Ferrari 360 Wins Sandown 500

Tom Waring, who was sharing a Ferrari 360 Challenge with veteran racer John Bowe, won Australia's famous Sandown 500 endurance race on 16 September. Here he writes about his experiences:

I was originally scheduled to run the Sandown 500 classic race with Mark Noske, the Prancing Horse Racing young gun and V8 Supercar driver. However, in my build up program I have been testing with the vastly experienced John Bowe and built a strong rapport with this Australian icon. There's not much "JB" doesn't know about racing and his two previous wins at the Sandown 500 and at Bathurst as well as numerous other major Australian races makes him a legend down under. When J.B.'s Ford Mustang program got put on hold it seemed logical to continue our program and run the 500 together.

With over 40 cars entered for the 500, the traffic was a major issue and the speed differential between the top running cars and the smaller classes was a real worry. Getting a clear lap proved almost impossible and I lost time passing slower cars on my two qualifying runs. Nonetheless, a 1.19 was good enough to put us 7th overall out of the forty-odd cars and then we put JB in for his runs. J.B.'s stunning run produced a fastest lap of 1.17 which put us second fastest for the top ten qualifying shootout.

Top ten shootouts often produce high drama and this one was no exception. Each of the top ten cars gets one warm up lap and then just one flying lap to set a time to determine the top ten grid positions. Jim Richards produced a stunning lap of 1minute 16.4 secs and we were thinking we'd probably lose a place or two on the grid. However Paul Stokell ran the Lambo wide on the final corner of his timed lap and dropped down to sixth place. J.B. ran another tidy lap to take the second slot on the front row with a lap of 1minute 17.0 secs.

The rules require that the team nominates which driver will start the race and so J.B. and I huddled with our car chief Paul Cruickshank and discussed strategies for the long race on the following day.

Normally in the Sandown 500 there's a fair amount of carnage and attrition. Many cars don't have the reliability to make it non-stop for 500 kms at a full race pace and we assumed the heavier Vipers and Lamborghini would be stopping for brakes as well as tyres. Also, after lots of fuel calculations we assumed the thirsty Vipers would need one more fuel stop than our Ferrari. Having a compulsory four stops to make we decided to run the whole race on just two sets of tyres and three fuel stops. Our fourth stop was going to be an in and out 'splash and dash'.

I was to start the race and run as long as possible on a full fuel load and through the heavy traffic during the earlier phases of the race. The rationale was that we were expecting lots of pace car incidents to slow up the first third or so of the race, so I would likely be able to run in about fifth or sixth despite the fuel load and stay in touch with the leaders with pace car periods allowing us to bunch up. Then, once well into the race we would hand over to J.B. to run lighter loads and have the car preserved for a possible race for a podium finish.

That was the plan - however it didn't pan out like that at all.

Sitting on the front row alongside Jim Richards in the 911GT3 for over ten minutes while they counted down to the flag wave off was the most nerve wracking experience I've ever had! Finally, however, we were waved off and I set about getting as much heat into the tyres and brakes as possible. I was praying that I wouldn't be punted off at the first corner as the Ferrari 360 is very slow off the line and is built for rolling starts. This was to be a traditional green lights standing start.

The red lights came on and about three seconds later they were out and we were racing! I got a pretty reasonable start, didn't get punted off and was about fourth into the first corner. Surprisingly everybody got through the first sequence of corners and as we headed up the back straight the Lambo and Viper simply steamed past. I set about getting down into the 1.21's and a rhythm for what was to be a stint of about 1 hour and twenty minutes - fitness allowing! With such a heavy fuel load the early laps were all about coping with the understeer without rooting the front tyres. It was very challenging.

As the race developed I was totally absorbed in passing the slower traffic. With such large speed differences between the cars I was coming up onto some of the other cars at a very pulse-quickening rate. With the fuel lighter and the tyres settled the main part of my stint had the car handling very neutrally and with some short shifting to save the engine and transmission as well as fuel I was lapping in the 1.19's, 20's - 21's when passing slower cars.

Our car chief Paul Cruickshank was on the radio to me a lot, giving me the rundown on where we were relative to the other leading cars. I was glad of the company and kept alert by monitoring and reporting the engine and oil temperatures and pressures etc. However we had been caught by surprise in that there was no pace car incidents and therefore the pace of the early phase of the race was a lot quicker than we had planned for. So, I was told to push for the next 30 laps without risking contact while lapping any of the other cars. As my stint developed I was settled into running sixth and the team was getting excited that we were through the busiest part of the race (by now many of the slower cars were failing) in excellent shape and running very competitively.

Finally my marathon session came to an end and so I pitted as instructed on lap 58. We had kept the car in contention, run out a large distance on one fuel load and when I dived out of the car I was pretty thankful to be handing over to J.B. as I was by that stage pretty knackered! All four tyres were changed and the car refueled. However, our race was nearly ended there and then when a dribble of fuel from the refueling nozzle splashed into the air ducts and ignited on the red-hot brake disc! Suddenly we had a fire at the back of the car which was pretty spectacular to say the least! The Prancing Horse Racing crew had it out in a few seconds however and J.B. blasted his way out of the pits.

J.B. rejoined the race in 7th place and so began the steady climb up the leader board. As the various other runners had their pitstops we began to think ourselves well in the hunt. J.B. was running in the 1.19's and 1.18's and came in for another fuel stop. Up to fourth by now (ahead of the Peter Fitzgerald Falken 911 GT3) on lap 91. The race settled down and we reeled off the laps. Jim Richards pitted his 911 GT3 on lap 94 and we were up to 3rd behind Neal Bates in another 911 GT3 and the sister Prancing Horse 360C of Craig Baird and Steve Beards. Then on lap 98 the 911 pitted and we were up to second! On lap 107 we pitted for our third fuel stop and rejoined in third place behind the 911 of Neal Bates and the Ferrari 360C of Craig Baird. However on the next lap the differential on the other Ferrari disintegrated and we were now back up to second and trailing the 911 GT3.

On lap 113 J.B. had inched up to the bumper of the 911 and made a great move to outbrake the Porsche down into the esses before the start-finish straight. We were building a lead but worried that we had two more stops to make and the 911 only had one more to make. On lap 122 the 911 dived into the pits to take on fuel and rejoined about 25 seconds behind us for its run to the flag. The pressure was really on us! We made our pitstop on lap 124 and rejoined still a second or two ahead after taking on enough fuel to get us to the end. But we had one more stop to make…….

J.B. set about building a lead on the 911 between laps 124 and 139 and was lapping in the 1.18's on very second-hand rubber. We were in the make or break phase of the race and J.B. had to pull out about a gap on the 911 of about a second a lap in the 15 laps to give us a shot at a win. J.B. was astounding and dealt with the traffic with total focus on getting us that margin for a win. But this was not without risk - and sure enough an Evo VI turned into the side of our Ferrari at turn one. Luckily the blow was square on in the side and despite the heavy contact we were able to continue. On lap 139 J.B. had built a lead of about 15 seconds and the 911 was in some traffic so this was it! The Ferrari was ordered into the pits and the car came to a stop, the fuel hose was placed into the car and then immediately removed and the Ferrari was instantly blasted back out onto the race track! We rejoined with about a four seconds lead and despite a heroic effort by Neal Bates we managed to take the chequered flag on lap 161 with a 3.1 seconds lead!

The whole crowd had been on its feet cheering on the final twenty or so laps and when we took the win the place erupted! I was mobbed by the team and supporters and simply could not believe that we had won such an important event at our first try! I had no fingernails left at all - I had been so nervous for J.B.'s last stint but to come out the winners was simply fantastic.

By Tom Waring

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