The 1998 Tickford 500 was an endurance motor race for V8 Supercars. The event, which was the 33rd running of the Sandown 500, was held on 13 September 1998 at the Sandown International Motor Raceway. The race was won by Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall driving a Perkins Engineering Holden VT Commodore.
Class Structure While still following long-term plans to abandon class structures within V8 Supercar, a class was instigated for the 1998 Tickford 500 and FAI 1000 Classic endurance races allowing smaller teams to save considerable budget by running a Dunlop control tyre, indicated here by CT. Most teams, particularly the professional teams, preferred to race with freedom of tyre choice, indicated by the class OC.
Top Ten Shootout The top ten cars from Qualifying contested a Top Ten Shootout to determine the first ten grid positions for the race. Shootout results were as follows:
Pos No Team Driver Car Time Pole 50 Holden Racing Team Greg Murphy Holden VS Commodore 1:22.3834 2 1 Holden Racing Team Mark Skaife Holden VT Commodore 1:22.4050 3 18 Dick Johnson Racing John Bowe Ford EL Falcon 1:22.4548 4 4 Stone Brothers Racing Jason Bright Ford EL Falcon 1:22.4990 5 5 Glenn Seton Racing Glenn Seton Ford EL Falcon 1:23.3160 6 10 Larkham Motor Sport Mark Larkham Ford EL Falcon 1:23.7831 7 25 Longhurst Racing Tony Longhurst Ford EL Falcon 1:24.1355 8 17 Dick Johnson Racing Dick Johnson Ford EL Falcon 1:24.3714 9 35 Garry Rogers Motorsport Jason Bargwanna Holden VS Commodore 1:24.6735 10 11 Perkins Engineering Larry Perkins Holden VT Commodore 1:25.9808
Official results Race results were as follows:
Pos Class No Team Drivers Car Laps QualPos ShootoutPos 1 OC 11 Perkins Engineering Larry Perkins Russell Ingall Holden VT Commodore 147 7 10 2 OC 1 Holden Racing Team Craig Lowndes Mark Skaife Holden VT Commodore 147 1 2 3 OC 18 Dick Johnson Racing John Bowe Cameron McConville Ford EL Falcon 147 5 3 4 OC 5 Glenn Seton Racing Glenn Seton Neil Crompton Ford EL Falcon 145 6 5 5 OC 4 Stone Brothers Racing Jason Bright Steven Richards Ford EL Falcon 145 3 4 6 OC 50 Holden Racing Team Greg Murphy Mark Noske Holden VS Commodore 145 2 1 7 OC 35 Garry Rogers Motorsport Jason Bargwanna Jim Richards Holden VS Commodore 144 8 9 8 OC 7 Gibson Motorsport Darren Hossack Darren Pate Holden VS Commodore 143 16 9 OC 32 Tomas Mezera Motorsport Tomas Mezera Terry Finnigan Holden VT Commodore 143 17 10 OC 2 Gibson Motorsport David Parsons Simon Wills Holden VS Commodore 143 22 11 OC 10 Larkham Motor Sport Mark Larkham Brad Jones Ford EL Falcon 142 4 6 12 CT 3 Lansvale Racing Team Steve Reed Trevor Ashby Holden VS Commodore 141 23 13 OC 49 Greg Crick Motorsport Greg Crick Dean Crosswell Holden VS Commodore 139 21 14 OC 16 Perkins Engineering Melinda Price Kerryn Brewer Holden VS Commodore 138 24 15 CT 99 Clive Wiseman Racing Mick Donaher Dean Lindstrom Holden VS Commodore 133 26 16 OC 38 James Rosenberg Racing Mark Poole Tony Scott Holden VS Commodore 133 13 17 OC 46 John Faulkner Racing John Faulkner Todd Kelly Holden VS Commodore 131 33 18 CT 54 Simon Emerzidis Simon Emerzidis Garry Willmington Ford EL Falcon 128 25 19 CT 14 Imrie Motor Sport Mike Imrie Rodney Crick Holden VS Commodore 127 31 20 CT 72 Robert Smith Racing Robert Smith Bruce Williams Holden VS Commodore 123 27 21 CT 48 Rod Smith Racing D'arcy Russell Colin Ivory Holden VS Commodore 121 30 22 OC 79 Cadillac Productions Mike Conway Chris Hones Ford EL Falcon 119 29 DNF OC 75 Paul Little Racing Anthony Tratt Bob Jones Ford EL Falcon 125 20 DNF OC 43 Paul Weel Racing Paul Weel Neal Bates Ford EL Falcon 122 18 NC OC 8 Perkins Engineering Dugal McDougall Jason Wylie Holden VS Commodore 109 19 DNF CT 55 Rod Nash Racing Rod Nash Darren Edwards Holden VS Commodore 102 28 DNF OC 17 Dick Johnson Racing Dick Johnson Steven Johnson Ford EL Falcon 99 9 8 DNF CT 77 V8 Racing Richard Mork Bill Sieders Holden VP Commodore 94 32 DNF OC 96 Wayne Gardner Racing Wayne Gardner Paul Stokell Holden VS Commodore 73 14 DNF OC 34 Garry Rogers Motorsport Garth Tander Cameron McLean Holden VS Commodore 30 12 DNF OC 25 Longhurst Racing Tony Longhurst Geoff Brabham Ford EL Falcon 7 10 7 DNF OC 24 Romano Racing Paul Romano Steve Ellery Holden VR Commodore 6 15 DNF OC 9 Longhurst Racing Alan Jones Adam Macrow Ford EL Falcon 0 11 DNS OC 95 Road Care Racing Steve Cramp Gary Baxter Ford EL Falcon -
Note: The race was scheduled to be run over 161 laps, however the slower lap times dictated by the wet weather conditions resulted in the race being shortened after reaching its three-hour-45-minute time limit.Rain, What Rain? Australian Auto Action, 18–24 September 1998, pages 42-46
Statistics Provisional pole position (qualifying) - #1 Mark Skaife - 1:11.9148 Pole position (Top Ten Shootout) - #50 Greg Murphy - 1:22.3834 Fastest race lap - #4 Jason Bright - 1:13.2534 (152 km/h) Winners' race time - 03:45:09.5507 Race average speed - 121 km/h
References
Further reading
External links Official race results Official V8 Supercar website Thumbnail race images at web.archive.org 1998 Sandown 500 - Full Race video at www.youtube.com