On the weekend of August 16 – 18 2024 was the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint, round 8 of the 2024 Supercars Championship. it was held.
Symmons Plains International Raceway in Launceston Tasmania was first opened in March 1960. After the closure of the Longford Road Circuit, it quickly established its own reputation as Tasmania’s home of touring car championship motor racing.
The Symmons Plains International Raceway is 2.4kms with 7 turns. This track has been dominated by Triple Eight Race Engineering in recent years. Triple Eight has won at least one race in every Tasmanian round since its first success in the Apple Isle in 2007 with 27 wins out of 40 starts. The only exception being 2013 when Brad Jones Racing took both races.
Mark Winterbottom reached a milestone in this year’s event. In the second race, he started his 600th ATCC race. Winterbottom’s career spans all the way back to the 2005 Darwin Triple Crown. Congratulations!
As the weekend kicked off the results in the pre-race sessions were as follows:
David Reynolds was fastest in Practice 1
Ritchie Stanaway was fastest Practice 2
Cameron Hill was fastest in Practice 3
Broc Feeney was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 17 Broc Feeney started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.
At the start of the race Broc Feeney got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 55 laps.
At turn 6 Matt Payne got turned around by Will Davison which put both drivers at the back of the pack in 23rd and 24th place.
This year’s championship leader Will Brown started 16th on the grid. He moved up 1 place to 15th.
As they completed the opening laps, last year’s season champion, Brodie Kostecki dropped down 1 spot to 4th when Nick Percat took over 3rd place.
Pretty soon Brodie Kostecki lost another spot to Chaz Mostert.
On lap 8 Broc Feeney still had the lead. Cameron Waters was .6 seconds behind in 2nd place. Nick Percat was 1.6 seconds further back in 3rd.
Will Brown was eager to make up for his bad grid positioning (of 16) and now in 12th place. He seemed keen to get up the front where the action was.
The first car to pit in this race was Ryan Wood on lap 20. He came back out in 22nd position.
Cameron Waters in 2nd place was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 27. Broc Feeney stayed out to make the most of his race lead.
Feeney was now followed by Nick Percat in 2nd and Chaz Mostert in 3rd.
Percat and Mostert then chose to pit on the same lap. The returned to the race in 10th and 12th respectively with Cameron Waters between them in 11th place.
Broc Feeney was ordered to pit next time around.
There were 9 cars yet to stop before the pole sitter Broc Feeney would assume the lead. However, Nick Percat’s pit stop time was so quick he came back out in front of Broc Feeney.
Chaz Mostert returned from his pit stop in 3rd place and on lap 34 did the fastest lap time of the race, 51.732 seconds.
Towards the end of the race Chaz Mostert had to regain 3rd place from Cameron Waters.
Chaz knew he was in contention for a podium finish but still put the pressure on to try get second place or a win. That is the mindset of a champion.
It wasn’t until the final few laps that Mostert took an opportunity to pass Broc Feeney. Chaz Mostert was now in 2nd place and chasing Nick Percat for the number 1 spot.
Mostert ran out of time and in the end Nick Percat crossed the finish line 0.614 seconds ahead of him. Broc Feeney followed in at 3rd 1.783 seconds later.
It really was an exciting and tense finish.
Results for Race 17:
1st Nick Percat – Matt Stone Racing 2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United 3rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
In Race 18 Thomas Randle started on pole position. On the front row alongside him was Cameron Waters.
Thomas Randle got the jump off the start line and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 55 laps. He was followed by Cameron Waters, Will Brown and David Reynolds in 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. At turn 4 Thomas Randle ran wide and Cameron Waters took the lead of the race.
Cameron Hill was in the front pack but at turn 6 also ran wide and went off the track.
Last year’s season champ Brodie Kostecki had started 8th on the grid. He moved up through the front runners but when he got to David Reynolds in 4th place he struggled to take over.
On lap 8 Kostecki made another attempt but failed and tapped Reynolds car who then spun off the track. It was a dangerous spot to be stranded and the safety car went out.
The majority of the field took advantage of the “yellow flag” to take their mandatory pit stops.
Brodie Kostecki was not out of trouble yet. When Mark Winterbottom was coming in for his stop, Brodie collided with him damaging his own car. For a moment it looked as if he was going to be out of the race. They did manage to make repairs and he resumed a few laps later.
The race officials investigated the incident and once the race resumed issued Brodie Kostecki a drive thru penalty.
The restart was on lap 12. Cameron Waters was still in control followed by Will Brown and Thomas Randle. Broc Feeney moved up to 6th and Chaz Mostert to 7th place.
When Brodie Kostecki executed his drive through penalty he exceeded the pit lane speed (40kmph) and was given another pit lane penalty. He then received a 3rd drive through penalty for another pit lane infringement. It just wasn’t his day.
On lap 20 Aaron Love and Jaxon Evans made contact with each other. Aaron Love was able to continue but Jaxon Evans was stranded and another safety car was deployed.
The restart was on lap 25. On the next lap Matt Payne received a drive thru penalty for disobeying the red light on the pit lane exit.
Through the middle stages of the race the top 10 positions stayed much the same. Cameron Waters was out front followed by Will Brown and Thomas Randle.
Finally, around lap 37 Broc Feeney created some action. He took over Jack le Brocq to take 5th place. Soon after he passed Bryce Fullwood for 4th place.
With 10 laps to go Thomas Randle ran high and wide allowing Broc Feeney to go up to 3rd place. He was now right behind his teammate Will Brown and probably making Brown and Cameron Waters concerned about keeping him at bay.
