Simon Evans and the hard-charging Shane van Gisbergen have taken victory in Race 1 at the Rush Security 400 at Taupo.
The V8 Supercars star van Gisbergen and Aucklander Evans prevailed in the 12-car field at the opening round of the revamped BNT NZ SuperTourers Championship.
M3 Commodore driver Richard Moore and Tim Slade finished second ahead of Andre Heimgartner and Paul Morris.
Greg Murphy, who started in the Mike Pero Commodore he was sharing with Jack Perkins, suffered damage on the opening lap which forced the #1 Commodore into retirement after five tours of the 30-lap race.
Starting from pole position Evans immediately began to pull away from the field before handing over the duties to van Gisbergen in a dominant victory.
Evans, the older brother of GP2 star and 2012 GP3 Series champion Mitch Evans, had converted some decent form in the sprint phase of the category earlier this year into a thoroughly deserved triumph.
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“I’m really happy, I’m stoked,” Evans, who came agonisingly close to victory a couple of times in the 2014 championship, said.
“It was always going to be tough in the first few laps but I was able to lead from pole and pull out a gap.
“The next two were fighting over second and third, and that helped me because it cost them time.
Van Gisbergen was full of praise for Evans saying: “He did all the work. When I took over the car the tyres felt like brand new.”
Slade did a solid job of claiming second after wrestling with gearbox problems which had earlier cost him some positions.
Murphy, who dominated the sprint races of the series earlier this year, had contact with John McIntyre’s Falcon which resulted in a cut tyre and damaged exhaust which saw smoke fill the cabin.
The McIntyre Falcon eventually finished a fighting fourth with Mark Gibson bringing the Ford home ahead of Ant Pedersen and Jonny Reid in the International Motorsport Ford.
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