Van Gisbergen/Tander take Holden’s final Bathurst 1000 win

Shane van Gisbergen has seen off intense pressure from Chaz Mostert to take victory in his Triple Eight Race Engineering ZB Commodore in Holden’s final Repco Bathurst 1000.

Van Gisbergen rarely enjoyed a lead of much more than one second for the final 15 laps around Mount Panorama after the eighth Safety Car period of the day, and had a couple of nervous moments at Forrest’s Elbow.

However, he safely guided the #97 Red Bull Ampol Racing entry to the chequered flag and a win of 1.0991s, his second in three years, which he once again shared with Garth Tander.

Along the way, the #97 entry overcame a five-second penalty for an unsafe release before moving into the lead on Lap 57 when the sixth Safety Car period of the day fell kindly for them.

On a day of madness, van Gisbergen/Tander’s race time was 6:41:53.7221s, with Mostert sharing second place in Walkinshaw Andretti United’s #25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore with Fabian Coulthard.

The final podium place when to Tickford Racing, specifically the #6 Monster Energy Mustang of Cameron Waters/James Moffat.

Rounding out the top 10 were Brodie Kostecki/David Russell (#99 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore), Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore), Lee Holdsworth/Matt Payne (#10 Penrite Mustang), Anton De Pasquale/Tony D’Alberto (#100 Shell V-Power Mustang), Craig Lowndes/Declan Fraser (#888 Supercheap Auto ZB Commodore), Bryce Fullwood/Dean Fiore (#14 Middy’s ZB Commodore), and Will Brown/Jack Perkins (#9 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore).

There were six DNFs in the 28-car field, the most prominent of them being the #17 Shell V-Power Mustang of Will Davison/Alex Davison after the former crunched into the tyre wall at Griffins Bend on Lap 142, just after his last pit stop, bringing about the eighth and final Safety Car period.

There was controversy during that Safety Car period too when Brodie Kostecki got baulked by a recovery ute as he exited pit lane, which might have cost him second place at the time to Mostert.

Hours earlier, at the halfway mark, Tander held a seven-second lead, from Russell, Whincup, Moffat, Holdsworth, Michael Caruso (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore), Mostert, Fraser, Fiore, and Alex Davison in 10th, with D’Alberto 12th.

Tander was 10 seconds up on Lap 87, by which time Mostert had climbed to fifth and was closing in on Moffat.

He showed the nose at The Cutting on Lap 92 but spared Moffat a second spin at that corner today after Brodie Kostecki had made contact with the #6 Mustang earlier, and made the pass a sector later at Forrest’s Elbow.

With 66 laps to go, and potentially three equal 22-lap stints to home, Moffat was into the lane on Lap 95 to hand over to Cameron Waters for the balance of the race.

Tander pitted from a 17-second lead at the end of Lap 100 and was followed into the lane by Russell, with both handing over to their respective primary drivers.

Such was the field spread, Shane van Gisbergen resumed in third in the #97 ZB Commodore, with Whincup leading until he pitted and Feeney hopped back into the sister #88 ZB Commodore.

Mostert from first place on Lap 103 but his exit from the Walkinshaw Andretti United box was delayed slightly by a slow rotor change, as the third-last pit cycle completed.

It meant van Gisbergen led by over 12 seconds from Brodie Kostecki, more than that much again back to Feeney in third, from Mostert, Waters, Holdsworth, Brown, Lowndes, Will Davison, Fullwood in 10th, and De Pasquale in 11th.

Mostert caught Feeney on Lap 111 and rounded up the #88 ZB Commodore for third place as they took the kink into The Chase, at which time van Gisbergen was 13 seconds clear of second place.

Waters had nearly caught Feeney when he kicked off the second-last pit stop cycle on Lap 117, taking new brake pads.

A Safety Car was called on Lap 119 when Todd Hazelwood buried the #35 Truck Assist ZB Commodore in the tyre wall at Griffins Bend, bringing everyone else in and wiping out most of van Gisbergen’s by-then 17-second lead.

For of the Lap 123 restart, the order was van Gisbergen, Brodie Kostecki, Mostert, Feeney, Waters, Holdsworth, Will Davison, De Pasquale, Lowndes, and Fullwood.

