On the weekend of May 20 – 21, 2023 was the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint held at the Symmons Plain Raceway.
The raceway was first opened in March 1960. After the closure of the Longford Road circuit Symmons Plains quickly established its own reputation as Tasmania’s home of Motor Racing. The track is 2.4 km with 7 turns and must be one of the shorter tracks used in the Supercars Championship.
The Tasmania Supersprint was round 4 of the championship. Brodie Kostecki came into the round with a 100 point lead over Chaz Mostert in 2nd place.
It is the 50th time that the Supercars have visited. The track seems to be favoured by Triple Eight. They have won 25 out of the last 36 races in Tasmania.
Both Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat had milestones. It was Andre Heimgartner’s 100th round start in Supercars and Nick Percat started his 300th race in Supercars.
In the pre-Race sessions:
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 1
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 2
Will Brown was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 10 Will Brown started on pole position with Jack le Brocq alongside him.
At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 42 laps. The opening lap was relatively clean until James Courtney went into the wall at turn 6.
Coming out of turn 4 on the following lap Cameron Waters made contact with Brodie Kostecki which put him in the wall. Then Broc Feeney made contact with Chaz Mostert spinning him around. Scott Pye gave Broc Feeney a nudge and put damage on car 88 but he was able to keep going.
The result of the chaos had Chaz Mostert and Brodie Kostecki heading to the pits for repairs. As it turned out Chaz Mostert was not able to re-join the race.
James Courtney was another casualty from the turn 4 incident. A few laps later he went into the garage to replace a bent steering arm.
Will Brown was still leading with 1.8 seconds over Cameron Waters.
Shane Van Gisbergen was up 3 places from his grid start position and now in 6th.
It wasn’t long before Cameron Waters showed how much he wanted the win. He did the fastest lap of the race clocking in at 51.67 seconds.
Shane Van Gisbergen also showed his desire for a podium finish and got up the inside of Cameron Hill for 4th position.
The first car to pit in this race was Scott Pye on lap 14. He came in from 21st position and returned to the track in 22nd.
Mid-field Will Davison got up the inside of David Reynolds exchanging 15th and 16th place.
In the middle of the race James Golding pitted and David Reynolds followed him in. Andre Heimgartner and Cameron Waters then pitted from 3rd and 4th position.
Race leader, Will Brown made his pit stop on lap 23. He returned to the track in 5th place giving Shane Van Gisbergen the number 1 spot. At this stage there were still 8 cars to pit.
Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 27 from the lead of the race.
After Jack Smith took his pit stop he was investigated for an infringement. He was issued a 15 second time penalty post-race finish.
Now there were only 3 cars yet to pit; Todd Hazelwood, Matt Payne and Broc Feeney. Once they did Will Brown assumed the lead of the race.
Towards the end of the race Will Brown was still in the lead with 1.3 seconds over Andre Heimgartner. It was another 1.1 seconds back to Cameron Waters in 3rd.
Once Todd Hazelwood had pitted on lap 30 he re-joined in 15th place.
After this it was a sprint to the checkered flag.
Shane Van Gisbergen was in 4th position with fresher tyres for the sprint to the finish line but he was 8.2 seconds off the lead and 5.8 seconds away from Cameron Waters in 3rd place.
In the final Will Brown was still holding the lead over Andre Heimgartner. Shane Van Gisbergen was obviously not satisfied with 4th and managed to finally get past Cameron Waters to steal 3rd place.
Results for Race 10:
1st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing 3rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
In Race 11 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position, alongside him was Broc Feeney.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki pushed Broc Feeney wide at turn. Will Brown used the opportunity to go up to 2nd place while Broc Feeney was displaced back to 4th.
The opening lap was relatively clean until turn 6 when Shane Van Gisbergen went into tyre wall after a bump from David Reynolds. Shane Van Gisbergen managed to get the car out but had to head straight to the pits. The damage was worse than first thought. The damage would take so much time to repair he wasn’t able to return to the race. Luckily he was able to participate in the final race of the weekend.
Shortly after Will Brown took the lead off his teammate Brodie Kostecki.
The top 5 cars were packed close to each other and anything could happen to change the results.
Aggressions seemed to be increasing and Declan Fraser received a 15 second time penalty for a driving infringement.
Meanwhile, Will Davison clocked the fastest lap at 52.011 seconds.
The first car to pit (aside from Shane Van Gisbergen) was Mark Winterbottom on lap 13. Noone else followed him in.
By the middle of the race the top 13 cars had still not visited pits. It seemed they all were afraid to give up their positions.
Once Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown had pitted there was a 35 second gap between the two.
Towards the end of the end of the race Broc Feeney was in the lead with 0.721 seconds over the championship leader Brodie Kostecki. It was a further 1.4 seconds back to Will Brown in 3rd.
In the final laps the gap between the top 3 cars became even tighter.
Broc Feeney was looking solid out front even though they were right on his tail. The drivers behind were really battling for the minor places.
On the last lap Broc Feeney was in cruise mode with a confident lead of 2 seconds.
He kept his hard-earned lead to finish line ahead of Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown.
As he crossed the line Broc Feeney announced over the radio, “Team Sunday is back!”.
Results for Race 11:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
In Race 12 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Will Brown alongside him.
As they took off Will Brown got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 42 laps. Andre Heimgartner went off the track at turn 1 and so did Anton de Pasquale.
While the 2 Erebus Camaro’s were commanding proceedings everybody else was trying to play catch up. Further back in the field the 2 Penrite Racing cars were battling for positions outside the top 10 in 14th and 16th place.
At the second last corner Declan Fraser got turned around by Jack Smith.
Things went smoothly until lap 9 when Andre Heimgartner gave James Courtney a bump and they both went off into the gravel.
On lap 10 Broc Feeney managed to get up the inside of Jack le Brocq for 3rd place. Will Brown and his teammate Brodie Kostecki were still holding the number 1 and 2 spots.
The first car to pit in this race was Nick Percat on lap 12 from the back of the pack and had a loose brake pedal as a secondary issue. Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted. He was in 18th and when he came back out on the track was in 23rd place.
By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had worked his way up through the field and was able to take 11th place from Jack le Brocq. At this stage there were 9 cars yet to take their stops.
Will Brown pitted on lap 24 which left Broc Feeney in control of the race.
Towards the end of the race Will Brown had a 5.5 second lead over Broc Feeney. It was only 0.633 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen who had now worked his way into 3rd place.
Matt Payne’s car had suffered damage earlier and the tyre was rubbing on the front bumper. It was too close to the end of the race so he kept going to the finish line.
At the front of the pack Will Brown still kept his lead and finished with a 4 second gap over Broc Feeney and Brodie Kostecki.
Another spectacular finish for Erebus to end the weekend.
Results for Race 12:
1st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing 3rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 87 points over Will Brown. Erebus are also leading the teams’ championship by 276 points over the Red Bull Ampol Racing team.
There are only 8 rounds to go in the 2023 Supercars season. The next event is the Betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 16th to 18th 2023.
On the weekend of Apr 28 – 30 was 3rd Supercars Championship round, the Bosch Powertools Perth Supersprint at Barbagallo Raceway.
This track is a 2.4 km circuit with 7 turns. It was built by the Western Australia Sporting Car Club and called Wanneroo Raceway. The first race was in March 1969.
In 1992 a well-known race personality, Alf Barbagallo funded an extension to the track and the circuit was renamed to “Barbagallo Raceway”.
It was then renamed back to Wanneroo Raceway in 2020 but for naming rights reasons will be known as CARCO.com.au Raceway from August 2022 to November 2025.
Barbagallo Raceway is the name I grew up with and still refer to it as such. Wanneroo Raceway is a name I can get used to, but CARCO.com.au Raceway is just plain old strange.
The weekend marked milestones for both Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom. Davison started his 500th race and Winterbottom had his 600th race in Supercars.
The weekend got underway with only one practice followed by the first qualifying session. David Reynolds was fastest in Practice 1 and Shane Van Gisbergen earned pole position in Qualifying.
As drivers positioned themselves on the grid for Race 7, Brodie Kostecki was alongside pole sitter Shane Van Gisbergen.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1. Will Davison did a dive bomb trying to get up the inside of Thomas Randle but he couldn’t make move stick.
The leaders started pulling away and Jack le Brocq was the only one able to keep up. It created a gap between the frontrunners and the rest of the pack.
Nick Percat in 20th place was the first car to pit on lap 8. He returned to the track in 25th (last) place.
James Courtney had dropped 2 places and Will Brown had gained + 4 places.
James Courtney was being held up by Will Davison in battle with Thomas Randle.
Tim Slade was the first of the Nulon cars to pit. When he came back out he was in 24th position.
Tickford Racing had allowed Will Davison to drive through their pit bay but caused a panic when he almost made contact with James Courtney.
Back on the track Will Brown got up the inside of Macauley Jones on lap 16 for 14th place.
At turn 1 on the next lap Cameron Waters got up the inside of Macauley Jones.
Brodie Kostecki pitted on lap 18 which gave the lead of the race to Shane Van Gisbergen. After a 3.2 second stop he re-joined the race in 19th place.
In the middle of the race David Reynolds did the fastest lap of the race 55.946 seconds and earned him the 5 bonus points.
Shane Van Gisbergen still had the lead with a 2.4 second break over Jack le Brocq. The gap back to David Reynolds in 3rd place was 25 seconds.
As Cameron Waters was heading to the pit lane he got turned around by Andre Heimgartner. It ruined Cameron’s chances of a decent finish. Andre Heimgartner received a post-race time penalty also ruining his chances.
Towards the end of the race when every car had taken their mandatory pit stop, Brodie Kostecki resumed his lead.
With 2 laps to go Brodie Kostecki was blocking Shane Van Gisbergen’s attempt to pass. Kostecki was issued a bad sportsmanship flag and Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off him.
Shane Van Gisbergen had to fight hard but kept the lead crossing the finish line 0.594 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki. It was only 0.953 seconds back to David Reynolds in 3rd.
This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 3rd race win at Barbagallo (Waneroo or CARCO.com.au raceway or whatever the hell you want to call it!). It also brings his career tally to 78 wins.
Results for Race 7:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing 2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport 3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing
In Race 8 Will Brown started on pole position and alongside him was David Reynolds.
At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1 while David Reynolds had to tuck back in behind.
After starting 4th on the grid Brodie Kostecki managed to pass David Reynolds at turn 7 to go into 2nd place. He was still 1.3 seconds away from his teammate and leader, Will Brown.
Anton de Pasquale also passed David Reynolds at turn 7 for 3rd place. David Reynolds must have lost his focus and ran wide catching the edge of the sand trap coming out of turn 7. It dropped him back to 11th position.
James Courtney then passed Anton de Pasquale for 3rd position and was 2.5 seconds behind the two leaders.
Matt Payne had gained 2 places to be up in 6th position, while Cameron Waters got up the inside of Todd Hazelwood for 9th.
Anton de Pasquale received a 15 second driving infringement time penalty for nudging another car.
The first car to pit was Cameron Hill in last place with a with a gear shift problem. The team put the go jacks under the rear of car 35 and went in to sort out the dramas.
Will Brown still had the lead with a 1.2 second gap over teammate Brodie Kostecki. Will Brown proved himself a real competitor and did the fastest lap of the race 55.956 seconds. This earned him the 5 bonus points for the race and championship leader board.
In the middle of the race Brodie Kostecki in 2nd place took his pit stop to avoid double stacking with his teammate Will Brown who was in the lead.
With 13 laps to go the two Erebus cars were back in the lead of the race. It was a dominant display with no threat from behind.
They had the race under complete control and kept their lead all the way to the finish.
Will Brown crossed the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki. It was a further gap of 3.5 seconds back to James Courtney in 3rd place.
Results for Race 8
1st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport 3rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing
In Race 9 Broc Feeney, the young and upcoming star of Red Bull Ampol Racing started on pole position. Alongside him was Brodie Kostecki.
Broc Feeney got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 42 laps. The opening lap was relatively clean except for Jack le Brocq spinning Declan Fraser around at turn 7. Le Brocq was later issued a 15 second time penalty to be served at his mandatory pit stop.
Broc Feeney had a 3/4 second lead over Brodie Kostecki with David Reynolds staying competitive in 3rd.
Will Brown then seemed to come out of nowhere jumping over Brodie Kostecki and David Reynolds to take 2nd place.
The back of the field also had interesting action. Shane Van Gisbergen gained 2 places from his start in 21st position up to 19th.
Chaz Mostert got up the inside of his ex-teammate Cameron Waters for 8th place.
