Shane van Gisbergen
Shane van Gisbergen completed a three-from-three win in a wet race 23 of the Repco Supercars Championship at The Bend.
After a blistering dice with Cameron Waters and, briefly, Anton De Pasquale, the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver broke free at the end of lap 10 and cruised to victory by 8.7109s.
Waters would hold on to second over the course of the 24-lap contest in Tickford Racing’s #6 Monster Energy Mustang, while Brodie Kostecki moved up to third in Erebus Motorsport’s #99 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore.
Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Will Davison finished fourth despite two laps.
One of those was the result of a wink by Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore), who still managed eighth despite serving a 15-second penalty at its mandatory stop.
As for van Gisbergen, he not only took victory in the OTR SuperSprint, but also scored a maximum 315 points as he set the fastest lap in all three encounters.
His margin at the top of the driver standings has grown to 393 points, with Waters taking second place from De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang), who finished the race in seventh.
The result also means Holden has won the manufacturers’ championship for the last time.
“It was fantastic,” van Gisbergen said.
“It’s always good to compete with someone who has nothing to lose. Drive hard, but also respectful; yes, it was great.
“But once I got to the front, I struggled a bit with no tracks to follow, and then pulled away.
“What a fantastic weekend; I can’t thank the team enough.”
Rain had started to fall as the cars sat on the grid, causing them all to switch to wet tyres.
Also, with the track still greasy in front of pole position after the previous day’s start line bypass, race 23 started behind the safety car.
It was quite wet when the field took the green flag for what was officially lap 3, at which point Waters took control given he had qualified on pole position.
Three different drivers led during the first lap of the race after De Pasquale and van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore) attacked the #6 car at Turn 13.
Waters regained the lead from van Gisbergen as he came up the main straight to start lap 4, while Broc Feeney (Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore #88) had passed De Pasquale at turn 17.
Davison (No. 17 Mustang) and Mostert found themselves in a battle for sixth that ended with the latter spinning into the former at the turn 6 hairpin on lap 6, which officials deemed an infraction driving
Feeney, however, was already off the road by the time they arrived, meaning van Gisbergen moved back into second place and was able to harass Waters again.
The two-time 2021 champion passed only for Tickford’s steering wheel to respond immediately, with Waters fending off another bid for the lead at the complex Turn 14/Turn 15/Turn 16 on lap 10.
A corner later, however, he undid his good work with a close that took the #6 Mustang outside and van Gisbergen didn’t waste the opportunity.
That meant a top five of #97, #6, De Pasquale, James Courtney (#5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang) a few seconds back, and Will Brown (#9 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore), with Feeney one place further back. .
Van Gisbergen built up a four-second lead by lap 13, by which time Davison had dropped from eighth to tenth after an apparently unassisted spin.
De Pasquale dropped from third to sixth with a spin of his own at the turn 6 hairpin on lap 14, and it would soon be Brodie Kostecki who would pass his Erebus Brown teammate for third on lap 16.
As the rain continued to fall and the temperature of the tires was therefore very high, the front runners ran hard.
De Pasquale pitted from sixth behind Feeney on lap 19, then nearly spun on his lap when he lost his way in turn 12 and dropped a wheel on the edge of the track.
By then, the top three of van Gisbergen, Waters and Brodie Kostecki were trading fastest laps, although the former was more than eight seconds apart.
Brown and Feeney stopped on lap 22 and resumed a few seconds ahead of De Pasquale.
The rest waited until the last chance to meet the CPS requirement, van Gisbergen leading Waters into the lane with a margin of 9.5 seconds.
He, Waters, Brodie Kostecki and Davison held first to fourth on the final lap, while Feeney finished sixth, from Brown and De Pasquale.
Mostert recovered somewhat from the holding penalty to come home in eighth, ahead of teammate Nick Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore) and Lee Holdsworth (#10 Penrite Mustang), while Courtney faded to 12th.
The next event is the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint, August 19-21.
