Supercars: All the action from this weekend’s round of action at The Bend in South Australia
After failing to trouble the Commodores in the opening eight races of the Supercars season, Ford have bounced back with a dominant showing at The Bend.
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Tickford Racing star Cameron Waters rebounded from a horror first race on Sunday to seal a clean sweep for the Ford Mustangs at The Bend after holding out championship leader Shane van Gisbergen to claim his first victory of the year.
After being taken out of the opening race as collateral damage in a first-lap tangle, last year’s championship runner-up hit back to give his title ambitions a timely boost.
Holding out van Gisbergen in a tight race to the finish, Waters claimed his first race win since triumphing in the final race at the Tailem Bend track last September.
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It completed a three-race sweep for Ford at The Bend after Kelly Grove racing’s Andre Heimgartner’s win on Saturday and Dick Johnson racing’s Anton De Pasquale’s victory in the opening race on Sunday.
It was a much-needed points boost for Waters after he suffered a DNF in the first Sunday sprint race when he was forced to limp back to the pits after being collected in the multi-car tangle.
Van Gisbergen finished second behind Waters on his 32nd birthday - his second podium of the day - to extend his championship lead to 190 points.
Will Davison also claimed a second podium for the day for DJR to push himself up into fourth in the championship.
Backing up from his win in the first race on Sunday - his first for Dick Johnson Racing and the 400th win for Ford - there was drama for De Pasquale, who struck engine trouble early in the race.
De Pasquale was forced back to the pits after just four laps, but it was not going to be a quick-fix for the team to get the young gun back out on track and his race was over.
Waters had sat fourth in the championship heading into the round at The Bend, but has slipped back to fourth behind Davison.
Ford revival continues as De Pasquale salutes
Anton De Pasquale has continued the Ford fightback at The Bend to claim his first race win of the year in a drama-packed battle on Sunday which cruelled the races of title challengers Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters.
After claiming his first pair of poles earlier in the day, the young gun steered the Blue Oval to its 400th win in the series and his first for Dick Johnson Racing.
De Pasquale grabbed the Mustang’s second victory of the year after Andre Heimgartner’s breakthrough on Saturday to lead home teammate Will Davison and Shane van Gisbergen, who charged from 13th to third on his 32nd birthday to bolster his championship lead.
De Pasquale’s victory was just the second of his career after his win at Darwin last year.
“We know how much this all means (400 wins for Ford) for all the fans and we have got massive support for me and Will,” De Pasquale said.
“They have given me a good car, we’ve got a one-two, it’s a pretty cool day.
“We are in a good position, so it will be good to get that under the belt, reset and think about it. I don’t think we had the world’s best race car then so we’ve still got some work to do, but we are in the right position to have a go.”
Mostert was able to return to the track for a shake down after repairs, but it was not in time to complete the required amount of laps in order to earn points, so he returned to the garage shortly afterwards.
He retained his third place in the championship standings, but Waters has been leap-frogged by Davison.
Mostert was not happy about the incident.
“I did not realise we were at the carnival,” Mostert said.
“I thought we were racing Supercars, not dodgem cars.”
Van Gisebergen extended his series lead to 178 points over teammate Jamie Whincup, who finished 11th, after his third-place.
“To come third after starting where we did is pretty awesome and guys around us who are close in points had a shocker,” van Gisbergen said.
Commodores had claimed the first eight races of the year before Heimgartner and De Pasquale’s wins at The Bend.
There is one remaining 24-lap sprint race to be held on Sunday afternoon.
‘I WAS LITERALLY FOUR DAYS AWAY FROM STOPPING RACING‘
Andre Heimgartner revealed he was just days away from turning his back on Supercars to be a finance broker before he was offered a career lifeline that was finally rewarded with a breakthrough win – and a drought-breaking one for Ford – on Saturday.
The 25-year-old defied a pit lane penalty to take his first Supercars race win and snap the Mustang’s seven-month losing streak in the opening race in slippery conditions at The Bend.
After starting on pole position, the Kelly Grove Racing driver put himself on the first step of the podium for the first time in his 161st start to end Ford’s 223-day drought on Saturday.
Heimgartner ended the Commodore’s nine-race winning streak to give Ford its first victory since Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters won at The Bend last September.
But the New Zealand racer’s maiden Supercars victory was almost thwarted after he was slapped with a five-second time penalty for a pit lane infringement.
Heimgartner made contact with Jamie Whincup as he cut across the front of the Triple Eight car exiting the pits following his stop on lap eight.
The five-second penalty was subtracted from his lead at the end of the race but he finished almost 8.97 seconds in front of second-placed Chaz Mostert to secure his win.
Heimgartner had claimed four podium finishes before breaking through for his first Supercars victory. The 26-year-old revealed how close he had come to walking away from Supercars before he was offered a second chance by Todd Kelly in 2018.
“I’m just really happy and relieved, it’s been a long time. I’ve been in the championship since 2015 so it’s really good,” Heimgartner said.
“They (Kelly Grove Racing) gave me the chance to come back into Supercars. I replaced Todd in 2018 and my career was basically over, I was getting ready to be a finance broker and be out of the sport.
“So for me to get that opportunity was massive … it’s good to finally repay that. He has done a lot for me, the whole family has, and now the Groves so it’s really good to be able to repay that finally.
“I was literally four days away from stopping racing. It was meant to be all over but thank god it’s not and it’s worked out like this.”
Heimgartner said he was aware straight away he would receive a penalty after the contact with Whincup.
“I knew it was going to happen, it was fair, I pulled in front of him,” Heimgartner said.
“They (the team) never told me, I knew.
“So when we had contact I’m like ‘Oh, geez. I just made it a lot harder for myself’ and I knew I had to get five seconds (ahead) on the last lap.
“I’m just over the moon and I was able to get that five seconds (gap) and get the win.”
Mostert, who snapped Triple Eight’s unbeaten start to the year in the last round at Symmons Plains, claimed his fourth podium for the year as Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale finished third.
The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver was hopeful of finding more on Sunday.
“Andre drove a perfect race, he was super quick. But for us we have got a little bit of work to do tonight, but overall happy with second,” Mostert said.
“There is a bit of strategy stuff that we probably didn’t do quite right, more from tyre selection and stuff like that. But overall pretty happy to come off a win and back it up with second here today in tricky conditions.”
Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen finished seventh after starting the race in eighth place, while his teammate Whincup, second in the championship, was sixth.
But van Gisbergen retains a 140-point lead over Whincup in the championship standings.
Brad Jones Racing’s Nick Percat completed one of the drives of the day to finish fifth after 26th on the grid.
There are two more sprint races at The Bend on Sunday to complete the round.
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