In the build-up to the annual Sandown 500, it had been confirmed by Lobs Esports that James Scott would have a change in co-driver with Anton Depesquale standing in for Ryan Wood in car #088. Meanwhile, another early season championship contender in Ric Kuznetsov of 9ine5ive Sim Sports would be joined by Brody Sentence, replacing Bradley Rattew in the #888. Talk in the paddock that the Evolution Racing Team had been very fast in the build-up and looked most likely to challenge Lobs esports.

In Qualifying, it was Scott who claimed the pole from 2023 winner Luke Rosella, whilst the rumours proved true about ERT, claiming third, fourth and fifth on the grid ahead of the Filsell/Kostecki car, whilst Interlagos winner, Gilliam was next. Filling out the top 10 were Burton, Gardiner and championship leader, Rudd.  

Rattray-White continued to impress in the Vermillion machine, slotting himself and Faulkner just outside the top 10, their team cars looking well sorted in the lead-up. Meyers, Grigg-Gault and Madison Down would be disappointed in their qualifying, outside the top 10 and making their night a little harder.

As the race started, the majority of the main drivers took the green flag. It was a relatively clean getaway, but all hell would break loose at turn four, with Brodie Kostecki making a move down the inside on Hayden Veld, resulting in heavy contact with the wall and the #053 rebounding back into the traffic. This resulted in heavy contact with the #06, #47 and #17 , causing many cars to sustain damage and trapping a number of cars on the inside line, meaning the #143, #36, #115, #28, #2 and #72 all had to come to a complete stop and wait for the field to pass before they were able to manoeuvre out of the incident.

At the end of lap one, it was the #55 who led the way, in front of the #088 and #21. Burton had been a huge beneficiary from the lap one incident, now running fourth before a slow down on lap 11 would drop him back to sixth. The Gilliam and Rudd entries quietly made progress. Meanwhile the #94 with Kostecki at the wheel was handed a drive through penalty after contact on the opening lap, hampering their strategy. As battle packs began to form, it became clear that the Lobs and ERT cars were in a league of their own as the race settled down.

On lap 36, the TTR Mustang in the hands of Leigh Ellis would bring out the safety car, nicely fitting into most team's strategies. The vast majority of the field would pit and swap drivers, mostly with the co-drivers now at the wheel.

On the restart, Stanaway at the wheel of the Lobs Esports #55 would lead them away, but it was the TTR duo of Meyers/Warren, Burton/Jones who made progress in the pits and vaulted up the order. Warren at the helm of the #22 caught Depasquale napping in the #088 on the restart and made an authoritive pass down into turn one.

Back further in the pack, drivers were starting to fight for position, whilst their main drivers sat nervously in the garage hoping their car would arrive back at the end of their stint in one piece.

On lap 47, the TTR machine with Ethan Warren the wheel made another great pass into turn one, taking the lead from Stanaway before an error on the following lap saw Stanaway re-take the lead and battle each other into the final corner, resulting in the #55 being spun in front of the field. Further back, Lutzu and Birse were doing a tradesman like job in the #93 and the championship-leading car of the #990.

Strategies were starting to emerge as there were a host of co-drivers that could fulfil their requirements if they short pitted during their stint, and made it to the critical lap 82, when they would hand back to their main drivers for the run home. Other teams with more even car speed between drivers elected to keep their co-drivers in to the end of their stints. The short-stop strategy was more risky between laps 50 and 82, meaning if there was a safety car, it would have not played out well. However, luckily for those teams, no safety cars fell in that time, which meant we were in for a great run home.

At lap 82, many main drivers got back in their cars, and the race began to take shape, with the #94 of Filsell/Kostecki taking the lead, followed by the TTR #22 and the #088, still in the hands of Depesquale.

Alternative strategies had the Borg/Dyson #017 and the SSR #88 sitting 5th and 6th prior to a major moment in the race where the Lobs Esports championship contender #088 would blow an engine. This would throw strategies up in the air as everyone came down the pit lane, and put their main drivers back in or completed a fuel stop.

