MOTORSPORT: Penske to "go for it"

Emerging Supercars superteam DJR Team Penske is willing to abandon its points-first approach to crack its duck in this weekend’s Sandown 500 and next month’s Bathurst 1000.

If the situation is right.

The team has won plenty of sprint races since American motor racing maestro Roger Penske took over majority ownership of touring car legend Dick Johnson’s team in September 2014, but has yet to claim either of the championship’s famed two-car enduros.

“We have some unfinished business at these longer races and we know if we turn up with a fast car at these longer races and make no mistakes we have every opportunity to come away with some success,” team principal Ryan Story told motoring.com.au.

The Sandown 500 kicks off the Pirtek Enduro Cup two-driver races this weekend, with Bathurst scheduled for October 4-7.

The PEC wraps up October 19-21 with the Gold Coast 600, where Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat did score the win in the Sunday 300km race in their Shell V-Power Ford Falcon FG/X last year.

But the team is still smarting over its 2017 enduro efforts, in which McLaughlin and Premat finished a close second behind Tickford’s Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway while the other DJRTP entry of Fabian Coulthard and Tony D’Alberto claimed third at Bathurst.

Two podiums in the two 161-lap classics sounds like a decent result, but McLaughlin’s championship also suffered a serious blow at Bathurst when an engine failure meant he failed to score a point.

He eventually lost the championship to Red Bull HRT’s Jamie Whincup by just 21 points.

This year McLaughlin heads to Sandown trailing Whincup’s teammate Shane van Gisbergen by 19 points, having given up the championship lead at a disappointing Tailem Bend outing.

“At the end of the day you want to win the Sandown 500, you want to win the Bathurst 1000, but primary in our thinking is bigger picture and ultimately the greatest prize of them all, the driver’s championship.”

“But I think if we are on lap 160 of either of those races we are going to give it a shot.

“Each situation will be judged on its merits and we have to be mindful of the bigger picture, but if there is an opportunity for a win and the risk-reward ratio is right, we are going to go for it.”

Story said the call to ‘go for it’ in those high-pressure seconds would be down to him.

“If we get it wrong it’s entirely my fault. If we get it right it’s because all these guys [at DJRTP] have done their job.”

If DJRTP does get up and salute at Bathurst it will do it in front of Penske, who is flying from the USA for the race.

The Sandown 500 gets underway today with practice for the Supercars field, qualifying and qualifying races for both drivers on Saturday and then the race itself, kicking off at 1:20pm on Sunday.

With 300 points up for grabs there is a big chance for a championship swing, but Whincup is 362 points behind the leader in third.

About half the field will race in historic liveries in the championship’s official ‘retro round’ this weekend, including motoring.com.au’s own Luke Youlden, who will share the 2017 Bathurst-winning Penrite Erebus entry with David Reynolds.