The Bend 500: The First Enduro for the Supercars Season as legends return to the racing seat alongside some fresher faces

It was an intense week with our first enduro for the season. The Bend in Adelaide was ready to get put to work and the drivers had a weekend and a half. Our first endurance race before Bathurst and we did not expect the results.

The first endurance race out of the two for the season with a stellar lineup of drivers. (Source: Supercars)

From early on track action from Triple Eight’s Red Bull Ampol’s co-drivers, Jamie Whincup and Scott Pye to mistakes in qualifying from Ryan Wood, it was going to be interesting. For those who typically do not watch Supercars, we have our top 10 shootout which declares our starting grid for the race itself. This race was a longer track and more laps as it was one of two endurance races this season. 500 kilometres total for the Bend in Adelaide, which is 102 laps.

Chaos between the two Triple Eight Co-Drivers in practice 4 as the two collide under safety car test conditions. (Source: V8 Sleuth)

Feeney and Whincup were on pole position with a brilliant lap, of a 1:48.6. Cameron Hill was P2 after a real fast lap with almost no errors for a 1:48.7 and starting in P3 was the Shell V-Power car of Brodie Kostecki. The Monster Castrol duo took out P4&P5, with only small margins separating the two. Matthew Payne was P6, after a slower lap than we would have thought with a 1:49.2. Anton De Pasquale was P7 just behind Matt Payne’s Penrite. Chaz Mostert received a penalty in the top 10 shootout which resulted in a drop to P10, however made a lap that put him in P8. Your final two were Cooper Murray in the Erebus car and Ryan Wood was P10 after his error in qualifying resulted in a very slow time of a 1:54.5.

The dramatic race tart at The Bend 500 in Adelaide. (Source: Supercars)

The race started off as a very interesting result, Jamie Whincup led the race just ahead of Mcleod and Moffat. Craig Lowndes made a return to supercars pairing up with the young driver Zach Bates in the 888 car. He made up positions early on with 4 positions in the first few laps. Overall, this duos race weekend was great with experience, good defensive skill and young talent they were a good pairing finishing P16.

Andre Heimgartners co-driver Declan Fraser suffered a collision early in the race, which resulted in them being 3 laps down on the rest of the field. Not what you want in a race like this. Whilst this top 3 battle was going on we were seeing battles all over the track including a battle between Thomas Randle and Kai Allen.

Jamie Whincup faced with a shocking 40 second stop, due to issues with the fuel pump. This pushed them quite far down the grid with plenty to work back if they stood any shot of a top 3 position. By the time Broc Feeney was in the car, it was a tough ask for him. There were still 45 laps remaining but being towards the back of the pack, was going to be difficult. In the end, they finished P19.

A shockingly slow pitstop for the Triple Eight Team with issues around the fuel pump connection. (Source: Supercars)

By lap 26 your top three was Hazelwood, Murray and Pye. The Shell V-Power pairing was a strong contender for a top 3 finish. Cooper Murray was yet to pit, and Scott Pye had already done one pitstop but hadn’t yet done the driver changes. Will brown and co-driver Scott Pye would just miss out on a podium opportunity finishing P4.

By Lap 44, we had seen small changes with Hazelwood still leading, but Winterbottom in P2 and Tander in P3. With Mark Winterbottom and Todd Hazelwood coming in to make the driver switches though, Mostert was able to get ahead and the top 3 suddenly appeared different, but Mostert still had to pit for new tyres and more fuel, so the likelihood of him getting top 3 was small. By lap 52 the top 3 was Mostert, Kostecki and Waters.

Kai Allen received a 5 second penalty, while James Golding got a pit penalty for a speed limiter breach.

Ultimately your winner with some brilliant defensive driving over the race was Brodie Kostecki and co-driver Todd Hazelwood, followed by Cam Waters and co-driver Mark Winterbottom and in P3 was Matt Payne and co-driver Garth Tander.

Some high intensity battles between Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters for the win. (Source Supercars)

With this result the championship battle closes significantly with only 71 points between Broc Feeney and Matt Payne. We now take a break before making our return to the Mountain. The Bathurst 1000 is our second endurance race and will determine the enduro cup winner. This takes place from Thursday October 9^th through to Sunday October 12^th.

We're back and just in time for the most iconic race up the mountain at the Bathurst 1000. (Source: Supercars)