Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
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.