Star racer Shane Van Gisbergen uncorked another super drive beside Simon Evans by winning the opening race of the TR Group Waikato 400 at Hampton Downs.
In a repeat of the Taupo event, Van Gisbergen and Evans took victory from the M3-prepared Commodore of Greg Murphy and Jack Perkins while Andre Heimgartner and Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris were third.
Heimgartner had put heavy pressure on the V8 Supercars star in the opening laps and seized the lead as he shot up the inside into the fast turn one.
A few laps later Van Gisbergen hit the front again as he braked later for the downhill hairpin known as the Corkscrew.
“Andre was driving really well,” Van Gisbergen said.
“It was a good battle, pretty exciting.”
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“Once I got back in front I pushed hard to get a gap, as a safety margin for the driver change,” Van Gisbergen added.
Van Gisbergen and Evans increased their lead in the BNT NZ SuperTourers championship, having won the first round at Taupo in September.
A slow driver change saw Heimgartner and Morris drop back to third at one stage.
“We lose five seconds every pit stop,” Morris said of the size and seating position differences.
Reigning champion Murphy and Perkins ran their Holden in fourth early on before advancing after benefitting from Heimgartner and Morris’s slow driver change.
“The car’s not handling very good, we’re definitely struggling big-time,” Murphy said.
Ant Pedersen and Jonny Reid were the top Ford, finishing fourth ahead of the Holdens of Richard Moore/Tim Slade and Paul Manuell/Shae Davies.
Tomorrow sees two races each of 60 laps. These races will require extra pit stops for refuelling, which will pose problems of strategy for the teams as the timing of the stops could make a big difference to the results, especially if there are safety-car periods.
In the NZ Touring Cars Jason Bargwanna claimed victory in the Camry ahead of Nick Ross who had a strong run in Nissan Altima which was making its debut with Lance Hughes finishing third in his Commodore.
The TL class saw Kevin Williams lead a Commodore clean sweep of the top three with Team Kiwi driver Craig Baird second ahead of Andrew Anderson.
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