Dylan o’keeffe

Bittersweet Weekend for O’Keeffe at Sandown

Dylan O’Keeffe has endured a bittersweet weekend at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, some dramas in the Supercars endurance race balanced out by an excellent weekend in Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup which saw him moving inside the top three in the standings.

O’Keeffe continued his traditionally strong Porsche form at Sandown, qualifying his Dexion/RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia Porsche second and leading at the start of the first two races, held in wet conditions. He finished second in Race 1 and third in Race 2.

“It took a couple of laps to build tyre temperature in the first race, but at the end I was just as fast as the winner,” O’Keeffe said.

“Race 2 was tricky – it started on a damp but drying track, but there was a shower of rain half way through which made it completely wet again. It was a case of managing the wet tyres to make sure I still had some grip when the conditions deteriorated.”

Starting on the front row for Race 3, O’Keeffe slotted into second place which he held through to the finish, scoring second for the round and moving up to third in the championship.

“It was another good weekend in Carrera Cup, I definitely feel like it was our most competitive round of the season,” he said.

“I feel like we had one of the fastest cars in the field, so now it’s just a case of working on a few small details like our cold tyre performance.”

O’Keeffe’s campaign alongside Nick Percat in the Matt Stone Racing Camaro started in promising fashion; he recorded the third-fastest time in Friday’s co-driver practice session, while Percat narrowly missed the Top 10 Shootout with a qualifying position of 11^th.

In the opening stint, Percat moved inside the top 10, a position O’Keeffe maintained after taking over from Percat under Safety Car conditions on lap 24.

However, some tyre challenges saw O’Keeffe drifting into the mid pack after the car’s second pit stop on lap 44, but worse was to come on lap 67 when he tangled with Kai Allen on the exit of the final corner, sustaining significant damage.

“In the second stint, the tyres didn’t have the longevity I expected and I got hung out to dry by a few cars,” O’Keeffe said.

“I was battling with Kai, but I saw he had a flat tyre and was going to spin in the last corner; I slowed down but the car behind hit me and pushed me into Kai.”

After a lengthy pit stop for repairs, Percat and O’Keeffe rejoined the race multiple laps down, finishing 23^rd.

“Obviously it wasn’t the result we were after, but we’ll look to bounce back at Bathurst,” O’Keeffe concluded.

The Repco Bathurst 1000, which also includes the next Carrera Cup round, will be held from 10-13 October.