Will Brown for the second time this weekend recorded the fastest lap, 55.718 seconds.
Matt Payne was first passed by Anton de Pasquale and then Shane Van Gisbergen. Gisbergen was now in 18th place.
The first car to pit was Tim Slade in 5th position on lap 12. He returned the track in 17th place.
In the middle of the race both Will Davison and Brodie Kostecki pitted together from 11th and 12th place.
Towards the end of the end of the race Broc Feeney had a 12.7 second lead over Chaz Mostert and 4 cars were still yet to take their pit stop.
Broc Feeney wowed the crowd. He held the lead all the way to the checkered flag to claim his 3rd career win 6.4 seconds clear of Will Brown. Truly an amazing finish.
Congratulations Broc.
Results for Race 9:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
Brodie Kostecki has extended his championship lead to 100 points and also takes his team Erebus to the top of the Teams Championship.
The next event is the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 19 – 21 of May 2023.
On the weekend of Mar 30 – Apr 2nd was the Beaurepairs Melbourne Supersprint. It was round 2 of the 2023 Supercars Championship and held at Albert Park in Melbourne Victoria.
The event was a support category of the Rolex Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The Albert Park circuit is 5.3km with 14 turns. Supercars has been there every year all but 2007, 2020 and 2021.
The weekend represented big milestones for some drivers.
Chaz Mostert started his 300th race in Supercars.
In the second race Mark Winterbottom started in his 595th race. It is a track that he seems to favour having previously won 7 races at the venue, a win count that he shares with Shane Van Gisbergen.
Macauley Jones also hit his 150th race start on the Sunday of the weekend.
Congratulations!
With this in mind, plus the first time that the Gen 3 cars race at this track and it being part of the Australian F1 Grand Prix, it was set to be an exciting weekend.
In the pre- race sessions
Mark Winterbottom was Fastest in Practice 1 Tim Slade and Shane Van Gisbergen both caused red flags because they both went into the wall at turn 5 or turn 7.
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Practice 2
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Qualifying.
The first of the four sprint races started on the Thursday of this event. It was Race 3 of the season with Anton de Pasquale on pole position Brodie Kostecki alongside him.
At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 19 laps. Brodie Kostecki was trying his best to take the lead and gave Anton de Pasquale a nudge at turn 5. Brodie Kostecki had to pull back and it allowed Shane Van Gisbergen to displace him.
Chaz Mostert was part of the front running pack but lost a spot when Jack le Brocq made an impressive pass at turn 3.
By the end of the first lap Bryce Fullwood gained 6 spots. After starting from 23rd on the grid he was up to 18th. If he kept this up he would be a threat to the leaders.
lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen found the space to make his move and took the race lead off Anton de Pasquale. From that point on, he was able to control proceedings from the lead.
The first car to pit in this race was Cameron Hill from the back of the field on lap 9.
There were challenges for position happening everywhere. Drivers had to be aggressive in such a short race.
Cameron Waters was trying to pass Brodie Kostecki and Chaz Mostert was putting pressure on Cam Waters in a battle for 3rd, 4th and 5th place.
Meanwhile, Broc Feeney was battling with James Courtney for 8th position.
Anton de Pasquale was right on the tail of race leader Shane Van Gisbergen.
At one point Cameron Waters ran extremely wide exiting turn 10 which dropped him down to 6th place.
It allowed Will Brown to get in the mix, but Chaz Mostert got the better of him and was again challenging Brodie Kostecki for 3rd place.
With the continual attacks, James Courtney and Broc Feeney also became part of the challenge for those positions. In an instant Jack le Brocq was running 9th position.
The gap between 1st and 2nd was 1.2 seconds with about 1.3 seconds back to 3rd.
Both Will Davison and Andre Heimgartner came into the pits to make their stop and rejoined the race in 22nd and 23rd place.
James Golding and David Reynolds pitted on lap 10. There were still 19 cars yet to pit. Everyone was reluctant to relinquish track position.
With 8 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.3 second lead over Anton de Pasquale. Brodie Kostecki closed the gap in 3rd position to 0.847 seconds.
Mark Winterbottom had no radio and Team 18 had to use a pit board to communicate with him.
Once the front runners took their pit stops, Shane Van Gisbergen was back in the lead.
With 4 laps to go Brodie Kostecki got past Anton de Pasquale for 2nd place while the leader Shane Van Gisbergen was in cruise mode. There were 16 cars who had not yet pitted so the pits it was going to be very busy in that area for the remaining laps.
With 3 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had edged out a 2.6 second lead over Brodie Kostecki.
On the final lap Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.5 second lead over Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown. They were closing in on him incredibly quickly. All he had to do was hang in there, defend his lead and not make any mistakes.
Brodie Kostecki was making a massive effort to catch the leader but there just wasn’t enough time. Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the finish line with only a 0.3909 of a second lead over Brodie Kostecki. Will Brown crossed the line third 1.5616 seconds later.
Results for Race 3:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
Race 4 started late due to a crash in the Formula 3000. All the races on the weekend were time certain being a support category to the Australian F1 Grand Prix. It was almost assured they would not complete all 15 laps, but they didn’t know how many laps they would get. Drivers would have to be very aggressive to gain and keep position given the time limit.
Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with Will Brown alongside him.
At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1. Meanwhile further back in the pack David Reynolds got turned around at the first corner by Cameron Waters and Mark Winterbottom. His car ended up off the track and trapped in the sand. The safety car was deployed and the race was under yellow flag conditions. As they followed the safety car around the track in formation, Nick Percat caught fire on the left front of his Ford Mustang. He managed to get back to the pits independently but couldn’t re-join the race.
It took until lap 4 for the race to return to green and recommence. Shane Van Gisbergen immediately tried to go around the outside of Will Brown in the lead. He couldn’t make the move stick and as a result of the madness up front Shane Van Gisbergen dropped from 3rd down to 6th.
The first of the drivers to pit in this race were Will Brown, Will Davison, Jack le Brocq, Andre Heimgartner, Matt Payne and Scott Pye.
Soon after his pit stop Jack le Brocq hit the wall damaging the left front corner. He couldn’t move and the race went under ‘yellow’ while he was retrieved, and the wall repaired. He would become another driver in this race to not return to the track.
In the end the race finished on lap 8 behind the safety car while they were still repairing the wall.
It was unfortunate to finish this way but couldn’t be helped. In formation behind the safety car they crossed the finish line; Brodie Kostecki with his first career win, James Courtney and Shane Van Gisbergen.
Post race finish, James Courtney was issued a penalty for an unsafe release in the pits. Unfortunately it pushed him back to 22nd place on the recorded results. The drivers between 3rd and 22nd were elevated 1 spot. For the two Red Bull Ampol Racing cars it was an unexpected podium finish with Shane Van Gisbergen bumped up to 2nd and Broc Feeney to 3rd.
Results for Race 4:
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
In Race 5 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position alongside him was Will Brown.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 followed by Will Brown. The cars further back in the pack were battling for ascendancy. At turn 5 James Golding made contact with Mark Winterbottom and pushed him into the wall. Winterbottom received damage on the left hand side and headed to the pits. He was the first car to receive an NC (not Complete).
Before the end of the lap James Courtney’s car caught fire. He managed to get back to the pits independently but would not return to this race or the last race for the weekend. He was the second car to receive an NC.
On the second lap Anton de Pasquale got turned around by Matt Payne. James Courtney became collateral damage of the incident. The safety car was deployed and the pit lane closed. Pasquale and Courtney became the two other cars to leave the track and receive an NC.
On the restart Brodie Kostecki was still in the lead followed by Will Brown and Bryce Fullwood. Meanwhile Shane Van Gisbergen passed Andre Heimgartner to take 6th position.
In the middle of the race authorities issued Matt Payne a Pit Lane Drive Thru Penalty for the incident he caused in lap 1 with Mark Winterbottom.
Towards the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had moved up to 5th position and now had Will Davison in front of him.
James Golding got turned around by Chaz Mostert when they were 3 wide coming out of turn 3. Luckily, they both continued in the race.
After Brodie Kostecki took his pitstop he resumed the lead of the race.
With only a couple of laps to go, Brodie Kostecki held his lead and crossed the line first. He was followed by Will Davison, Bryce Fullwood, Shane Van Gisbergen and then Will Brown.
Post race finish both Will Davison and Bryce Fullwood received 15 second penalties for an unsafe pit release. It was the second time at this event that post race penalties were issued altering the podium results. Once the time penalties were applied, Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown were bumped up two places so the recorded results now showed them as 2nd and 3rd place on the podium.
Results for Race 5:
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
In only his second year as a full time driver Broc Feeney earned himself his maiden pole position for Race 6. Alongside him was Chaz Mostert.
As they took off Broc Feeney surprisingly got the jump over the far more experienced Chaz Mostert. It took until turn 5 before Mostert could make his move for the race lead. Almost immediately after Will Brown also passed Broc Feeney dropping the pole sitter back to 3rd.
Broc Feeney and his team felt this was the best time to try and get some clean air out of the traffic. He was the first car to pit along with almost half the pack at the end of lap 1, including; Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood, Brodie Kostecki, Cameron Waters, Nick Percat, Anton de Pasquale, Declan Fraser and Macauley Jones.
On return to the track Bryce Fullwood almost hit the wall on the exit of turn 10. Somehow he managed to avoid the collision and it seemed like a miracle escape.
Shortly after Anton de Pasquale was given a 15 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release.
Will Brown managed to take the race lead off Chaz Mostert but immediately under the pressure made a driving error and spun around. It cost him dearly and dropped back to 20th position. He then realised he had a steering issue and head to the garage.
In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was still in the lead, followed by Bryce Fullwood and Will Davison.
With 6 laps to go Chaz Mostert’s tyres were starting to blister. It took his edge away and Bryce Fullwood got by him.
At this point in the race the top 9 cars were still yet to take the mandatory pit stop. Once they did there was another change to the lead, Broc Feeney was back up front.
On lap 12 Cameron Hill bumped the fence between turns 9 and 10 and damaged the left side of his car. He headed for the pits but with only 1 lap to go he didn’t make it back onto the track. He became the only car in this race to receive an NC.
Broc Feeney kept his lead. He crossed the finish line with just under a second gap over Andre Heimgartner, followed by Brodie Kostecki a further 1+ seconds later.
Bryce Fullwood came in 4th but post race copped a 15 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release. It pushed him down the recorded results as 18th place.
For Broc Feeney this was his first win for 2023 and second career win. Things seem to be moving fast for this rising star. Can’t wait to see things as they unfold for him.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 02: (EDITORS NOTE: A polarizing filter was used for this image.) Broc Feeney driver of the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during race 4 of the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400, part of the 2023 Supercars Championship Series at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on April 02, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Results for Race 6:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
When handing out the trophies for Race 6, Broc Feeney selected his father, Paul to collect the team trophy on behalf of the Red Bull Ampol Racing. A nice way of honouring his family support.
After the points were tallied for the event, Brodie Kostecki became the recipient of the Larry Perkins Trophy for 2023. He also became the new championship leader by 32 points over Chaz Mostert.
Shane Van Gisbergen is 3rd, only 86 points behind the number 1 spot on the ladder.
The next event is the Bosch Power Tools Supersprint on April 28th – 30th, 2023.
On the weekend of March 10 – 12 was the Thrifty Newcastle 500.
There was excitement in the air as it was the first round of the 2023 season and the first return to Newcastle’s street circuit since 2019 (Grrrr covid be gone!).
Fuelling the excitement were two major changes in V8 Supercars. The first being the start of the Gen 3 build standards for competing cars.
The second was the introduction of Camaros which replaces the Holden Commodore that is no longer manufactured. The old Aussie question, “Are you a Holden or Ford man?” will fade and be replaced with “Mustang or Camaro?”. RIP Holden. You will not be forgotten.
The event also marked important milestones for some drivers. Tim Slade had his 400th race start. Will Davison had his 500th and for Mark Winterbottom it was his 555th in Supercars. Quite an achievement for all of them. Well done!
In the pre-race sessions of this event:
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 3
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout
In Race 1 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.
At the start of race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 95 laps. Shortly after there was contact between Mark Winterbottom and Bryce Fullwood further back in the pack.
By the end of lap 1 Brodie Kostecki had half a second lead over Cameron Waters.
Things went smoothly for about the first 10 laps. Then Anton de Pasquale got turned around by Todd Hazelwood on the approach to Zara Street. Anton de Pasquale’s car spun off the track and was lucky to nudge the tyre wall only slightly. However, it did drop him 8 places to the very back of the pack.