As Brodie Kostecki held Mostert at bay and Feeney came under attack from Waters, van Gisbergen skipped a full second clear within three laps.

Waters got overlap as they braked at The Chase on Lap 127 and Feeney ran off, handing over fourth position and in fact resuming in sixth, behind Holdsworth.

As van Gisbergen stretched his lead beyond three seconds, Waters started hacking into the two-second gap to Mostert, who had still been unable to clear Brodie Kostecki.

He got as close as a second behind before the tide started to turn, while Holdsworth had to fend off Feeney at Griffins Bend on Lap 134 after a lock-up at Hell Corner carted the #10 Mustang wide.

Waters lost more time when he ran wide at Hell Corner on Lap 136 while Jack Smith was running 13th when he hit the wall at McPhillamy Park on Lap 138 but was able to limp the #4 SCT Logistics ZB Commodore back to the pits.

As van Gisbergen got five seconds up on second place, Holdsworth dropped from fifth to seventh when he ran off at The Chase on Lap 139.

The final cycle started next lap and, with 20 to go, Mostert was in from 1.7s behind Brodie Kostecki and Waters from 3.7s behind him, with the latter having his front ride height dropped.

Davison followed them in but, after exiting the pits, he was in the wall at the other end of Mountain Straight, at Griffins Bend, bringing about the eighth Safety Car.

Dick Johnson Racing had not changed brakes on Car #17, and the cause of the crash was not obvious.

Everyone else pitted due to the yellows and Brodie Kostecki lost second to Mostert in the cycle, possibly a direct result of the Erebus driver having been baulked by a recovery ute as he tried to accelerate onto Mountain Straight.

The running order was thus van Gisbergen, Mostert, Brodie Kostecki, Waters, Feeney, Holdsworth, De Pasquale, Lowndes, Fullwood, and Brown.

The race restarted with 15 laps to go, when Waters lunged at Brodie Kostecki and stole third position at Griffins Bend.

He also had a look at Mostert at The Chase before the restart lap was out, but thought better of it.

Van Gisbergen initially could not shake Mostert, or Waters or Brodie Kostecki, but got 0.86s clear when he reset the fastest lap to a 2:06.4550s on Lap 150.

Mostert set a personal-best of 2:06.6702s on Lap 151 but van Gisbergen went fastest again with a 2:06.2663s which moved him to 1.27s ahead.

Mostert brought the gap back under a second on Lap 152 with another personal best, but lost a tenth next time around and then got crossed up off Hell Corner on Lap 154 when he hit the dirt and mud.

Still, they continued to trade punches and, while Waters faded somewhat, the split between #97 and #25 kept fluctuating a tenth or two either side of one second.

When van Gisbergen was wide at Forrest’s Elbow on Lap 158, it dropped to 0.6s, but the Triple Eight driver rebuilt his lead to 1.34s with two laps to go.

Then he was a little wide at Forrest’s Elbow again, and the gap was 1.0996s with one lap to go.

Fittingly, van Gisbergen’s and Mostert’s final laps were just 0.0005s apart, but that was not enough for the latter to claim a second Great Race win in a row, and it was instead two in three years for #97.

Behind the top 10 at the finish was Richie Stanaway/Greg Murphy (#51 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore) in 11th, followed by James Golding/Dylan O’Keeffe (#31 Subway ZB Commodore) in 12th in a car which had run much higher before losing time due to a flapping splitter.

The top 19 finished on the lead lap, and the last finisher in 22nd position, 13 laps off the pace, was the #2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore of Nick Percat/Warren Luff.

Percat had been running fourth on merit when he bounced off the walls at Forrest’s Elbow just before halfway, necessitating a lengthy period in the WAU garage.

Of the six retirements, two came in the last 23 laps, with the other four completing no more than four laps each after a chaotic opening due to a combination of track conditions and some less than stellar driving.

Van Gisbergen now leads the championship by 567 points over Waters with two events to go, the next being the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 600, at Surfers Paradise, on October 28-30.

Results: Race, Repco Bathurst 1000

Drivers’ championship

Teams’ championship