This Safety car would re-set the field. And when the dust settled, it was Kostecki #94, Rivera #21, Meyers #22, Gardiner #93 and Rosella #55 filling out the top 5 positions. The #900 had done a fantastic job to this point, sitting well inside the top 10 at the restart. As racing resumed again, three lapped cars sat between second and third place in the train, frustrating Meyers and hampering his ability to go with the #94 and #21 once they went green again. A five second gap opened once Meyers was clear of the lapped cars, but sporting front damage, his car was now vulnerable to the chasing pack of Lobs cars, featuring Gardiner, Rosella and Rudd.

Rosella was able to get past the ailing #22 on lap 117, whilst Rivera was keeping well within fighting distance with leader Kostecki. At this point, Madison Down had struggled all night and was still running outside the top 10, whilst the #900 of Yousiff/Foord continued to impress, running seventh late in the race, just ahead of the also impressive ERT cars of Grigg-Gault, Gibbs and Albert.

Lap 118 was the critical lap where cars could pit and make it home, but would anyone take this early opportunity to complete their pit requirements? Damien Johnstone was the first to take this opportunity on lap 120, but the majority of the field raced on.

With 35 laps to go, the ERT #21 of Rivera pitted, attempting to undercut the leader, Kostecki having to go long as they needed to complete a driver swap, it was beginning to look like their strategy may not pan out. Gardiner finally managed to get past Brady Meyers and started to set off after his teammates of Rosella and Kostecki, at this stage Lobs were running 1st to 4th.

Further back in the field, Dylan O’Shea and Jobe Stewart were battling for position, some of the racing getting the attention of race stewards, Jobe receiving penalties, whilst O’Shea had his progress halted by the battle.

At the front, the race started to heat up. We were all waiting for the strategies to play out and the field to cleanse, and with 23 laps to go, Kostecki arrived in the pits to hand over to Filsell, their driver strategy different to most and dropping them down the order. As the field did cleanse, it was expected that the #55 of Luke Rosella would assume the lead, but a slow stop and contact with his teammate dropped him down the order. Meyers in the TTR machine still doing a great job to stay in contention, effectively still in 3rd position with only 20 laps to go.

But the effective leader was Dylan Rudd from Gardiner. The top two cars had broken a small gap on the chasing pack, Filsell on a charge! With 15 laps to go, Filsell finally managed to get past Meyers, setting off after his teammates, and ripping into the 4 second margin. Race leader Rudd, looked to give up his lead with 14 to go so he could save fuel behind his teammate, and consolidate his championship lead.

The top 10 with 10 laps to go was:

1. Gardiner/Birse
2. Rudd/Lutzu
3. Filsell/Kostecki
4. Meyers/Warren
5. Grigg-Gault/Ryan
6. Rosella/Stanaway
7. Gilliam/Golding
8. Anderson/Rizzo
9. Moloney/Shepherd
10. Down/Liyanage.

With only 7 laps remaining, an incident between O’Shea and Rattray-white claimed an innocent bystander in Jake Burton, capping off a torrid night for the #8 TTR Commodore.

Gibbs applied the pressure to Madison Down to break into the top 10 in the closing stages, whilst Filsell was setting the time sheets alight, slashing the gap to the leaders, he was leaving nothing on the table. The Battle for 6th in the closing stages was still on, Gilliam misplacing his car attempting to pass the ERT #7, almost succumbing to Anderson.

But after 500 kilometres, it was Victory for Gardiner and Birse, their first in the Pro series and finally delivering on his potential. The #93 would lead home a Lobs Esports 1-2-3!

Rudd is firming as championship favourite heading into the final few rounds, getting the upper hand on Filsell with a mature and well deserved 2nd place. Further back, some notable drives from the TTR #22 of Meyers/Warren who have it their all, SSR #89 of Loxton/Bourke, ERT #2 of Gibbs/Caple and others, but it was all about Lobs Esport and their epic stranglehold on this year’s championship!

We move on to Bathurst on only a couple of weeks where Lobs look ominous, but anything can happen at the mountain. Bring it on!