Results: Race 23, OTR SuperSprint
Pos No Team/Sponsor Driver Car Laps Race Time 1 97 Red Bull Ampol Racing Shane van Gisbergen Holden Commodore ZB 24 56:35.1526 2 6 Monster Energy Racing Cameron Waters Ford Mustang GT 24 56:43.8635 3 99 Boost Mobile Kostecki Holbust Bro Racing d ‘E. Commodore ZB 24 56:52.3832 4 17 Shell V-Power Racing Team Will Davison Ford Mustang GT 24 57:00.6577 5 88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Broc Feeney Holden Commodore ZB 24 57:06.9848 6 9 Commodore ZB Racing William ZB Holden Commodore Mobile 24 57:07.7832 7 11 Shell V-Power Racing Team Anton De Pasquale Ford Mustang GT 24 57:08.0149 8 25 Mobil 1 Optus Racing Chaz Mostert Holden Commodore ZB 24 57:08.4936 9 2 Mobil 1 Percat ZB Holden Commodore 17 NTI4 Racing5 :09.9821 10 10 Penrite Racing Lee Holdsworth Ford Mustang GT 24 57:13.5660 11 3 CoolDrive Auto Parts Tim Slade Ford Mustang GT 24 57:21.6622 12 5 Snowy River Racing James Courtney Ford Mustang GT 28.9821 560:22. Commodore ZB 24 57:23.0415 14 31 Subway PremiAir Racing James Golding Holden Commodore ZB 24 57:24.5326 15 18 IRWIN Racing Mark Winterbottom Holden Commodore ZB 24 57:25.0181 16 49 Joss & Dynamic Jordan Boys Holden Commodore ZB 24 58.435 5834B Holden Electric Commodore ZB 24. 24 57:56.5761 18 22 PremiAir Coca Cola Racing Chris Pither Holden Commodore ZB 24 58:21.1448 19 4 SCT Logistics Racing Jack Smith Holden Commodore ZB 23 56:45.8543 20 96 TRG Holden Commodore ZB 24 58:21.1448 5 Macau 12 Trucks 12 5 Macau 8. Assisting Racing Todd Hazelwood Holden Commodore ZB 23 57:21.2183 22 26 Penrite Racing David Reynolds Ford Mustang GT 20 56:37.3926 NC 56 Tradie Racing Jake Kostecki Ford Mustang GT 17 58:01.9079 Assisting Truck NC NC 31.9079 Holden Commodore ZB :53.5739 NC 78 Best Leisure Industries Zak Best Ford Mustang GT 5 15:05.4254
Fastest lap (bonus): Shane van Gisbergen, 2:06.7465s, lap 22
Pilots Championship
Pos Driver Pts 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2196 2 Cameron Waters 1803 3 Anton De Pasquale 1801 4 Will Davison 1737 5 Chaz Mostert 1540 6 Broc Feeney 1463 7 David Reynolds 1380 8 Brodie S. Mark Winterbottom 1129 13 Lee Holdsworth 1084 14 William Brown 1066 15 Nick Percat 1024 16 Todd Hazelwood 996 17 Jack Le Brocq 833 18 Bryce Fullwood 830 19 Scott Pye 820 20 Scott Pye 820 20 Scott Pye 820 20 20 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 Smith 658 25 Garry Jacobson 513 26 James Golding 176 27 Jordan Boys 168 28 Zak Best 162 29 Jayden Ojeda 150
Team championship
pos. Car(s) Team Pts 1 88 97 Triple Eight Race Engineering 3659 2 11 17 Dick Johnson Racing 3538 3 5 6 Tickford Racing 2994 4 2 25 Walkinshaw Andretti United 2534 5 10 26 Grove Racing 2464 96re Motor 98 4 7 41 Brad Jones Racing 2040 8 18 20 Team 18 1949 9 34 35 Matt Stone Racing 1829 10 4 96 Brad Jones Racing 1461 11 55 56 Tickford Racing 1442 12 22 31 (76) PremiAir Racing Team 14314 14 Blanchard Racing 1416 4 1 15 78 Tickford Racing 162 16 27 Walkinshaw Andretti United 150