The Bend ready for next Ford v Holden battle

Thursday 28 July, 2022

Photos: Edge Photographics

The Bend Motorsport Park returns to the national stage this weekend as the destination for the latest Repco Supercars Championship round.

With the 2022 season well and truly reaching the pointy end, the OTR Supersprint comes at a crucial time with many of Shane van Gisbergen’s title rivals running out of time to hunt him down.

In recent years, the Ford Mustang has been the dominant car with its drivers having claimed the last seven Supercars race wins, as well as the past eight Armor All Pole Positions.

However similar was said heading into Perth earlier in the year where van Gisbergen overcame an average record at Wanneroo Raceway to notch up two victories.

The Kiwi’s desire of giving Holden a win in South Australia will be aided by the fact that only he, Cam Waters and Will Davison have picked up pole positions in the 10 races after his dominant display in Perth.

Since then, Waters has been the best performing driver outside of van Gisbergen having finished on the podium in all bar one of the past eight races.

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With three of those podiums being on the top step, the Victorian enters what will be his 100th round start in the category full of confidence.

Waters isn’t the only one to celebrate a milestone this weekend, with Team 18’s Scott Pye to make his 300th race start in the opener on Saturday, while Walkinshaw Andretti United will reach its 400th Australian Touring Car Championship round start since joining in the early 1990s.

Whilst the famous Holden team has been in the game for a long time, its impressive milestone will be run on a circuit that is the youngest on the Supercars calendar.

The Bend has only been in existence since 2018 and in that time, just 369 laps have been run with only four drivers to have completed every one – South Australians Nick Percat and Scott Pye, championship leader Shane van Gisbergen and Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq.

A further 72 laps await the teams and drivers on the weekend with three races to be held across the weekend, one on Saturday and a further two on Sunday.

Those three races will also see the inclusion of two wildcard entries in Jordan Boys and Zak Best, and both will be using their last confirmed main game wildcard to impress teams in hopes for a seat next year.

Although both wildcard entries will have to wait until Saturday morning for Supercars’ first practice session, the event’s action will begin on Friday with all four-support categories to have practice and qualifying, while the new Gen3 cars will be doing a demonstration for fans on Friday afternoon.

The full weekend will be broadcast live via Fox Sports and streamed Kayo for fans who can’t make it, while those who can get to Tailem Bend can purchase tickets for the event here.

The OTR Supersprint takes place at The Bend Motorsport Park on 29-31 July.

Championship Top 10

1. Shane van Gisbergen – 1881 points
2. Anton De Pasquale - 1607
3. Cameron Waters - 1551
4. Will Davison - 1521
5. Chaz Mostert - 1302
6. Broc Feeney - 1257
7. David Reynolds - 1234
8. Andre Heimgartner - 1158
9. Brodie Kostecki - 1103
10. Tim Slade - 1083

Schedule

Saturday 30 July
9:45am - 10:15am: Practice 1
11:35am - 12:05pm: Practice 2
1:30pm – 2:10pm: Armor All Qualifying Race 21
4:15pm – 5:15pm: Race 21

Sunday 31 July
9:35am – 9:45am: Armor All Qualifying Race 22
9:55am – 10:05pm: Armor All Qualifying Race 23
12:30pm - 1:35pm: Race 22
3:40pm - 4:45pm: Race 23
*All times are ACST.