars and teams that can do well, but on our day I think we can get the job done or at least get a trophy, we’ll be trying hard.

“It’s a flat out race now. There’s no conserving, but strategy will be interesting because the main drivers have to start, which I don’t actually agree with. I think the cos, you should have the option to start them, but that’s going to drive strategy a little bit. Do you pit early? Do you pit later? Do you double the co? Do you single the co? There’s so many things that could play out.

“I think the start of the race will be pretty standard, like a normal sprint race and then when the cos come in, the strategy opens up. I’m not sure what to expect there, but there’ll be a few different strategies that work and don’t work which should spice it up a bit.”

Michael Caruso, co-driver #18 Cub Cadet Racing Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

“I’m excited to get to Sandown, we had a reasonably strong showing last year, the car performed well in the race so I’m excited to be teaming up with Frosty again and ready to execute when we hit the track.

The focus for us going into the weekend is just getting the car up to speed and once we get there and lock in our starting position the strategy will follow on from that

“Great to be back with Frosty again. It’s nice to have that level of familiarity with each other, we know what to expect from each other, and that’ll help with hitting the ground running and setting up the weekend as we build up to Sunday.”

David Reynolds, driver #20 TRADIE Beer Racing Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

“I love this time of year for our sport. The endurance season is one of the funnest times of the year because you get to share your driving experience with someone else and you become like a little team together and everyone I’ve ever driven with, I always end up being really good friends with for years to come.

“We’re out to win. We’re trying to make our cars as fast as we can. We worked really hard at the test day to get Luffy some laps and he was on the pace pretty much straight away. I’ve been watching him for years but never drove with him. He’s a fun guy, very experienced, got a lot of knowledge in that brain and he’s fun to hang out with, we’re going to have a fun time.

“Sandown is a pretty difficult track. The surface is really old, there’s a lot of tyre deg. There’s a lot of drive traction. You can qualify well there, but have a terrible car on the race and vice versa, you can qualify bad there, but have a really good car in the race.

“I’ve been very close to a podium in the Sandown 500 a few times but in the last few things go wrong. It’s a traditional tyre life track and whatever we can do driving style and set up wise to make the car look after the rear tyre, we’ll have a better race.

“Every other year everyone’s usually put the co driver in first, then the main driver and usually runs a similar strategy, where this year the main driver has to start, and you can run your main driver as long as you want or as little as you want. It just depends on the fuel time and driver change pit time and a few things that influence how long you can have your driver in for with safety cars and other things, so it’ll be a challenging race but I can’t wait to get after it.”

Warren Luff, co-driver #20 TRADIE Beer Racing Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

“ Really excited for Sandown. It’s always that special time of year when the Enduros come back around. Excited to be teaming up with Dave and to be back at Team 18 for a second year.

“Sandown’s been a happy hunting ground for me in the past and would love nothing better than to have a podium there this year with Dave and team 18.

“Our preparation has been really good. We had a really good test day last week at Winton. Really comfortable in the car and just excited for this Enduro campaign and sharing it with Dave.

“I love Sandown as a race and as an event. It can be a tough race, because being such a short lap it’s easy to go down a lap and it’s hard to race your way back from there. It’s always an exciting race and from a tradition standpoint It’s always been that lead up event to Bathurst it’s 161 laps. the same as Bathurst, so it’s always a special race and would love nothing more than to have another podium there again this year.”