On lap 14 Brodie Kostecki still in control of the race made a mistake which allowed Cameron Waters and Broc Feeney to close in and challenge him for the lead. Kostecki had to work hard to regain the gap he had.
Meanwhile, Shane Van Gisbergen made up 2 spots. He went from 6th to 4th place and seemed to be waiting to make his move.
He finally managed to get past his teammate Broc Feeney in 3rd place but then had a hard time taking on Cameron Waters for 2nd. This activity allowed Brodie Kostecki to extend his lead out to 1.1 seconds.
The first car to pit was Bryce Fullwood on lap 16 to remove the right rear mud guard flapping loosely after his earlier contact with Mark Winterbottom.
Then Will Brown pitted from 11th position.
On lap 22 James Courtney pitted. A few laps later Chaz Mostert also did.
Cameron Waters pitted on lap 31 to get out from behind the leader Brodie Kostecki. He could see it was a battle that was going nowhere.
Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted on lap 31 from 2nd place. He maintained the same position when he returned to the track. He also still had Cameron Waters and Broc Feeney behind him.
Soon after Tim Slade pitted. The team couldn’t get the right front tyre off his car for quite a while. It completely destroyed his race time and position.
Pretty soon Shane Van Gisbergen was at the front of the field. He had loaded his car with less fuel at his pit stop making him lighter and faster. Now Red Bull Ampol Racing held 1st place by Shane Van Gisbergen and 3rd place by his teammate, Broc Feeney.
It took a while but Shane Van Gisbergen managed to build a 5 second lead over Cameron Waters in 2nd place.
Nick Percat came into the pits and headed straight into the garage. His brakes were failing even with his foot pushing it all the way to the floor. OMG! That is not what anyone would want.
David Reynolds in car 26 had no comms back to the pits. It meant the Grove Racing team had to use an old fashion pit board to communicate with him.
Towards the end Broc Feeney managed to move up to 2nd place. With Shane Van Gisbergen leading the way, they crossed the finish line in a spectacular fashion earning a 1st and 2nd.
After such a great performance by the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team a protest was made by both Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United. They claimed the 2 winners had dry ice fed into their cool suit system from the wrong side of the car during the race. The regulation to perform this from the passenger side is mostly for safety reasons and in no way gave advantage to the drivers, but rules are rules.
After an overnight review it was announced on Sunday morning the two drivers were disqualified. Regardless of appeals from Red Bull Ampol Racing the verdict was upheld. It must have been a terrible blow for the team with new podium results naming Cameron Waters in 1st, Chaz Mostert 2nd and Brodie Kostecki 3rd.
Results for Race 1:
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Coke a Cola Racing powered by Erebus
In the shootout for Race 2, James Courtney made it turn 7 before hitting the wall hard. His car suffered substantial damage. It was so bad they weren’t able to repair it in time for the grid line up.
In Race 2 David Reynolds started on pole position with Chaz Mostert alongside him.
As they took off Chaz Mostert got the jump and led up What Street for the first of 95 laps.
Further back Declan Fraser stalled and didn’t make it off the grid. Macauley Jones who was right behind ploughed straight into him. The red flag was brought out immediately and all other drivers had to leave the track while the mess was cleaned up. Macauley Jones was able to get going again but Declan Fraser’s car was towed away and would not return to the race.
The restart was on lap 5. Chaz Mostert was in the lead and setting the pace. Behind him was David Reynolds and Cameron Waters so it was all Fords running 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Shane Van Gisbergen was in 5th place and wasn’t taking the goodness out of the tyres too early. He was being a cork in the bottle holding the other cars back..
Tim Slade tried putting in a challenge for Shane Van Gisbergen’s position but he just couldn’t find the right spot to make his move.
There was noticeable damage on the back of Will Davison’s Ford Mustang. I’m not sure where it came from but he was able to continue and wait until his first pit stop for repairs.
The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 11.
On lap 12 Scott Pye and Nick Percat came into the pits together to get out of the traffic.
Broc Feeney came in on lap 15 from 12th place. He was followed by Will Davison.
Matt Payne and Thomas Randle came in on lap 16.
By this stage Chaz Mostert was still going hard up the front. He had already built a 2.8 second lead over David Reynolds in 2nd place.
Coming down the hill out of turn 3 on lap 20, Mostert had a moment where he looked almost out of control. His experience shined and he continued.
On lap 24 he was the first out of the leading pack to take his pit stop while everybody else was still making up there minds as when to come in. This handed the lead over to David Reynolds.
As Mark Winterbottom was exiting the pit lane he came on radio and said he had lost 80% of his power steering. Having just pitted he chose to press on.
In the middle of the race while chasing his former teammate Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters hit the wall coming out of turn 8 which tweaked the steering of car 6. He made it around the track one more time before being forced to come in for repairs. This ultimately cost him any chance of a podium finish.
As they came closer towards the end of the race and the second round of pit stops, Chaz Mostert had a 10.9 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen who was now in second place.
Thomas Randle gave Todd Hazelwood a bump at turn 9 pushing him off the track into the tyre barrier. It took a few seconds but Hazelwood managed to extract himself and resume racing. Had the safety car been needed at this stage of the race it may have had an influence on its outcome.
In the last few laps Shane Van Gisbergen had amazingly closed the 10+ second gap of leader Chaz Mostert.
Contact was made between the two leading drivers as Shane Van Gisbergen attempted to make a pass. It was incident was considered fair play and no action was taken by race control or the stewards.
Shane Van Gisbergen wanted to make up for being disqualified in Race 1. He was obviously putting in a great effort. It paid off and he finally took the race lead off Chaz Mostert. Once he had the lead he was able to hold it all the way to the checkered flag.
Shane Van Gisbergen claimed his 76th career win in Supercars. Congratulations!
Result for Race 2
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing
The next event is Round 2, the Beaurepairs Melbourne Supersprint. This is held as a support category to the F1 Australian Grand Prix starting March 30th. I cant wait and hope you all will join me.
On the weekend of December 1 – 4, 2022 was the V8-Supercars season finale, The Valo Adelaide 500.
The event was held on the Adelaide Street Circuit, a 3.2km track with 14 turns and is made up of two 78 lap races (250kms each).
The circuit was first opened on the 31st October, 1985 for the F1 Australian Grand Prix. A few years later in 1999 the races became an official round of the Supercars Championship.
This year’s event marked a special milestone in the hearts of many Australians. It was the last race ever for the iconic Holden brand. In 2020 General Motors announced the retirement of the Holden brand name and 2022 was the last year of its manufacture. Supercars teams will now replace the Holdens with the Cheverolet Camaro. Australian motorsports will never be the same.
In the four day event the pre-race sessions results were:
Thomas Randle was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Chaz Mostert was fastest Practice 3 and in Qualifying for Race 33
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Shootout for Race 33
For Race 33 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Scott Pye alongside him. The big surprise was the champion elect, Shane Van Gisbergen starting in 25th place after a bad wide turn in qualifying and running out of time to have another attempt.
At the start Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 while Scott Pye had to tuck in behind.
At turn 7 James Golding made a mistake which allowed Chaz Mostert to get up the inside of him at turn 9 to take 6th place.
As the field completed lap 1 Cameron Waters had the lead and was 0.9 second ahead of Scott Pye. Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 4 spots to be in 21st place.
Shane Van Gisbergen was soon on the charge. In the second lap he first passed Mark Winterbottom, then Broc Feeney and Bryce Fullwood.
Further ahead, Will Davison got up the inside of Will Brown to move into 13th.
Bryce Fullwood ran wide on the exit of turn 4 which allowed Broc Feeney and Mark Winterbottom to overtake.
Pretty soon Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 9 spots up to 16th position. He was still 11.6 seconds off the lead.
Will Davison passed Brodie Kostecki to move into 12th. The tightly packed group meant engine temperatures were rising and they would have to make attempts to get clean air as soon as possible.
The first car to pit was Nick Percat on lap 6 to get out of the traffic and help keep his engine temperature under control.
At turn 11 Jack Smith went off the track through his own error but it didn’t cause any incident.
On lap 7 James Golding in car 31 had power steering dramas after hitting the wall, so had to immediately head to the pits.
Up the front Anton de Pasquale and James Courtney were in a battle for 3rd and 4th.
I was amazed at Shane Van Gisbergen who was now up 13 places from the start.
Broc Feeney was the first of the 2 Red Bull cars to pit on lap 11 so that Shane Van Gisbergen didn’t have to double stack.
Will Davison was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 13.
On return to the track he locked the right front wheels and race engineer Richard Harris asked him to return to the pits to check for flat spots on his tyres.
Shane Van Gisbergen put in an aggressive effort and was now battling with Lee Holdsworth for 7th position. Yes folks, I do not lie! Shane Van Gisbergen had started 25th on the grid and was now in 8th place going hard.
When Anton de Pasquale came in, he overshot the mark. The crew managed it well, but it was less than perfect especially when you are one of the front runners.
A few laps later Broc Feeney went off the road at turn 11 and hit the tyre wall. It could have spelled disaster, but he managed the recovery well and was able to continue.
Chaz Mostert pitted from 3rd place and came back out in 10th.
Cameron Waters pitted from the lead and came back out with clear air.
In the middle of the race the safety car was deployed because Jack le Brocq was in the wall. The rest of the field took the opportunity to come in and fuel up.
After the race went back to ‘green’, Chaz Mostert made wheel to wheel contact with Shane Van Gisbergen but it didn’t result in any significant damage.
With 32 laps to go Thomas Randle and Todd Hazelwood were the first two drivers to complete their second and final pit stop.
Will Davison pitted a few laps later, lap 49.
On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen went off the track at turn 11 and buried the front end in the tyre wall. Race control deployed the safety car. He managed to get the car out but had reasonable damage requiring repair.
On the restart Chaz Mostert was the leader of the race followed by Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat.
At turn 5 Cameron Waters tried to get up the inside of Todd Hazelwood. It didn’t work but it sent Hazelwood into the wall. Will Brown was so close he couldn’t avoid following him into the wall, so it was less than a lap after restart that another safety car came back out on the track. Shortly after Cameron Waters was issued a drive through penalty for being the cause of the mayhem.
On the restart with 22 laps to go Andre Heimgartner tried to go around the race leader Chaz Mostert but failed and lost ground. On the exit of turn 6 he made another mistake which allowed Nick Percat to take 2nd place off him. Walkinshaw Andretti United now had the 2 front places in the running.
With 17 laps to go Bryce Fullwood had to serve a pit lane penalty for making contact with Scott Pye earlier. It ultimately put him out of the running for a place on the podium.
With 16 laps to go Chaz Mostert’s lead was 2.5 seconds over Nick Percat in 2nd place.
With 8 laps to go James Courtney was given a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits and was out of lives. Race control issued him with previous warnings and now gave him a drive through penalty.
In the end, on the final lap Chaz Mostert finished 1.9 seconds ahead of his teammate Nick Percat. It was a spectacular finish for Chaz Mostert, earning him his 21st career win and his 5th race win of 2022. It was also a welcome finish for Walkinshaw Andretti United having a 1st and 2nd place.
Results for Race 33
1st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
2nd Nick Percat – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing
In Race 34 Anton de Pasquale started on pole position and alongside him was his teammate, Will Davison.
As they took off Anton de Pasquale led into turns 1 and 2.
Back in the pack there was contact between Mark Winterbottom and James Golding. They both went off the track. Golding had to wait for all the cars to pass before he could re-enter putting him at the back of the pack.
There was only 0.373 seconds between Anton de Pasquale in first place and Will Davison in second. They were closely followed by champion Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney.
Cameron Waters was able to pass his former teammate, Chaz Mostert for 5th place.
On lap 3 Scott Pye ran extremely wide at the final corner and Anton de Pasquale hit the tyre bundle at turns 1 and 2 of the next lap putting some damage on his car.
Jack Le Brocq’s car had smoke coming out of the back due to an oil leak. Officials issued him a mechanical black flag and he had to come into the pits right away.
Broc Feeney was the first of the Red Bull cars to pit on lap 11 so teammate Shane Van Gisbergen wouldn’t have to double stack.
On lap 14 Anton de Pasquale was still in control of the race. Will Davison pitted to avoid a challenge from Broc Feeney who had just done the fastest lap of the race so far.
Todd Hazelwood had a massive slide between turns 13 and 14, while Will Davison got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
On lap 18 Jake Kostecki hit the wall exiting turn 8 and the left rear wheel departed car 56. The safety car was deployed for the first time in the final race of the year.
On the restart with 58 laps to go Will Davison was leading the race with Broc Feeney and Anton de Pasquale close behind.
