New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen claims first blood at South Australia’s new Supercars event
SHANE van Gisbergen has claimed his fifth win in a row in South Australia with victory in Race 1 at The Bend. The New Zealand star won both races at the Adelaide 500 this year and in 2017.
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- The mystery tour at The Bend
- Taking a thrilling hot lap around The Bend
NEW Zealander van Gisbergen’s dominance of top-tier racing in South Australia has been extended with the Holden Supercars driver taking out the historic first race at The Bend in clinical fashion.
Van Gisbergen passed teammate and 2017 champion Jamie Whincup on the fifth lap and they didn’t look like catching the cool Kiwi from there: he ended up winning the race — his third in succession — by more than six seconds before a crowd of 15,700.
He cruised to the line ahead of two Nissan drivers, Rick Kelly and Michael Caruso, with Whincap climbing back to fourth after dropping to eight after he had to double-stack in the pit-stops.
It was van Gisbergen’s fifth win in a row in the state: he won both races at the Adelaide 500 this year and in 2017 and is racing here as though it is his own back yard.
“We’ve done some good preparation and the last few rounds have been good for us,” van Gisbergen said. “It was awesome to see how far our car has come on the hard tyre.
“It (his rich vein of form) is part of racing, and evolution of the set-up.
“The car is radically different to the start of the year.
“It's been getting there for the last few rounds and I think the key is good leadership from above and making sure that three cars stick together.
“We’re always working together and that’s the best thing, the teamwork.”
The win also shrunk drivers championship leader Scott McLaughlin’s lead over van Gisbergen to a from 89 to 41 after fellow Kiwi McLaughlin finished sixth.
But van Gisbergen, who won the championship in 2016, was reluctant to look further ahead than tomorrow’s race, the 23rd on the calender.
“It will change tomorrow,” van Gisbergen said. “We’ve just got to keep accumulating, keep having good days, keep focused and no mistakes.”
Gisbergen underlined his versatility by taking out the maiden race at South Australia’s $110 million showcase at Tailem Bend; in the previous round he became the first driver to win under lights in Sydney.
But he had put in the preparation; he was one of only a handful of drivers who had competed on this circuit before after taking part in the Shannons Nationals earlier in the year.
“It’s pretty awesome,” van Gisbergen said. “It was a shame Jamie had to double-stack but it was a pretty awesome feeling.
“Shame we couldn’t both be up the front; we both had pretty quick cars.
“But it was a pretty good day.”
Caruso, who is 16th on in the drivers championship, was the bolter of the day.
It was his first podium since Darwin last year and he was chuffed afterwards.
“It’s really nice,” Caruso said. “We’ve had a really tough run the last couple of months so full credit to everybody in our team to get us back there.”
Of the South Australians who can now call this their second home track, Nick Percat finished 11th, Tim Slade 12th, Scott Pye 18th and Todd Hazelwood 26th.
The only knock on the new track was the amount of dust and debris the drivers had to deal with, which is also likely to be a factor in today’s longer race.
Much of it could be put down to the drivers being able to cut corners without consequence.
“The dirt is an issue, I think,” van Gisbergen said. “As a race driver, if you see a corner you can cut, you cut it, because everybody else does it.
“Tracks like this these days you can just go straight to the limit.
“You go off the track and it doesn’t matter. You’re on the grass and come back on.
“So you make a lot of mistakes and there’s debris everywhere.”
HOW THE RACE WAS WON
LAP 1
All cars clear the first corner but a bunch at the back of the pack come together soon after and two rookies Tekno Autosports’ Jack Le Brocq and Erebus Motorsport’s Anton de Pasquale end up in the grass and fall to the back of the pack. By the end of the lap, the slipperiness of the surface starts to bite several drivers, including another rookie Tickford Racing’s Richie Stanaway, as cars drift off the edge of the circuit.
LAP 4
Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s Shane van Gisbergen passes teammate Jamie Whincup to take the lead of the race.
LAP 5
Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert and 888 car Craig Lowndes are the first drivers to make their compulsory pit stop.
LAP 6
The safety car is called for Wilson Security Racing GRM’s Garth Tander’s commodore, which suddenly slows and stops just inside the final corner. Freightliner Racing’s Tim Slade and Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters were the only other two drivers to have made a pit stop. The two Red Bull Holden Racing team commodores had built a six-second lead on the rest of the field and Whincup is forced to double-stack behind race leader Van Gisbergen, as the rest of the field completes their stop.
The two Nissans of Rick Kelly and Michael Caruso are in second and third position when the race resumes on lap 9.
LAP 10
Shane van Gisbergen sets the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:51.1629.
LAP 17
Van Gisbergen is clocked as doing 267km/h on pit straight and is two-seconds clear of Kelly.
LAP 20
Jamie Whincup passes DJR Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin to take fifth position. Meanwhile, Mobile 1 Boost Mobile Racing’s James Courtney sits in position 8 — he started in 24th.
LAP 24
Shane van Gisbergen wins the first ever Supercars race at The Bend Motorsport Park in his Holden and two Nissan drivers share the podium, with Rick Kelly finishing second and Michael Caruso third.
HOW THEY FINISHED
OTR SUPERSPRINT
(SATURDAY RACE, 21 LAPS)
1. Shane van Gisbergen (Holden) 48:23.2330
2. Rick Kelly (Nissan) 48:29.4931
3. Michael Caruso (Nissan) 48:32.1451
4. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 48:36.1199
5. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) 48:39.0561
6. Scott McLaughlin (Ford) 48:39.6329
7. Will Davison (Ford) 48:40.0086
8. James Courtney (Holden) 48:40.4715
9. Chaz Mostert (Ford) 48:41.6520
10. Craig Lowndes (Holden) 48:42.5916
11. Nick Percat (Holden) 48:43.8326
12. Tim Slade (Holden) 48:46.0109
13. Cameron Waters (Ford) 48:48.1613
14. Fabian Coulthard (Ford) 48:50.5844
15. Tim Blanchard (Holden) 48:51.2716
16. Jack Le Brocq (Holden) 48:56.7613
17. David Reynolds (Holden) 48:56.9960
18. Scott Pye (Ford) 48:57.3159
19. Andre Heimgartner (Nissan) 48:57.8728
20. Lee Holdsworth (Holden) 49:03.0048
21. James Golding (Holden) 49:05.1302
22. Richie Stanaway (Ford) 49:06.5158
23. Simona De Silvestro (Nissan) 49:06.9479
24. Anton de Pasquale (Holden) 49:08.5961
25. Macauley Jones (Holden) 49:08.8112
26. Todd Hazelwood (Holden) 49:21.1911
27. Kurt Kostecki (Holden) 49:30.8822
28 Garth Tander (Holden) -6 laps
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. Scott McLaughlin (Ford) 2681pts
2. Shane van Gisbergen (Holden) 2640pts
3. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 2266pts
4. Craig Lowndes (Holden) 2139pts
5. David Reynolds (Holden) 2084pts