Recent back-to-back test days have prepared Dylan O’Keeffe for the physical demands of competing in both Round 5 of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup and the Repco Supercars Championship Sandown 500 this weekend.
Last week, O’Keeffe tested his GWR Australia/RAM Motorsport Porsche at Sandown, before jetting to Queensland to share the PremiAir Racing Camaro with James Golding at Queensland Raceway.
While O’Keeffe’s Carrera Cup season has not gone to plan so far, last year he scored a race win at Sandown and is hopeful of replicating that form this weekend.
“Sandown was one of our strongest rounds last year and our car seems to work well there, with good traction off the low speed corners leading onto the two long straights,” O’Keeffe said.
“In the last round at The Bend, I qualified well, but our race pace wasn’t quite where it needed to be, which put me back in the pack and ultimately saw me getting involved in the Race 3 accident. The GWR crew did a great job to fix the car so quickly and it felt perfect at the test day.”
For the Sandown 500, O’Keeffe is expecting tyre degradation to be the main determinant of race strategy.
“It’s going to be really interesting this year – there aren’t any compulsory pit stops and the co-drivers could potentially complete their 54-lap minimum on a single tank of fuel, but I don’t think the super soft tyres will last that long,” he said.
“So if we have to stop earlier, that means I’ll probably have to do more laps overall to line up with the rest of our strategy, and ensure James has the best tyres to fight with at the end.
“The test day was good, because by the time I jumped in the car for a race run, I was pretty fatigued from all the driving I’d been doing, so it was good practice for the race. James and I worked well together and we were both giving very similar feedback about the car.”
The Carrera Cup schedule consists of two races on Saturday followed by a single race on Sunday, while the Sandown 500 will be held over 161 laps on Sunday afternoon.
Sandown Event Schedule
Friday, 15 September
9:10am – Carrera Cup Practice 1 (25 min)
10:45am – Supercars Practice 1 (35 min)
12:00pm – Carrera Cup Practice 2 (25 min)
12:40pm – Supercars Practice 2 co-drivers (30 min)
3:00pm – Carrera Cup Qualifying 1 Am drivers (12 min)
3:18pm – Carrera Cup Qualifying 2 Pro drivers (12 min)
3:45pm – Supercars Practice 3 (30 min)
Saturday, 16 September
10:05am – Carrera Cup Race 1 (18 laps)
1:40pm – Supercars Qualifying (20 min)
3:25pm – Carrera Cup Race 2 (31 laps)
5:20pm – Supercars Top 10 Shootout (1 lap)
Sunday, 17 September
10:10am – Supercars Warm-up (20 min)
12:10pm – Carrera Cup Race 3 (18 laps)
2:15pm – Supercars Sandown 500 (161 laps)