Yet again at turn 8, Brodie Kostecki hit the wall and put a bruise on car 99.
On the next lap David Reynolds got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits at turn 2.
Meanwhile back up the front Will Davison was under pressure from Broc Feeney in 2nd place. Will Davison made a mistake at the turn 9 hairpin that allowed Broc Feeney to take the race lead.
In the middle of the race Broc Feeney was still the leader and looking confident. From that point he did a fantastic job of holding out against the winner of the previous race at this event, Chaz Mostert.
Chaz Mostert kept the pressure on but in the final laps Broc Feeney managed to create some space between the two. It was only about 1 second but enough to let Feeney concentrate on driving rather than defending.
Broc Feeney kept the more experienced Chaz Mostert at bay and crossed the finish line with 0.9644 of a second lead. It was just under another long 8.5 seconds before Anton de Pasquale followed in 3rd place.
Broc Feeney and the team were ecstatic to claim his first win in his rookie year. It also seemed a fitting climax as the Holden brand name’s final race ever in Supercars.
A special congratulations to Broc Feeney on a great finish to your rookie year and your teammate, Shane Van Gisbergen who is now officially a 3 time Supercars champion.
Also, I would like to send out congratulations to Lee Holdsworth on his retirement race. You have been an absolute stalwart of the sport for two decades. Thanks for the brilliant memories and best of luck for the future. You will be missed.
Results for Race 34
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing Team
The next events are the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour, February 3rd to 5th 2023. Then the Supercars season begins on March 10 with the Thrifty Newcastle 500. I can’t wait and hope you will join me then.
On the weekend of the 28 – 30 October 2022 was the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
This year marks the 19th time that the Supercars Championship has raced for points on the Surfers Paradise Gold Coast circuit. The first paying round was in 2002.Prior to 2002 there were non-championship events held as part of the annual Gold Coast Indy. In 1994, 1996 and 2001 they were run as single driver events in 2 races. In 2010 the event was run in a 2 race by 300km format with co-drivers. Since then, the format had been changed to become a single driver 2 race event of 250km each.
The weekend marked a milestone for Triple Eight Race Engineering with their 600th Supercars race. Their debut was back in 2003 at the Sandown 500. They are the 5th team in ATCC-Supercars history to surpass that milestone.
The weekend was also Mark Winterbottom’s 50th round start with Team 18. He made his first start for the team at the 2019 Adelaide 500. Winterbottom currently has a finishing record on the Gold Coast of 35 finishes from 35 starts.
This event was kicked off on the Friday. The results in the pre-race sessions had no big surprises with results as follows:
Will Davison was fastest in Practice 1
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 2
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in the Qualifying
David Reynolds was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout
In Race 31 David Reynolds started on pole position. Alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen.
At the start of the race David Reynolds got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2. Shane Van Gisbergen was immediately on the attack, but he wasn’t far enough up to command track position and had to tuck in behind.
The cars behind the two leaders were Cameron Waters, Chaz Mostert and Anton de Pasquale. These front running drivers quickly began to pull away from the rest of the pack.
Further back Mark Winterbottom had gained 4 spots to move up to 9th position on the opening lap.
The gap between David Reynolds and Shane Van Gisbergen was 0.225 seconds. Shane Van Gisbergen was right on David Reynold’s bumper. At the final turn of the first lap Shane Van Gisbergen had a moment and lost ground, so for now Reynolds was able to retain the lead.
The first 2 cars to pit in this race were Will Davison and James Courtney on lap 9. When they came back out they were in 24th and 25th. Will Davison’s pit was not as smooth as it should have been. The right front rattle gun got jammed and those few seconds delay meant James Courtney was able to jump him on exit.
By lap 16 David Reynolds had reported his steering wheel was loose. Not something you want when travelling about 250kph. It slowed him down and Shane Van Gisbergen was able to take the lead at turn 4. Once in the lead, David Reynolds was no longer able to keep up with him.
Further back in the pack Lee Holdsworth was putting pressure on Broc Feeney in a battle for 10th and 11th position.
David Reynolds pitted on lap 25. The team looked at the steering wheel problem but weren’t able to immediately repair it. Jake Kostecki also followed him in.
On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen pitted and so did Todd Hazelwood.
After hitting the wall earlier, Bryce Fullwood’s passenger door kept coming open. He was issued a mechanical black flag and was forced to pit immediately.
Will Brown was in the garage due to ripping the under body out of car 9 when he went through the beach chicane.
On lap 31 Andre Heimgartner was in pit lane with smoke coming out of the back of car. It was not good news and car 8 never made it back out to the track.
Mark Winterbottom got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
In the middle of the race David Reynolds was still complaining about the loose steering wheel in car 26. He came in for his second pit stop. The team were ready to do a full steering wheel change. As it turned out they just had to tighten the steering wheel bolt. Oops!
When David Reynolds got back out on the track he was in the mix of the main pack and had to try returning to his former lead. In desperation he requested a blue flag from race control because he felt that Will Davison was holding him up. Before officials could respond Reynolds found space to make the pass. He had no time to waste.
David Reynolds needed to close the 4.8 seconds lead that Shane Van Gisbergen had.
Cameron Waters was still in 3rd place. He made a mistake going into turn 2. He clobbered the tyre wall and spun around. His error lost him several places. It was an unfortunate mistake so late in the race.
Fatigue started to show. Nick Percat and Tim Slade received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits at turn 2.
Once past the critical lap, drivers and teams were able to pit for fuel and tyres to get to the end of the race.
On lap 56 Shane Van Gisbergen pitted for his last stop with a 54.705 second lead over Lee Holdsworth. With such an incredible lead he returned to the track still in first place.
From that point on Shane Van Gisbergen had complete dominance on the track with an 11.362 second lead over David Reynolds. It was then another 13.488 seconds back to Chaz Mostert.
While the drivers battled for position in the top 10 it seemed that it was impossible to close the gap on Gisbergen.
With 10 laps to go Broc Feeney managed to displace Lee Holdsworth for 15th position coming out of turn 4.
Cameron Waters also finally cleared Anton de Pasquale for 5th position.
With 7 laps to go the battle between David Reynolds and Chaz Mostert had allowed Shane Van Gisbergen to open the gap to 15.2 seconds.
Chaz Mostert’s plan to attack David Reynolds for 2nd place was interrupted and instead had to defend from Will Davison in 3rd.
With 2 laps to go Will Davison was less than a car length behind Chaz Mostert.
By the final lap Shane Van Gisbergen had gained another 2 seconds over the rest of the field.
Without fault Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the finish line 17.344 seconds clear of David Reynolds. Chaz Mostert managed to come 3rd with Will Davison pushing hard a mere .3184 seconds behind.
For Shane Van Gisbergen it was a spectacular way to earn his 20th win for the 2022 season. It also gave him enough points on the leader board to be declared champion elect for the 3rd time in his career. He now ties with other legends of the track such as Craig Lowndes.
Congratulations!
Results for Race 31
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing
3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
For Race 32 Shane Van Gisbergen had earned pole position. It was his 45th career pole. Alongside him on the grid was Will Davison.
As they took off from the start line, the two front runners were neck in neck. At the first bend of turn 1 Shane Van Gisbergen forced Will Davison over the chicane. Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters who were right behind Davison were also forced to cut across the track perimeter.
Surprisingly Will Davison came out the other side of the closely knit turns 1,2 and 3 in the lead. Shane Van Gisbergen was told by his team to redress for his error. He slowed up before turn 4 to give Davison the space needed and avoid a penalty.
The field was tightly packed and challenges for position were happening left right and centre.
As the pack commenced lap 2 Will Davison had a 1 second lead.
After his continual efforts Brodie Kostecki finally got by Scott Pye for 5th place. Behind them were David Reynolds had Thomas Randle battling for positions 7 and 8.
It took a while but the cars further back in the pack began to settle into their own pace. They knew there was a long way to go and no need to make desperate moves in the early stages.
On approach to turn 11 of lap 4 James Golding crashed through the tyre barrier. The cars right behind were not prepared and smashed straight into him. Eight cars were involved including Macauley Jones whose car caught on fire. In a show of good sportsmanship, other drivers immediately came to assist. It was mayhem and the first safety car was deployed with the red flag shown shortly after.
Broc Feeney was another driver who suffered significant damage. His car was taken to the garage and it wasn’t certain if he would re-join the race.
The race resumed after the clean-up. Will Davison and Shane Van Gisbergen had a pretty hefty gap over Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters.
Anton de Pasquale had damage on the rear bumper due to the contact on lap 1. The Dick Johnson Racing Team made him come in on lap 9.
Scott Pye and Jake Kostecki were the next to take pit stops on lap 10.
On lap 11 Shane Van Gisbergen took the lead off Will Davison down at turn 11. Chaz Mostert was only 0.257 seconds behind them and was immediately putting Will Davison under further pressure in 2nd place.
Behind Chaz Mostert was Cameron Waters followed by Brodie Kostecki in 5th being pressured by David Reynolds.
Mark Winterbottom had gained 5 positions into 7th place but was now struggling. No matter what he did he couldn’t get past David Reynolds in car 26.
By lap 17 Shane Van Gisbergen had a 2.5 second margin over Will Davison.
Mark Winterbottom was the first of the front runners to pit. No one else followed him in.
By this stage the Red Bull Ampol Racing team declared car 88 would not be returning to the track after its involvement in the lap 4 pile up. Broc Feeney had to watch the rest of the race from the garage.
Todd Hazelwood was another driver who had to watch the rest of the race from garage for the same reason.
James Courtney who was also involved in the lap 4 melee, was getting back in his car to re-join the race. The front of car was all fixed but the back was looking like a scene out of Mad Max.
Due the delays, race control announced a time certain finish of 16:38 + 1 lap and the CPS (compulsory pit stops) requirements would remain unchanged.
On lap 22 Jake Kostecki had to step aside for the race leader Shane Van Gisbergen who had worked up a 4.2 second lead over Will Davison.
On lap 26 Will Davison had to try a new tactic for attack on the leader and came in for his first pit stop to try get advantage that way. Brodie Kostecki also pitted.
On lap 29 Shane Van Gisbergen came in with a 10.520 second lead over 2nd place Cameron Waters.
When Shane Van Gisbergen returned to the track, he was in 6th place with drivers in front yet to pit.
Cameron Waters who was left with the lead pitted on lap 30. This handed over the lead to David Reynolds.
At this stage there were 3 cars yet to take their first pit stops.
In the middle of the race Mark Winterbottom gave Brodie Kostecki a hit coming out of turn 4. He decided to redress to avoid a penalty from race control.
On lap 42 Jake Kostecki was ready to re-join the race after being in the garage for major repair works after a lost argument with a barrier wall.
Chaz Mostert who inherited the lead when David Reynolds pitted, was called in for his first pit stop. Shane Van Gisbergen was now back at the front of the pack.
By lap 57 all the drivers had done their 2nd stops so it was an even playing field to the end. Shane Van Gisbergen had a 4.3 second lead over Chaz Mostert. It was another 2.018 seconds back to Will Davison in 3rd.
By lap 64 Shane Van Gisbergen had increased his lead over Chaz Mostert to 5.7 seconds, while Chaz Mostert increased his lead over Will Davison to 3.5 seconds.
On lap 71 Thomas Randle broke down and parked on the left hand side near pit entry. The safety car was deployed under the yellow flag. The cars had to remain in formation behind the safety car. This meant any leading gaps were lost for the front runners.
On the restart Shane Van Gisbergen just pulled away. He really wanted to recreate his lead over the pack.
With 2 laps to go, Will Brown put Scott Pye in the wall at turn 13. It caused Scott Pye to drop 8 places to 13th and increased his worries of having a time penalty that would be added to his race time. Will Brown also received no advantage from the move. He received a 15 second time penalty to be added at the end.
Shane Van Gisbergen showed what he could do. Within those few remaining laps after the safety car he managed to cross the finish line 2.1 seconds over Chaz Mostert. It was then another 1.3 seconds back to Will Davison followed by David Reynolds.
To top off the race weekend for Shane Van Gisbergen’s 2 out of 2 wins and being announced as champion elect, the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team were declared winners of the Teams Championship for the year. Congratulations. Well done!
Results for Race 32
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing Team
The next event is the final one for the 2022 Supercars season, the Valo Adelaide 500 on the 1st – 4th December 2022.
On the weekend of the 9th – 11th of September 2022 was the ITM Auckland Supersprint at Pukekeohe Park Raceway in New Zealand.
This year marks the 15th and final time that the Repco Supercars championship will visit Pukekohe. The circuit will sadly shut down in early 2023, a year that marks the venue’s 70th anniversary.
