SVG cruises to Race 21 win at The Bend

Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen has extended his Repco Supercars Championship lead with victory in Race 21 of the season at The Bend Motorsport Park.

The New Zealander made two passes on the race track, hitting the front when he overtook pole-sitter Zak Best on Lap 11, and was not headed again given he was last to take his compulsory pit stop for two tyres.

The Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Will Davison used an undercut to emerge in second position once the pit cycle was done and that was where he remained until taking the chequered flag 2.2227s in arrears of van Gisbergen after 24 laps at a cloudy Tailem Bend.

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert finished third in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore after benefiting from an error from Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang).

The latter got home fourth, ahead of Tickford Racing team-mate Best in the wildcard #78 Mustang.

With Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) fading to ninth in the end, and van Gisbergen collecting the five bonus points for the fastest lap as well, the latter’s margin in the drivers’ standings is out to 323 points.

“The car was magic; thanks so much to the team,” said SVG.

“I’ve been struggling with my driving, but the car has been really good; just hard to drive, but when racing under the limit it was fine.”

On running long, he explained, “[The tyres] were still fine; I think Will had passed us, so we needed to make that speed to get back in front of him, and came out in front.

“Would have loved to have battled on track, but the guys did a great job and the pit stop was awesome too, so yeah, really stoked.”

At the start, both Waters and Mostert made good getaways from Row 2 but the former found his path blocked by Best as the latter went for a wide berth into the first corner.

Best retained first spot but Waters eventually wrested second place from van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore) courtesy of the inside line into Turn 3, with Mostert fourth and Davison (#17 Mustang) gaining a position at the expense of De Pasquale to slot into fifth.

Best’s start was investigated but ultimately cleared as he got out to a 1.6s lead after just two laps, before Waters began to catch up.

However, van Gisbergen was doing so as well, and he nabbed second place with a lunge down the inside of the #6 Mustang at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 7.

The Triple Eight driver wasted little time putting Best under pressure, and the 20-year-old barely held on to first position when he pinched a brake at the Turn 6 hairpin on Lap 8 and ran wide.

Van Gisbergen did make the pass at Turn 3 on Lap 11, moments after Waters had pulled into the pits for fresh rear tyres.

With Davison having pitted on Lap 5 and De Pasquale on Lap 6, Waters merged between them before a bumping duel with the latter in which the Tickford steerer prevailed despite nearly being unloaded at Turn 3.

Best was into the lane on Lap 12 for rears and slotted behind Waters at Turn 1, then did his team-mate a favour when he saw off De Pasquale’s attack on the outside of Turn 3 which caused Car #11 to in fact lose a position, to Brodie Kostecki (#99 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore).

Running longer was hardly hurting van Gisbergen, who reset the fastest lap on both Laps 12 and 13 with a 1:50.1777s and a 1:50.1207s, while Mostert stopped on Lap 14 and rejoined behind Waters.

On Lap 17, Waters locked up and ran through the gravel at Turn 1.

He was still officially fifth and effectively third when he re-entered the circuit at Turn 3, but then ceded the spot when Mostert got underneath him around at the Turn 14 left-hander.

Van Gisbergen finally stopped at the end of Lap 20 for rears and was 1.5s to the good once he came back up to speed, before putting the exclamation mark on the victory with another fastest lap, a 1:50.1133s, as he took the chequered flag.

Behind Davison and Mostert was a distant Waters, who marked a tyre in the aforementioned lock-up, with Best just tenths further back in fifth position.

Brodie Kostecki retained the effective sixth position which he took from De Pasquale, who was later passed also by Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore) and David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) in the closing stages.

That was thus the top nine while Andre Heimgartner finished 10th in the #8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore, with all 27 starters finishing on the lead lap.

Supercars action at the OTR SuperSprint continues tomorrow morning from 09:35 local time/10:05 AEST with for Qualifying for Race 22 and then Qualifying for Race 23.

Results: Race 21, OTR SuperSprint

Fastest lap (bonus): Shane van Gisbergen, 1:50.1133s, Lap 24

Drivers’ championship

Teams’ championship