Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of July 7 – 9, 2023 was the NTI Townsville 500.
The track is a 2.8km street circuit with 13 turns.
This year’s event is round 6 of 12 in the 2023 Supercars season and will consist of 2 races of 88 laps each.
The Townsville street circuit was first opened in 2009 and was the first time Supercars held an event there. Lee Holdsworth and Garth Tander shared the first two pole positions back on that weekend in 2009. Jamie Whincup and James Courtney shared race 11 and 12 wins in the season.
Jamie Whincup has the all-time winning record in Townsville with 12 race wins.
This year marked a special milestone for Shane Van Gisbergen. Race 17 was his 500th race start in Supercars. Congratulations SVG!
The results for the pre-race sessions that started the weekend were as follows:
- Will Brown was fastest in Practice 1
- Jack le Brocq was fastest in Practice 2
- Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
- Will Brown was fastest in the top 10 shootout
In Race 16 Will Brown started on pole position with David Reynolds alongside him.
Will Brown got the jump off the start line into turns 1 and 2 for the first of the 88 laps.
On approach to turn 2 Shane Van Gisbergen attempted a bold move for the lead from his start on the grid second row. It was tight and there was chaos between the top 4 cars. The move failed and Cameron Waters who started 3rd on the grid popped out of turn 2 in the lead.
Shane was in 2nd place but at turn 4 his 20 year old teammate, Broc Feeney managed to get around the outside.
At turn 8 Shane Van Gisbergen and Jack le Brocq made contact. It cost them both dearly and Shane Van Gisbergen dropped back to 14th place.
Cameron Waters still had the lead, followed by Broc Feeney and then Chaz Mostert who had gained 6 spots to move into 3rd place.
Shane Van Gisbergen took his bad luck on the chin and immediately got to work. Within a couple of laps he passed James Courtney, then Jack Le Brocq, Will Davison and Bryce Fulwood. He was in 14th but now in 8th place.
Mark Winterbottom and Nick Percat made contact spinning them both around and dropping them down to 24th and 25th place.
It was later on lap 11 that the officials issued Mark Winterbottom a 15 second time penalty for his fault in making contact with Nick Percat.
The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 20 from 14th place.
On lap 21 David Reynolds moved into 4th place after squeezing up the inside of Chaz Mostert.
Instead of trying to go on the attack Chaz Mostert chose to take his pit stop. When he came back out on track he was in 23rd place.
Meanwhile Cameron Waters was controlling proceedings at the front of the pack with a 12 second lead over Will Brown in 2nd place.
Will Brown chased him down and on lap 23 amazingly closed the gap and then took the lead off Cameron Waters. Broc Feeney was 3.7 seconds behind in 3rd place.
Broc Feeney was the first of the Red Bull cars to pit to avoid double stacking with Shane Van Gisbergen. He returned to the track in 15th.
Brodie Kostecki ran into problems and couldn’t use second gear, so for the rest of the race was using third gear.
The two leaders Will Brown and Cameron Waters pitted on the same lap. This left Shane Van Gisbergen in control of the race. Cameron Waters came back out with fresh tyres in front of James Courtney in 12th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.7 seconds lead over David Reynolds. He kept the lead until he pitted on lap 35. When he came back out he was in 11th place. The number 1 spot was now in Chaz Mostert’s hands.
Behind Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds got up the inside of Broc Feeney for 3rd place.
In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert had worked up a 14.4 second lead over Will Brown but had to make his second pit stop lap 42. It was Will Brown’s turn to control the race.
Anton de Pasquale stopped on the pit entry due to an electrical problem. The motor just turned itself off. He made it to the garage but couldn’t rejoin the race. He had to sit the remainder of the race and received a DNF.
On lap 69 Todd Hazelwood’s car pulled up on the side of the track after the left rear had sparks coming out. The safety car was deployed to remove the car.
The restart was on lap 73 and Will Brown was leading over Broc Feeney, Cameron Waters and Andre Heimgartner.
As the end of the race drew closer Chaz Mostert had worked his way from 11th and took 4th place from Andre Heimgartner.
Meanwhile Broc Feeney was only 1.9 seconds off the lead. He tried his best to catch Will Brown but he was just too fast.
Although Will Brown was in the lead he was not driving defensively. Instead, he went on the attack edging ahead to cross the finish line 3.3 seconds over Broc Feeney. It was another 5.4 seconds back to Chaz Mostert in 3rd and another 11.631 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen in 4th place.
Results for Race 16
1st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
In Race 17 Cameron Waters started on pole position, alongside him was Jack le Brocq.
Shane Van Gisbergen started 25th on grid due to getting held up in Qualifying. He didn’t get to the start line in time to perform his final qualifying lap so was sent to the back of the pack.
As they took off Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Jack le Brocq.
Further back in the field there was a lot of movement. James Courtney had gained 5 places on the opening lap moving into 12th.
Shane Van Gisbergen spun around after making contact with Declan Fraser. Already in last place Shane Van Gisbergen was now a further 6.5 seconds behind. The officials reviewed the incident and deemed it ‘an incident that required no further action’ so no penalty was issued.
After the second lap Chaz Mostert had steering issues probably as a result of hitting the wall in the Top 10 Shootout. He headed to the garage and soon found out the damage was worse than first thought. With only 2 minutes and 40 seconds of recorded track time, he wasn’t able to rejoin the race and received a Not Complete (NC).
The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 15. He returned to the track in 24th place.
Broc Feeney took his stop on lap 19 to return to the track in 23rd place.
Tim Slade was in the garage for an extended period with a steering rack and cooler failure. He returned to the race but had an impossible task to make up the lost laps.
James Courtney pitted on lap 22 along with race leader Cameron Waters.
On lap 36 the safety car was deployed. Cameron Hill’s car appeared to be falling apart at the seams. He left a huge sheet of metal from the car’s undercarriage behind on the track. A very odd sight.
At the same time Todd Hazelwood was having problems of his own. Sparks were flying from the car’s left rear. After pulling in for repairs it turns out he was the second driver unable to return to the track and receive an NC for the race.
The restart was on lap 39 with Will Brown as the race leader followed by Bryce Fullwood and Will Davison.
Soon after Will Brown took his pit stop. Anton de Pasquale who had not pitted yet was now up front and had a 2.9 second lead over Bryce Fullwood.
Shane Van Gisbergen made a pass on Jack le Brocq look easy and moved into 5th place. He had started 25th on the grid and was now in the top 5 runners. SVG is a legend!
Anton de Pasquale demonstrated why he has a reputation for speed. He kept edging ahead and by the time he pitted the lead was so great he returned to the track and was still in first place.
Anton de Pasquale kept his commanding lead and crossed the line 5.0692 seconds ahead of this year’s favourite, Brodie Kostecki. Andre Heimgartner in 3rd place crossed the line 6.4322 seconds later.
It was another race with front runners fairly spread out. It was spectacular performance to watch.
Results for Race 17
1st Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing Team
2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
Will Brown still leads the championship but only by 7 points over Brodie Kostecki. Broc Feeney is 26 points behind in 3rd place.
The next event is the Beaurepairs Sydney Supernight on 28 – 30 of July 2023.
Hope you will all join me then.