This weekend is the 20th time that a round has been held in New Zealand since the first at Pukekohe in 2001. From 2008 to 2012 events were held on a street circuit in Hamilton. They then returned to Pukekohe.
This year marks the eighth time that drivers will compete for the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy since it was first introduced in 2013. Only two drivers have won the trophy more than once. Jamie Whincup in 2015 and 2017 and Shane Van Gisbergen in 2016 and 2019.
Two teams will register milestones in the opening race of the Auckland Supersprint. Brad Jones Racing will make its 700th ATCC / Supercars Championship race start since its debut in the 2000 season at Phillip Island.
The same race will also be Matt Stone Racing’s 150th start since their first entry as a wildcard at Queensland Raceway in 2017.
In the weekend’s pre-race sessions:
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Practice 1
Will Davison was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 27 Cameron Waters started on pole position and alongside him was Will Davison.
At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 41 laps.
Cameron Waters went from 1st to 3rd place heading into the opening corner. Anton de Pasquale went up into 2nd place following Will Davison into turn 1.
Meanwhile the cars further back in the field were 4 wide. In the mayhem there was contact between Tim Slade and James Courtney. Tim Slade was very lucky not to hit the inside fence and recovered reasonably quickly. I was thinking, Wow! What a save. How he got out of that one I have no idea.
James Courtney also suffered from the impact. His car had smoke coming from the right rear. Soon after on that first lap, he ran off the track at the hairpin turn dropping him 5 places down to 15th.
After Race Control reviewed the incident no further action was taken.
The cars further back in the pack were dicing for positions.
Cameron Waters got up the inside of his former teammate Chaz Mostert.
As the field came onto the main straight to commence lap 2 Will Davison only had a 0.716 second lead over his teammate Anton de Pasquale.
Cameron Waters was back up in 3rd place, Andre Heimgartner was in 4th ahead of Chaz Mostert. Scott Pye was in 6th followed by Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney.
Tim Slade hit the pits to have the damage from the earlier impact attended to. As a result, he re-joined the race down in 25th position.
Tim Slade could tell there was still a problem with the car. At turn 4 he left the track after hitting the wall. He kept going but by lap 5 was back in the pits for more repairs.
Will Brown also hit the exit of turn 4 but he somehow got away without putting any damage on his car.
Broc Feeney in 8th position pitted on lap 6 so Shane Van Gisbergen didn’t have to double stack behind him in case the safety car came out.
On lap 7 Brodie Kostecki, Jake Kostecki, Bryce Fullwood and James Courtney pitted so the garage area was busy.
When Jake Kostecki left his garage, travelling to the pit exit his left rear tyre came off! The crew must have forgotten to tighten the wheel nut. He pulled over to the side in order to not block the exit. Somehow the crew were able to refit the tyre on the spot and he rejoined the race. That is not something you see every day!
The incident went into investigation. The team were issued a time penalty for the ‘pit stop infringement’.
On lap 10 Jack le Brocq was in the garage with a power steering issue. He had started this race in 19th position but now dropped all the way down to 23rd.
The leaders were still pressing on out front.
Will Davison had a 1.8 second lead over Anton de Pasquale then it was another 3 ¼ seconds back to Cameron Waters.
Shane Van Gisbergen passed Bryce Fullwood at turn 8. His next target was Chaz Mostert in 4th place.
Bryce Fullwood was slowing because of steering issues and went straight to the pits. The time taken for the repair put him a full lap behind.
Scott Pye also pitted along with Bryce Fullwood.
In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert came in to find clear track. There were still 10 cars yet to pit. Most of them were front runners.
On the next lap Cameron Waters, Andre Heimgartner and James Golding took their pit stops.
With 13 laps to go Lee Holdsworth came in as the last car to pit. After this happened Will Davison assumed the lead of the race once more.
At the back end of the race, Macauley Jones’ car came to a stop. He pulled off the track and the safety car was deployed with 12 laps remaining.
In the closing laps Andre Heimgartner knew he was in for a win, but Will Davison wasn’t going to let him through without a battle.
With 5 laps to go Will Davison started to edge ahead of his contenders. Lap by lap he increased his lead.
It was great driving! By the time Will Davison crossed the line he was 8.6 seconds clear of Andre Heimgartner and Cameron Waters. An incredible finish.
Results for Race 27:
1st Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing.
3rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
In Race 28 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with his teammate Broc Feeney alongside him.
As they took off Shane Van Gisbergen got the jump and led into turn 1. Will Davison tried to go around the outside of him but couldn’t do it.
Anton de Pasquale was turned around by Brodie Kostecki. Anton de Pasquale’s car suffered a lot of damage. After review CAMS Race Control decided not to take any further action on either driver. Pasquale was unable to re-join the race.
On the exit of turn 8 Mark Winterbottom gave Will Brown a nudge into the pit entry wall. Will Browns car was jammed and had extensive damage. The pit wall had been moved by the impact and Brown himself had to exit the car via the passenger’s side. The safety car was brought out and the race was stopped with 39 laps to go. Brown’s car was removed and he was unable to return to this or the next race, the final ever race at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
Mark Winterbottom was later issued a pit lane penalty for his involvement.
The restart re-commenced under safety car for a few laps then got going on lap 6. Shane Van Gisbergen led into turn 1 with Will Davison 0.301 seconds behind. They were followed by Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney.
Cars 5 and 55 of Thomas Randle and James Courtney were soon under investigation for gaining an advantage at the turn 5 chicane. Both got a 5 second time penalty.
Broc Feeney ran wide on the exit of turn 11 and as a result he dropped down 7 spots to 9th position.
Will Davison was putting the pressure on the race leader Shane Van Gisbergen. He made a very bold move and tried to go around the outside of him. It failed and actually cost 2 places allowing Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters to get ahead.
Shane Van Gisbergen had a slender lead over Chaz Mostert of just 0.558 seconds then it was another 1.1 second back to Cameron Waters.
The first car to pit in this race was Broc Feeney in 10th place on lap 10.
Also, on lap 10 Tim Slade got spun around at the hairpin turn 8 by Thomas Randle.
It was not the end of the high speed contact. Later on lap 15, Car 35 driven by Todd Hazelwood got a 5 second penalty for contact with another car.
As the race was approaching the halfway mark front runner Cameron Waters pitted.
On lap 18 Chaz Mostert and Will Davison also pitted.
On the following lap Shane Van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner pitted together.
When they returned to the track after their stops, Chaz Mostert was on the attack putting pressure on Shane Van Gisbergen for the lead.
Shane Van Gisbergen held off Chaz Mostert. Credit to Mostert, he never gave up.
With another race to run that day this race was time certain. The delays caused at the start meant this race was cut short by 5 laps.
Shane Van Gisbergen kept up his defence and crossed the finish line on lap 36, ahead of Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters.
Results for Race 28
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
3rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
In Race 29 Will Davison started on pole position alongside him was Cameron Waters
As they took off Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 followed by Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale.
At turn 1 Todd Hazelwood and James Courtney made contact. Todd Hazelwood’s car was still mobile but badly damaged. James Courtney hit the wall on the exit of turn 1 and his car jammed into the barrier. The driver’s side door was so mangled and distorted he had to get out the passenger’s side. The safety car was deployed and the race went into ‘Yellow’ (i.e. they kept driving the circuit at a slow pace behind the safety car).
Hazelwood went straight to the pits for repairs, but James Courtney’s car had to be physically moved off the track. The damage was so severe he would not return to the race and received an N.C. (not complete).
Later on Brodie Kostecki, Jack Le Brocq and Thomas Randle all received 15 second time penalties for breaching yellow flag procedure.
The restart of the race was on lap 12. Will Davison started pulling away from the pack as soon as the safety car left the track and the race went back to ‘green’.
The first cars choosing to pit in this race were Nick Percat, Jack le Brocq, Bryce Fullwood, Lee Holdsworth and Jack Smith.
The series leader, Shane Van Gisbergen was still back in 8th position. He finally got passed David Reynolds but now had to contend with another seasoned driver, Scott Pye ahead of him.
Scott Pye and Thomas Randle were the next drivers to pit.
Broc Feeney who was in 4th position came in on lap 18.
In the middle of the race Anton de Pasquale and Andre Heimgartner came in. This was the second time at this event their pit stops were in unison. Andre Heimgartner’s stop was 2.8 seconds so once again he beat Anton de Pasquale back to the track.
After Will Davison pitted and re-joined the race he started to slow down. It was revealed that the car was dropped while the rattle gun was still attached to the left rear wheel. He only managed to get around the circuit once before having to come back in for repair. The team were penalised for the unsafe pit release.
While this was happening Cameron Waters had the race lead. Shane Van Gisbergen, Andre Heimgartner and Chaz Mostert were just behind.
From that point on, the closing laps became tensely dramatic.
On lap 30 of 41, Shane Van Gisbergen earned an extra 5 bonus points towards his championship total by doing the fastest lap of the race, 103.028 seconds.
When the last 2 cars of David Reynolds and Macauley Jones pitted, Cameron Waters assumed the lead.
Cameron Waters made an error and locked up at turn 5. This allowed Andre Heimgartner and Shane Van Gisbergen to close the gap.
On lap 31 Shane Van Gisbergen got down the inside of Andre Heimgartner for 2nd position. Only Cameron Waters stood in his way of another race win. Shane Van Gisbergen was only 0.858 seconds behind Cameron Waters.
With 10 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was closing the gap down to leader big time he was coming.
On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen had closed the gap slightly 0.8 of a second to 0.67 seconds. He was right on the tail of Cameron Waters.
Cameron Waters was not going to give up without a challenge. Lap after lap he managed to hold off Gisbergen. Right behind them was Andre Heimgartner in 3rd place ready to pounce at the first mistake.
On lap 34 Cameron Waters made another mistake coming out of the turn 8 hairpin. Somehow he managed to keep Shane Van Gisbergen’s attack at bay.
With 3 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen attack finally paid off. He took the lead off Cameron Waters. Cameron Waters was defiant and fought hard chasing the new leader. Shane Van Gisbergen couldn’t get away from him. The threat was real, and he had to put up all his defences. Andre Heimgartner was also right behind waiting for any opportunity.
Cameron Waters was like glue, but Shane Van Gisbergen managed to stay ahead. In the last lap he made a huge effort to create a bigger gap and reduce the threat.
Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the line 1.116 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters to earn his 18th win for the 2022 season. Andre Heimgartner was a mere 0.5105 seconds behind Waters to earn 3rd place.
Shane Van Gisbergen currently holds a 525 point lead over Cameron Waters and is on target to become the 2022 Supercars champion.
In an interview afterwards, Cameron Waters stated his disappointment but felt it was only fitting that Shane Van Gisbergen, a New Zealander won the last and final race at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
It was a nice farewell to the venue having the 2 kiwis, Gisbergen and Heimgartner on the podium.
Goodbye Pukekohe Park Raceway. Thanks for the memories!
Results for Race 29
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
3rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing.
The next event is the Repco Bathurst 1000 October 6th to the 9th 2022.
The Bathurst 1000 channel starts on Monday the 3rd of October on Fox Sports 503 at 6am.
On the weekend of the 19th to the 21st of August 2022 was the Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint.
This will mark the 52nd event held at Sandown in ATCC – Supercars history. No venue has hosted more rounds than the Melbourne circuit. Its championship race history includes both endurance and sprint events. This weekend’s races will be the 80th, 81st and 82nd championship races to be held at the circuit.
In the opening race Lee Holdsworth will reach a career milestone, his 500th Supercars race start. The defending Bathurst co-champion will be just the 11th driver to achieve the feat, but the first to do so at the same venue as his first career race start. Lee Holdsworth made his Supercars debut at the 2004 Sandown 500. The Friday event will mark the 15th anniversary of the Penrite Racing’s drivers first championship race win at Oran Park in 2007.
Lee Holdsworth has announced his retirement from fulltime Supercars Racing at the end of this season. Congratulations Lee, best of luck for the future.
The weekend kicked off on Friday with the usual practice and qualifying sessions without any surprising results.
Will Davison was fastest Practice 1.
Jamie Whincup was fastest in Practice 2 for co-drivers only.
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 3.
Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying.
In race 24 Will Davison started on pole position with Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.
At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen went straight to the inside covering any challenge from Will Brown right behind him. Anton de Pasquale was also making his challenge against Will Brown, but he too couldn’t make the pass.
The cars further back in the pack were settling into their race pace while the leaders were pulling away.
Will Davison had a margin of 0.985 seconds over the defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen.
