Best bags championship points with big outing at Sandown

By James Kleeman

Aug 23, 2022

Ready to roll: Zak Best sported a new livery at Sandown for his return to the Super2 Championship. Photos: contributed.

Benalla speedster Zak Best returned to the track at Sandown Raceway for the Super2 Championship last weekend, collecting a huge haul of championship points with a string of stellar races during the three days, which earned him overall honours.

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Kick-starting his weekend with a P3 in the first practise, before following up with a P9 in the second, Best looked primed and ready for big return to the Super2 arena, following his incredible Supercars pole last month.

He took full advantage of his front row placing in qualifying, finishing in third and 0.0864 seconds from pole behind Tyler Everingham and Matt Payne.

However, Payne was stripped of his pole position after he was found to have set the fastest sector under yellow flag conditions.

The Kiwi teen was handed a grid penalty, and started from fourth, while Best inherited the front row and started from P2 alongside Everingham in pole.

Best did not a miss a beat in race one, taking full advantage of his front row placing to maintain his grip on second spot for the entire 22 laps.

Greasy conditions hampered the Tickford driver in the second round of qualifying, and he fired off at turn one and struggled to make up placings after running onto the wet grass, finishing in 13th.

Best rounded out the weekend with a big showing in race two, cruising up the leaderboard and avoiding a chaotic finish to get over the line in P3 in the Sandown finale.

Claiming overall honours for the weekend, Best’s attention now turns to Mount Panorama, where he will compete alongside Thomas Randle as a co-driver at the Bathurst 1000 in October.