Meanwhile, Broc Feeney was battling with Andre Heimgartner for positions 8th and 9th. As they approached turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Andre Heimgartner gave Broc Feeney a bump and turned him around. Broc Feeney went from 8th down to 25th position. He had lost 15 spots. The incident immediately went into investigation. After a short while Andre Heimgartner was issued a 15 second time penalty for the driving infringement.
As they crossed the line to commence lap 2 Will Davison only had a 0.720 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.647 seconds back to Will Brown in 3rd place.
James Courtney had gained one place and was up to 6th position.
Mark Winterbottom tried to get up the inside of James Courtney, but he didn’t let the pass happen.
Will Davison couldn’t increase his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen who was sticking to him like glue.
The front of the field was tightly packed. Through lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen was making it impossible for leader Will Davison to make any headway and kept the gap to about half a second. It was another 0.7 seconds back to Will Brown still in 3rd place with Anton de Pasquale just 0.8 seconds back. Thomas Randle was right behind and putting pressure on Anton de Pasquale.
A little further back in the pack, Brodie Kostecki was close in behind Andre Heimgartner. Cameron Waters had gained 2 places up to 10th and Chaz Mostert had moved up 1 spot into 12th.
Shane Van Gisbergen was still on the tail of leader Will Davison, ensuring the gap didn’t get to more than 1 second.
By lap 5 Brodie Kostecki had gained 6 positions to move into 8th place. His next target was 2015 Supercars Champion Mark Winterbottom.
Nick Percat had gained 5 places to move into 16th position right behind Lee Holdsworth, who had gained 3 places and was in 15th.
There were no changes at the tightly packed front of the field. Will Davison was still in the lead followed by Shane Van Gisbergen, Will Brown, Anton de Pasquale and Thomas Randle. Will Davison never being able to break past the 1 second lead.
On lap 6 Cameron Waters did the fastest lap of the race in 108.659 seconds but was still 6.3 seconds off the lead.
The first car to pit was Scott Pye in car 20 on lap 9. When he re-joined, he came back out in 22nd place.
On lap 10 Andre Heimgartner came into the pits and once done had to serve the 15 second penalty issued earlier. When he re-joined it was in 25th position.
On lap 11 David Reynolds broke the fastest lap time at 108.474 seconds.
It was only on lap 13 that Will Davison managed to break past the 1 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen.
Anton de Pasquale had dropped back from the top 5 to 9th place and came into the pits at the same time as James Courtney.
In the middle of the race more of the front runners, Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown came into for their pit stops. They came back out into 15th and 16th position.
At this point there was 14 cars still yet to pit.
Shortly after, Will Davison and Thomas Randle pitted from 1st and 2nd place.
On lap 19 as Will Davison and Thomas Randle were exiting the pits, Chaz Mostert was entering for his 1 and only compulsory pit stop. Will Davison re-joined as the affective lead of the race followed by Shane Van Gisbergen. and
There were still 11 cars yet to pit.
On lap 20 Thomas Randle got a bad sportsmanship flag for careless driving. A bad sportsmanship flag is only warning to tell the driver that he is running out of lives.
Then on lap 22, Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
On lap 23 Cameron Waters, Broc Feeney and Macauley Jones pitted, leaving Lee Holdsworth as the last car to pit.
Cameron Waters and Macauley Jones re-joined in 8th and 9th position.
With 12 laps to go Will Davison was finally making headway and had increased his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen to 3+ seconds. It was only 0.531 seconds back to Anton de Pasquale.
Lee Holdsworth pitted on lap 24. On the way back out his car stalled which cost a lot of time and he dropped to 24th position.
By lap 25 Will Davison resumed the physical lead of the race and now 3.8 seconds ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen and Anton de Pasquale.
Back in the pack cars in positions 14 to 17 were pretty vigorously battling. I thought Chris Pither was going to make contact with Nick Percat but didn’t. At one stage I thought they were all going to go off the track but somehow, they all stayed on.
On lap 28 Cameron Waters in car 6 also got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Chris Pither was dropping down the order quickly because of a delaminating tyre.
With 10 laps to go Broc Feeney was still fighting and got up the inside of Tim Slade for 16th position.
By lap 29 Will Davison had squeezed almost another second onto his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was now 4.765 seconds.
On lap 30 Will Davison broke past the 5 second mark on his lead.
With a clear track and not having to worry about defending his position he kept increasing his lead. In the end Will Davison absolutely dominated the race crossing the line 8.4 seconds clear of Shane Van Gisbergen, followed by Anton de Pasquale.
This was Will Davison’s 21st career victory in Supercars. Congratulations and happy 21st!
Results for Race 24:
1st Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing.
In race 25 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position and alongside him was Cameron Waters.
Will Davison started 11th on the grid due to an electrical problem during qualifying. There was no fire but a lot of smoke that filled the cabin of the Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang. Will Davison had to pull into the pits and get out of the car. Amazingly they got back out on the track before the end of qualifying and even with this interruption they managed to get a place just outside the top 10.
Chaz Mostert had problems of his own. Engine issues had Walkinshaw Andretti United stumped. Just prior the race they decided to do an engine change! To my amazement they managed this in 8 minutes. Can you imagine dropping your car off at the mechanic and having an engine change in under 10 minutes! I don’t think so.
As they took off from the start line Shane Van Gisbergen got the jump and Chaz Mostert stuck right behind him. Broc Feeney who started in 4th had a good run but was blocked in and had nowhere to go.
As Shane Van Gisbergen led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps, Cameron Waters was 1 back and 1 wide to Chaz Mostert.
Jack le Brocq went off the track between turns 2 and 3. As he was re-joining he made contact with another car. Unfortunately, it was his own teammate, Todd Hazelwood. The impact broke the left side steering arm of car 34 driven by Jack le Brocq. Todd Hazelwood in car 35 also had damage. He dropped back to 25th place and car 34 dropped 10 places to 24th. They bath limped around the track to make it back to the pits so were the first car in.
Within the first half lap Will Davison had gained 3 spots up to 8th place.
On lap 2 the front runners were still tightly packed. Chaz Mostert was only 0.250 seconds behind Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.416 back to Broc Feeney in 3rd place.
At turn 7 James Courtney went straight ahead over the top of the curb leaving the track. He recovered quickly enough to block an effort from Tim Slade trying to get up the inside of him so managed to hold onto his position in 14th.
Chaz Mostert’s attack on Shane Van Gisbergen was blocked and the leader was even able to edge further ahead a little to 0.499 seconds.
Broc Feeney was right behind Chaz Mostert putting in an effort to take his place in 2nd.
On lap 5 Cameron Waters and Will Davison made contact. After starting on the front row in 2nd position Cameron Waters had dropped 5 places from 2nd down to 7th position.
As the pack was approaching the end of the back straight, Andre Heimgartner made contact with Scott Pye. As a result Andre Heimgartner went straight ahead at turn 7 leaving Scott Pye and Cameron Waters in a messy battle still on track.
On lap 6 Lee Holdsworth was back in the pack. He was getting held up so pitted to try and get some clear track. No one else followed him into the pits.
The leaders were still bunched closely and Shane Van Gisbergen managed to only just get ahead of Chaz Mostert by 1.1 seconds. Chaz Mostert was tailed by Broc Feeney by a mere 0.563 seconds.
James Golding was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 7. He dropped all the way down to 21st position on his return to the track.
Thomas Randle also pitted on the same lap.
By lap 8 Shane Van Gisbergen could only manage to extend his lead to 1.7 seconds over Chaz Mostert.
Further back in the pack, Mark Winterbottom was putting pressure on Andre Heimgartner for 9th position.
They both pitted on the next lap and re-joined the race in 17th and 18th position.
At this point there were 16 cars yet to pit.
On lap 10 David Reynolds made contact with Cameron Waters on the exit of turn 1 and again on the exit of turns 2 and 3. Cameron Waters then copped another whack, this time from Brodie Kostecki in car 99.
By lap 11 Shane Van Gisbergen had increase his lead to 2.255 seconds over Chaz Mostert. Chaz Mostert had also finally shaken Broc Feeney off his tail and had a gap of 4.223 seconds.
On lap 13 Will Davison pitted but on leaving the crewman still had the rattle gun on the wheel. It didn’t cause any accident but the team was issued a pit lane infringement.
Getting close to the halfway mark of the race on lap 14, two of the front runners came into pit; Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney. They were fast stops and they came back out in 9th and 10th position.
Jack Smith in car 4 got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding the track limits.
On lap 21 Shane Van Gisbergen pitted with a + 14.8 second lead over Cameron Waters who had assumed 2nd place.
Towards the end of the race there were only 3 cars to pit, Tim Slade, Nick Percat and Bryce Fullwood. Once they pitted Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race once again.
From that point on Shane Van Gisbergen was in control. He had 3.8 second lead over Chaz Mostert and it was another 7.7 seconds back to David Reynolds.
As the race got close to the finish, Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging away. He just could not be caught. It was faultless driving and he crossed the line 7.5 seconds clear of the rest of the field. Chaz Mostert in 2nd place was followed 4+ seconds by Will Brown.
This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 15th win out of 25 races this season. That is 60% of the time he has been on the top step of the podium. That is the stuff legends are made of!
Results for Race 25:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
3rd Will Brown – Boost Mobile Racing.
In Race 26 Will Davison started on pole position with the defending Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.
As they took off at the start Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps.
Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to go around the outside of Will Davison but couldn’t make the ground and had to tuck back in behind.
The gap that the leaders had on the on rest of the field was huge.
At turn 3 four cars made contact and spun around to face the wrong way. The drivers involved were Jake Kostecki, Chris Pither, Macauley Jones and Todd Hazelwood. The drivers all got the cars moving again so there was no need for a lap 1 safety car to be deployed. The incident went into investigation but Motorsport Australia took no further action.
On lap 2 Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge looking for the lead of the race which he got at the second last corner.
Will Davison’s teammate Anton de Pasquale made contact with him and as a result Pasquale’s two front wheels were in the air. He had to come straight into the pits to have the damage on car 11 looked at. While in the pits he had dropped all the way down to 23rd position.
Will Davison also had damage on the front left corner of car 17. The guard was rubbing on the tyre, but he didn’t want to lose 2nd place so didn’t pit. The gap between Shane Van Gisbergen in 1st and Will Davison in 2nd was only 0.141 seconds.
Due to damage caused by the incident on lap 1, Todd Hazelwood had to also pit at the same time as Anton de Pasquale.
During lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen made a mistake coming out of turn 4. Will Davison tried to take advantage and regain the lead but Gisbergen recovered quickly and fended off the attack.
Behind the two leaders, Broc Feeney was putting pressure on Cameron Waters for 4th position. Chaz Mostert was unaffected in 3rd place.
On lap 6 Will Davison was proving a headache to Shane Van Gisbergen and had done the fastest lap of the race so far 109.365.
Chris Pither who was involved in the 4-car accident on lap 1 finally had to pit for rear tyres and bonnet repair on car 22.
Jack le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner also pitted on this lap.
In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen pitted. On the re-join to the race he only dropped to 8th position.
Shane Van Gisbergen had Chaz Mostert right behind him in 9th but in effect they were battling for 1st and 2nd with the 7 cars ahead still yet to pit. Broc Feeney was behind them in 3rd but was 38 seconds further back.
On lap 20 Cameron Waters and Will Brown pitted from 4th and 5th.
Andre Heimgartner left the track at turn 7. He was issued a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
On lap 23 Will Davison who was in the lead had to pit. Now Lee Holdsworth was the only one left to do so. Once that happened Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race.
When Will Davison re-joined the race it wasn’t long before he returned to 2nd place just 2.2 seconds from Shane Van Gisbergen.
Within the last 10 laps Chaz Mostert was under pressure from his ex-teammate Cameron Waters. Right behind them was Broc Feeney trying to look for a gap to make his move.
Mark Winterbottom was further back and he got a bad sportsman flag for exceeding track limits.
Tim Slade had gained 5 spots and was now up to 7th position.
For 2 laps in a row Chaz Mostert was under attack from Cameron Waters trying to earn 3rd place. Chaz Mostert was able to hold him off.
Will Davison was desperate to catch Shane Van Gisbergen and did the fastest lap of the race 108.613 seconds.
Heading down into turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Cameron Waters locked up the front right brakes and went off the track. He came back on in 10th position. It gave Broc Feeney the opportunity he was looking for and he moved up to 4th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.3 second lead over Will Davison. It was another 6.6 seconds back to Chaz Mostert then only another 0.605 seconds back to Broc Feeney.
On lap 33 Broc Feeney finally passed Chaz Mostert for 3rd position.
Shane Van Gisbergen held his lead but only just. He crossed the line a mere 0.4611 seconds ahead of Will Davison.
Broc Feeney crossed the line 11.3437 seconds later in 3rd place.
This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 2nd win for the weekend, earning him a commanding 500 points lead over Cameron Waters in the Driver’s championship for the season. It was also his 70th career win in Supercars. This is the stuff legends are made of. Congratulations Shane!
Results for Race 26
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
The next event is the ITM Auckland Supersprint September 9th to the 11th.
On the weekend of July 30-31, 2022 was the OTR Supersprint.
Ford Mustang drivers have dominated in the recent past at The Bend Motorsport Park. They’ve taken the last seven race wins at the South Australian circuit, as well as the last eight pole positions.
The Bend marks the 100th Supercars Championship round start for Monster Mustang driver Cameron Waters. This weekend is also his 95th round with Tickford Racing. He made his first appearance for the team when it was known as Prodrive Racing Australia at the 2015 Sandown 500.
In the pre-race sessions:
Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Zac Best was fastest in Qualifying for Race 21
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying for Race 22 and 23
In Race 21 Zac Best scored his maiden pole position in the Supercars championship. It must have been exciting for him and his team Tickford Racing, but it must have been a baptism of fire having series leader Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.
At the start of the race Zac Best got the jump and led into turn 1. Cameron Waters got up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen and now had to challenge his teammate Zac Best in car 78 who was in front by a mere 0.213 seconds.
The cars further back in the pack were battling for positions inside the top 10. As the field made the approach down to turn 6 Chaz Mostert was putting the pressure on Shane Van Gisbergen for 3rd place. David Reynolds was putting the pressure on Anton de Pasquale for 6th place. Nick Percat was trying to pass his ex-race car from his days with Brad Jones Racing being driven Andre Heimgartner.
Zac Best was under investigation for jumping the race start. In the end the officials decided not to take any further action so there was no penalty.
Nick Percat passed Andre Heimgartner and now was trying to go around the outside of Broc Feeney. He made an attempt on the approach down to turn 10 but he couldn’t get the job done.
Andre Heimgartner got up the inside of Broc Feeney for 9th position right at the end of lap 1.
On lap 2 David Reynolds ran wide on the exit of turn 5 and made contact with Will Brown at 210kms p/h an hour. Will Brown had the racing line for turn 6 and kept in front. Just behind the pair was Andre Heimgartner. He had gained 5 spots up to 9th position.
Zac Best still had the lead and was 1.4 seconds ahead of his teammate Cameron Waters. Shane Van Gisberen followed just 0.683 seconds behind.
Once again David Reynolds was battling with Will Brown. Again he was trying to go around the outside of him but he was on the wrong side on the approach to turn 17 giving Will Brown the racing line for the final corner. Andre Heimgartner was also in the mix.
Broc Feeney was right behind Andre Heimgartner.
Thomas Randle was trying to get passed Brodie Kostecki for 11th place but he wasn’t able to get the job done.
The first cars to pit on lap 6 were Will Davison, Will Brown, Jake Kostecki and Tim Slade.
Soon after, Will Brown in car 9 was under investigation for an unsafe pit release. He was issued a 15 second penalty.
Car 56 driven by Jake Kostecki had to serve a drive thru penalty for breaching the pit lane speed.
At the start of lap 7 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Cameron Waters for 2nd place with Zak Best still ahead.
By lap 8 Zac Best was still the race leader but was under serious pressure from Shane Van Gisbergen.
On lap 9 Zac Best made a mistake by locking a brake and ran wide. Shane Van Gisbergen tried to take the opportunity but couldn’t make the pass.
On lap 10 Shane Van Gisbergen makes another attempt to pass but again wasn’t able to.
His third attempt was on lap 11 and he finally got the job done.
I was amazed that Zac Best lead the opening stages because he is a rookie and had not turned a lap of the Taliem Bend circuit. I thought it was very impressive.
Cameron Waters was the first of the front runners to pit and it put Chaz Mostert up to 3rd position.
As Cameron Waters re-joined the race Will Davison passed him going into turn 1. Anton de Pasquale wanted to follow but couldn’t make it and gave Cameron Waters a nudge from behind.
As the race reached the halfway mark (lap 12) Thomas Randle, Nick Percat and Mark Winterbottom took their pitstops. There were still 11 cars to pit. Shane Van Gisbergen also didn’t pit. He decided to stay out and make the most of the track position and the 1.9 second lead that he had.
Zac Best pitted on lap 13 while Shane Van Gisbergen kept going. I was thinking, will he ever pit?
The cars that hadn’t done so earlier started to peel off into the pits for their 1 and only mandatory stop.
As Cameron Waters was approaching turn 1 he locked up the left front. Shortly after he lost his 6th position to ex Tickford teammate, Chaz Mostert.
Shane Van Gisbergen now had a 16.5 second lead over Lee Holdsworth.
Lee Holdsworth and Macauley Jones pitted leaving Shane Van Gisbergen the last car that had not stopped.
Shane Van Gisbergen had an incredible 37.987 second lead over Will Davison. It was then another 45.192 seconds back to Chaz Mostert in 3rd.
Finally, Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 20 for 2 rear tyres. When he re-joined the race he assumed the lead with only 4 laps to go.
For the last 2 laps Chaz Mostert was the fastest car. He closed the massive gap to Will Davison down to only 2.8 seconds. Will Davison was only 1.9 seconds behind the race leader Shane Van Gisbergen.
In a last-minute effort David Reynolds got up the inside of Anton de Pasquale.
With 1 lap to go Shane Van Gisbergen was still holding a 1.4 second lead over Will Davison and was cruising to the finish line.
In the end he crossed the line 2.2 seconds clear of Will Davison and Chaz Mostert.
It was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 12th win for 2022.
Results for Race 21
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
In Race 22 Cameron Waters started on pole position and alongside him was Thomas Randle.
Thomas Randle stalled on the take-off from the grid. Apparently, a clutch failure. Andre Heimgartner was right behind him and had nowhere to move. He crashed full force into the back of Thomas Randle, the impact estimated at 8 Gs. Both cars were a mess. In the mayhem Nick Percat also ended up in the pit lane wall. The race was red flagged on the grid with all 24 laps to go.
The three cars had to be moved off the track to the pits for repairs, but none were able to return for the restart. The damage to the first 2 cars was so severe that after looking at them it appeared they would never race again. Heimgartner and Randle were both taken to the hospital as precaution. Both were complaining of chest pain and Randle of heel pain.
On the restart James Courtney and Chaz Mostert both got fantastic starts. After a brief challenge by James Courtney Chaz Mostert led into turns 1 and 2. He had gained 5 places to take that lead before the first turn. Chaz Mostert had a ¾ second lead over James Courtney.
James Courtney had gained 2 places to be in 2nd followed by Anton de Pasquale.
Shane Van Gisbergen was 1 back and 1 wide in 4th position.
Cameron Waters who was on pole for the restart had dropped to 5th.
Will Davison got spun around and ended up at the back of the pack.
Macauley Jones made contact with Scott Pye on the exit of the 2nd last corner causing Scott Pye to run wide.
Shane Van Gisbergen was complaining over the comms radio that his tyres’ pressures were very low.
The first car to pit in this race was James Golding in car 31 on lap 5. Will Brown, James Courtney, Anton de Pasquale, Bryce Fullwood, Scott Pye, Chris Pither and Lee Holdsworth also came in. So that’s eight cars in total in the pits area.
When Lee Holdsworth was exiting his pit bay, he made contact with Scott Pye’s left hand side door. Scott Pye said to his team, “what the hell were they thinking releasing him like that!”, they hit quite hard. Lee Holdsworth got a 15 second penalty for the unsafe pit release.
Later on in interview, David Cauchi said it was caused by a communication problem between the car controller and himself.
At this point in the race Chaz Mostert was still the leader by 1.1 seconds over the defending Supercars champion Shane Van Gisbergen. It was another 1.3 seconds back to Cameron Waters in 3rd place.
On lap 7 four more cars came into pit; Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney, Mark Winterbottom and Macauley Jones.
When Chaz Mostert came into pit it left Shane Van Gisbergen in the lead, 1.4 seconds over Cameron Waters. It was another 4.6 seconds between 2nd and 3rd place. It was an indicator that the leaders were making a big break away from the rest of the pack.
With the lead and clean air Shane Van Gisbergen did the fastest first 2 sectors of the circuit. The gap from Shane Van Gisbergen back to Chaz Mostert was now 38.6 seconds. It takes about 38 seconds to get off the racetrack and come into the pits for 2 tyres and re – join the track. That means Gisbergen who hadn’t pitted yet was not really that far ahead.
Broc Feeney in 15th position was being challenged by Will Brown.
At this point in the race there were 9 cars yet to pit.
In the middle of the race Cameron Waters came in along with Jordan Boys.
When Brodie Kostecki was leaving the pit bay after coming in on lap 14, the pit gantry looked like it was going to topple over due to the hydraulic rattle gun still being attached to the rear wheel. The team was issued a penalty for the pit stop infringement.
Shane Van Gisbergen was still in the lead and now had a 8.1 second lead over David Reynolds.
Shortly after David Reynolds and Will Davison pitted.
On lap 16 only 2 laps after his pit stop, Brodie Kostecki went off the track onto the grass. When he drove back onto the track he was moving slowly and it could be seen his left front tyre had been shredded. He had to return to the pits. It was poor timing because up until then he had been one of the front runners.
Shane Van Gisbergen had a 41+ second lead over Chaz Mostert before he came in to pit on lap 16. This big lead allowed him to re–join the race in position 1 with a 1.498 second lead.
Due to the delays at the start of the race and being ‘time certain’ the total laps were reduced from 24 to 18.
It was now truly a race to the finish. Shane Van Gisbergen with cold rear tyres had to hold off Chaz Mostert’s Commodore.
Once again, the series leader and defending champion drove like a demon.
It was the last lap and Shane Van Gisbergen managed to not only increase his lead over Chaz Mostert to 2.5736 seconds but he clocked the fasted lap time of the race.
Not that he needed it but the drive who does the fastest lap is awarded 5 bonus points. This year Gisbergen has earned 105 bonus points for the fastest lap. Incredible!
Chaz Mostert was followed across the line by James Courtney, Cameron Waters, Anton de Pasquale and Broc Feeney.
Results for Race 22
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
3rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing.
In Race 23 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Anton de Pasquale alongside him.
Before the race started the rain that threatened through the weekend finally came and it came in buckets. The teams had to change to ‘wet’ tyres .
The field did 2 laps under safety car and the race started on lap 3.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turn 1 while cars behind were virtually hidden by the tyre spray mist coming off the cars up front. Drivers in the pack were struggling to see where they were going.
With the poor visibility I thought that cars would have gone off the track at turn 1 but somehow, they didn’t.
The tightly packed leaders were Cameron Waters, Anton de Pasquale, Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney. Each car was nose to tail.
James Courtney was keeping up with the leaders and back in the pack Brodie Kostecki gained 1 spot up to 12th passing Lee Holdsworth.
Cameron Waters made a mistake due to the wet track and lost the race lead to Anton de Pasquale. Shane Van Gisbergen went on the attack trying to get passed Cameron Waters and close down the gap to the new race leader Anton de Pasquale.
While Anton de Pasquale was under attack from both Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney, Cameron Waters re-gained the race lead.
As the pack came down to the final corner there was yet again a change in the lead and the 2 times Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen was up front. It was only moments before Cameron Waters took the race lead back. Shane Van Gisbergen dropped 5 spots from 2nd to 8th but soon enough was back up to 2nd with 0.343 second gap to leader Cameron Waters.
Over the radio comms Shane Van Gisbergen said to his engineer Andrew Edwards he couldn’t see anything in the rear view mirror and didn’t know where Broc Feeney was but would let him go if need be.
As the leaders were pulling away from the pack, James Courtney and Chaz Mostert were battling for 6th and 7th.
Bryce Fullwood had a lot of damage on the left side of car 14 which wouldn’t have been helping the Aerodynamics on the Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore.
On lap 6 Broc Feeney went off the track at turn 6. Chaz Mostert gave Will Davison a tap causing him to spin around into the dirt.
Both the Matt Stone Racing cars of Jack le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood made contact with each other at turn 6 and both had a lot of damage. Todd Hazelwood apologised over the radio for taking out his own teammate.
The first car to pit was rookie Zac Best on lap 7. When he came in he was down in 25th position.
The wet weather was causing mayhem. Jordan Boys went off the track between turns 14 and 15 and Jack le Brocq went off the track again.
Chaz Mostert in car 25 got a 15 second penalty for a driving infringement that had to be served after his pit stop.
On lap 8 Chaz Mostert was the first car from the leading group to take his pit stop.
Finally Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off the pole sitter Cameron Waters and then didn’t look back.
In the middle of the race Jake Kostecki was in the garage because of a problem with his car.
Nick Percat went off the track and David Reynolds had lots of damage as a result of contact with James Golding.
Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging away in the lead. In the last few laps he actually passed Todd Hazelwood at the back of the pack.
Although it seems late in the race, Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 23 of the 24 laps.
On return to the track he was still in the lead and keeping ahead between 6 and 9+ seconds.
The front of the field was spread out giving the drivers plenty of space to move on the track but Shane Van Gisbergen was uncatchable.
Without fault he crossed the finish line 8.7109 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters. Brodie Kostecki in third place was a further 8.5198 seconds behind.
It was a wet but spectacular finish for the champion Shane Van Gisbergen taking 3 wins of 3 races at this event.
This brings the total Drivers Championship points to 2196 for Shane Van Gisbergen. That is 393 points clear of Cameron Waters.
Results for Race 23
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Boost Mobile Racing.
The next event is the Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint August 19th to the 21st 2022.
On the weekend of the 8th to the 10th July 2022 was the NTI Townsville 500.
This track, the Reed Park Street Circuit first opened on the 10th of July 2009. It is 2.8kms with 13 turns.
This year’s event is the halfway mark of the season and will consist of 2 races, 88 laps each.
Triple Eight Race Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing and Tickford Racing have proven to be the dominate teams in Townsville. Between them they have won the last 22 races dating back to the 2014 event.
Seven-time Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup’s record of 12 Townsville wins has a new challenger in Shane Van Gisbergen. The Kiwi has won 8 races in Townsville. Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert is still chasing his first win in Townsville. So, there was an incentive for some great driving.
In the pre-race sessions:
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 1
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout
In Race 19 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position and alongside him was Will Davison.
At the start of the race Will Davison delivered a spectacular take-off and led into turns 1 and 2 while the cars behind were 3 wide.
Before the rest of the pack reached turn 1, James Courtney made contact with James Golding putting him into the wall. The officials reviewed the incident and later issued James Courtney a 15 second penalty.
Broc Feeney hit the wall in between turns 1 and 2 after contact with Jack Le Brocq.
Tim Slade started on the Super Soft tyres and was putting them to use straight away. He made 3 spots by the time they got to turn 3 and was in 6th position. He placed himself on the inside with Andre Heimgartner right in front of him.
Shane Van Gisbergen was lucky to stay in front of Cameron Waters who was aggressively attempting to move up places.
While there was battling for positions 2, 3, 4 and 5 Will Davison had a 1.2 second lead. Straight away he could take the pressure off himself and had plenty of flexibility for strategy but he still had Shane Van Gisbergen on his tail.
James Courtney and James Golding were 21st and 25th after they had made contact at the start of the race.
Tim Slade found another gap and got up the inside of Andre Heimgartner for 4th position. His next target was Cameron Waters in 3rd place just 0.514 seconds ahead.
The cars further back in the pack were bumping and duelling through those first laps.
Soon Tim Slade had got passed Cameron Waters for 3rd position and had his sights firmly set on defending Supercars champion, Shane Van Gisbergen in 2nd place. Shane Van Gisbergen was 1.5 seconds adrift of the leader Will Davison.
At turn 10 on lap 2 Tim Slade managed the pass and was now in 2nd position.
I was amazed at how fast Tim Slade was moving up the order from his starting spot of 9th. Wow! I was thinking if he keeps going the way he is, he will get the lead of the race.
At the end of lap 2 James Golding was in the garage due to the contact with James Courtney at the start.
On lap 8 David Reynolds got up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen taking 3rd position and dropping the series leader into 4th.
Tim Slade who was driving faultlessly and made his move successfully from 2nd to 1st. The race had a new leader.
On lap 9 David Reynolds clocked the fastest lap of the race, 1min 14.310s. It must have had something to do with having Shane Van Gisbergen right on his tail. The gaps at the front of the field were getting tighter.
Tim Slade’s great driving form continued and as the laps went by and he increased the lead to 5.6 seconds. David Reynolds had taken 2nd place from Will Davison and then Shane Van Gisbergen took 3rd place from him.
When David Reynolds pitted on lap 28, Tim Slade had a 13.541 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen.
On lap 29 Cameron Waters and Bryce Fullwood came into the pits.
At lap 31 Shane Van Gisbergen finally had to pit. The Red Bull Ampol Racing Team filled his car with 101 litres of fuel as a strategy to shorten his 2nd pit stop.
In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner was battling with Shane Van Gisbergen for 5th and 6th position. By the final turn on lap 44 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Andre Heimgartner taking 5th place.
There was stiff competition from drivers to get into the top ten. Thomas Randle moved up to 11th pushing Bryce Fullwood back to 12th. Tony Woodward, Andre Heimgartner’s race engineer said to him over the comms, “We are pulling in Chaz Mostert half a second a lap. Keep it up.”
Chaz Mostert was first to take the 2nd mandatory stop on lap 53.
By lap 55 Will Davison was back up the front and putting pressure on Tim Slade for the lead. Will Davison chose to not fight for the lead and pitted on lap 56.
Tim Slade pitted a couple of laps later on lap 59. Once he pitted Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the race lead. Tim Slade had led the race for 30 laps. Quite incredible considering he started in 9th place.
Townsville was typically warm and by this time of the day it was incredibly hot inside the cars. When Brodie Kostecki came in the team pulled out the driver’s side window to help cool the driver down who claimed his feet were burning up.
With 26 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had a +26.369 second lead over Bryce Fullwood. On the next lap the leader pitted.
On lap 69 Mark Winterbottom was in the garage with the bonnet up and mechanics looking for the cause of his issue, a power steering failure.
At this stage the 3 leading drivers were Will Davison, Chaz Mostert 5.1 seconds behind, then a further 9.4 seconds to Shane Van Gisbergen.
From about lap 72 Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge. He needed to find 4 seconds to get to the back of Chaz Mostert in car 25.
With 15 laps to go he closed the gap by approximately 3 seconds. Within a further 3 laps Shane Van Gisbergen was only 1.3 seconds behind and closing.
On Lap 76 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Chaz Mostert for 2nd place. Now he had to smash the 7.7 seconds gap between himself and Will Davison.
Shane Van Gisbergen was hard at it and on the next lap knocked a further 1 second off the gap. He was flying towards the lead of the race. With 11 laps to go the gap was 6.7 seconds and the defending series champion was getting closer and closer to the back of car 17 of Will Davison.
On Lap 78 (10 laps to go) Shane Van Gisbergen had worked the gap down to + 5.9 seconds.
Will Davison momentarily lost concentration and nearly hit the wall. He came within an inch of having damage.
With 9 laps to go Will Davison was coming up to the lapped David Reynolds. Reynolds stepped aside to let Will Davison press on.
With 8 laps remaining the gap was down to 3.7 seconds between Will Davison and Shane Van Gisbergen. Just behind the two leaders Andre Heimgartner was battling with Chaz Mostert for 3rd place.
With 7 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was closing fast and was only 2.2 seconds behind. By the next lap the gap was 1.9 seconds, then it was 1.7 seconds.
With 4 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen finally got passed Will Davison and took the race lead.
With 3 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had position 1 locked away but the battle for 3rd and 4th were far from over. With 2 laps left Andre Heimgartner was in 3rd until Cameron Waters passed him at the final turn.
Shane Van Gisbergen used the remaining laps to secure his win. He kept inching away from Will Davison.
Shane Van Gisbergen held his good form and crossed the finish line 4.9 seconds clear of Will Davison.
Cameron Waters also held his position and came in 3rd.
This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 9th win for the season. It also put him 1 win closer to Jamie Whincup’s record of 12 wins at Townsville.
It was a spectacular finish for him.
Results for Race 19:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V Power-Racing Team.
3rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
In Race 20 Cameron Waters started on pole position. Will Davison had qualified 2nd but was issued a 1 grid spot penalty for impeding James Courtney during the qualifying session. So, it was Anton de Pasquale alongside pole and Will Davison starting 3rd on the grid.
At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2.
On the exit of turn 3 Will Davison made contact with Scott Pye. Although Will Davison went off the track, he was able to continue but had lost 21 spots all the way down to 24th position. Scott Pye was left stranded in the middle of the track. The rest of the cars following behind somehow all missed him. The safety car was deployed to remove Scott Pye’s car and he wasn’t able to return to the race. He was the only NC (Not Complete) for the race. I feel sorry for Team 18, Scott Pye and owner, Charlie Schwerkolt. Pye has had so much bad luck this season.
The restart was on lap 4 and Cameron Waters tried to get up the inside of Anton de Pasquale but he wasn’t able to get the job done. Anton de Pasquale held onto the race lead even though it was only by 0.439 seconds.
Shane Van Gisbergen was under pressure from James Courtney in 3rd and 4th place.
Thomas Randle got up the inside of Chaz Mostert moving the rookie into 5th place, up 5 from his grid starting position.
Thomas Randle was now putting pressure on his teammate, James Courtney for 4th position. Soon enough he got down the inside of him at turn 2.
Now Randle faced the seemingly impossible task of challenging the series leader Shane Van Gisbergen for 3rd. The rookie was on fire and a few laps later at turn 11 got up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen. That’s pretty incredible!
Thomas Randle was now only 1.6 seconds behind his teammate Cameron Waters in 2nd, with Anton de Pasquale still in the lead by 0.8 seconds.
The rookie continued to impress all viewers. A few laps later he got passed his teammate Cameron Waters for 2nd place. Everybody seemed to be asking, “Was he going to pull off the impossible and take the race lead from Anton de Pasquale?”.
On lap 8 Thomas Randle did do the impossible and took the lead. It must have been an incredible moment for the rookie and his team.
Further back in the pack Mark Winterbottom was assisted off the track onto the grass by Jake Kostecki. Mark Winterbottom didn’t suffer any damage and was able to continue minus a few places.
Shane Van Gisbergen got passed Cameron Waters for 3rd place putting him 2.2 seconds behind Anton de Pasquale.
All of this had happened before they reached lap 12.
Tim Slade was the first driver to pit on lap 22. The first of the front runners to pit was Cameron Waters on lap 26. Then Will Davison following him lap 28.
On lap 29 Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney also came into the pits.
By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had the lead and a 3.3 second gap over Anton de Pasquale. They were followed by Cameron Waters and then Chaz Mostert.
After pitting Thomas Randle was under pressure from his teammate James Courtney for positions 5. Tim Slade was battling with Andre Heimgartner right behind them for 7th and 8th.
At lap 47 Shane Van Gisbergen was showing what I think were signs of fatigue, changing gear with his right hand and using his left foot on the throttle to give his right foot a break.
Will Davison was mid field in 15th position looking for a way to get back into the top 10.
Jake Kostecki was the first car to take his 2nd pit stop on lap 52.
Towards the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still in the lead and looking like making it 2 from 2 for the weekend.
In the last few laps Anton de Pasquale was right on his tail. He has been one of the fastest drivers this year and was proving to be a real threat to Shane Van Gisbergen’s lead. Any mistake would be taken advantage of by Anton de Pasquale. Shane Van Gisbergen could not shake him.
They also had to navigate around some lapped cars which wouldn’t make things easier.
In the last lap Anton de Pasquale was like Shane Van Gisbergen’s shadow. There were literally only centimetres between the two cars. Shane Van Gisbergen went out wide on approach to the last turn before the final straight to the checkered flag. As he swept through the turn Anton de Pasquale tried to make a pass on the inside but timed it all wrong, colliding with with the back of the leader’s car and spinning him to face the oncoming traffic.
After letting 2 lapped cars pass, Shane Van Gisbergen took off like a shot from a complete standstill. Anton de Pasquale who was up ahead had slowed down to ‘redress’ (that is to give back to position after an unfair pass). Shane Van Gisbergen was almost up to full speed. With less than 100m to the finish line he suddenly slowed down to pull in behind Anton de Pasquale as they crossed the finish line.
By not accepting the offer of ‘redress’ it forced a penalty onto Anton de Pasquale. He was issued a 5 second penalty after the finish line but it wasn’t enough to take him off the podium. The next closest car was Cameron Waters 13+ seconds later.
It was an unusual finish but gave Shane Van Gisbergen a second win for the weekend.
Results for Race 20
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
The next event is the OTR Supersprint on the 30th and 31st of July 2022.