With 8 laps left Cameron Waters had a healthy lead of 3.096 seconds over Will Brown. Broc Feeney was close behind Brown and putting in a challenge for second place.
Thomas Randle gave Broc Feeney a bump at the hairpin turn 4. Both cars spun but stayed on the track. By the time they got their cars facing the right direction and got up to speed, they down the order outside the top 10. Thomas Randle was issued a 15 second time penalty for his actions whish pushed him further back.
Cameron Waters kept edging away from the pack. With clear track there was nothing that could stop him.
By the time he got to the finish line Cameron Waters had 6.3 seconds over Will Brown. Bryce Fullwood followed in 3rd place 1.4 seconds later.
The Randle / Feeney incident was an unexpected turn of events in the last laps. It made for some tense moments at the finish. Unfortunately for them, Feeney came in 15th and Randle 18th. It’s a shame that Randle who was leading earlier on, was on his way to his first professional win ended up so far back. For Feeney who looked like he would have at least a podium finish didn’t earn enough points to stay in 2nd place on the season championship ladder.
On the weekend of the 5th – 7th July 2024 was round 6 of the 2024 Supercars championship, the NTI Townsville 500.
The event was held in Townsville, North Queensland.
Supercars have been racing in Townsville for 16, years since the street circuit was first opened in 2009. The circuit is 2.8km long with 13 turns.
In that very first event of 2009, Lee Holdsworth and Garth Tander shared the pole positions and Jamie Whincup and Jamess Courtney shared the race wins.
Townsville displayed its typical weather pattern on the Saturday of this year’s event, bloody hot with an afternoon storm but on the Sunday it managed to stay dry.
In the pre-race sessions
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 1
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 2
Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout
In Race 13 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Chaz Mostert alongside him.
Cameron Waters got the jump off the start line and led into turn 1 for the first of 88 laps, a total of 250kms.
Thomas Randle got up the inside of Will Davison at turn 3 for 3rd place but back in the pack there was chaos. As the rest of the cars got to turn 3 Nick Percat, Brodie Kostecki and Anton de Pasquale made contact heavily. As they bounced around the track there was a big risk of other cars hitting them from behind. As Jaxon Evans came through, he joined the chaos and was also turned around. Will Brown who started 13th on the grid was in the danger zone of being caught up but somehow, he managed to stay out of trouble.
The first 3 cars in the incident, Percat, Kostecki and Pasquale had to all head into the pits due to damage. Race officials investigated the incident but found no-one to at fault, so no penalties were issued.
By lap 2 the positions had changed significantly. James Courtney had gained 6 places moving up to 11th. Will Brown gained 1 place up to 12th and David Reynolds was up 8 spots in 13th place.
The leading 5 cars were reasonably close to each other. Chaz Mostert was right behind his former teammate Cameron Waters by only 0.682 seconds.
The first car to pit by choice was Aaron Love on lap 19. He came back on the circuit in 21st place.
A few laps later Chaz Mostert was the first of the leaders to pit. There were 9 cars still yet to take their stops. Once they did, they would be out of the way and Chaz Mostert would be able to resume his face-to-face battle for the lead with Cameron Waters.
When Cameron Waters pitted on lap 28 he had a 7.7 second lead over Will Davison in 2nd place.
By the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was given the space by Cameron Waters to pass and now had the number 1 spot with 1.8 seconds lead.
Chaz Mostert kept the lead and with 15 laps to go was followed by Thomas Randle and then Cameron Waters.
Further back in the pack Will Brown had gained an amazing 7 spots into 6th place and now behind Jack Le Brocq in 5th.
With 11 laps remaining the rain started to bucket down and drivers were struggling to keep the cars on the track. As suddenly as it had started, the rain passed. Although the track was still wet, I am sure the drivers were thankful.
Cameron Waters wasted no time. Soon enough he passed his teammate Thomas Randle to be in 2nd place.
Thomas Randle lost his momentum and dropped back a few places. Will Brown made contact with him on the approach to turn 3 but somehow both cars stayed away from the wall.
Cameron Waters was now challenging Chaz Mostert. Waters wouldn’t let up. Chaz Mostert must have felt he wasn’t able to defend the number 1 spot without high risk. Instead of possibly endangering his car and losing a podium finish he seemed to let Cameron Waters pass easily.
Cameron Waters edged ahead in the last laps and finally crossed the line with a 1.8 second lead over Chaz Mostert. Then there was another 4.6 seconds back to Will Brown who managed to move up into 3rd place for the finish. It was a spectacular result.
Results for Race 13
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing 2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United 3rd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing
On the Sunday of the 3 day event Jack le Brocq started on pole position for Race 14. Alongside him was Cameron Waters.
As they took off Cameron Waters once again led into turn 1 for the first of 88 laps.
The polesitter, Jack le Brocq did not get an ideal start and dropped back to 4th.
Thomas Randle was now in 2nd place and James Courtney was in 3rd.
This year’s championship leader Will Brown missed the Top 10 Shootouts in both races of the event. He qualified 17th on the grid. To add to his woes, David Reynolds hit him from behind in lap 1 sending him into the concrete barrier wall and seriously damaged his car. Will Brown now had to head straight to the pits and returned to the race in 24th, last place. It scrapped all his hopes of protecting his championship lead.
Will Brown’s teammate Broc Feeney (who happens to be 2nd on the championship ladder) was having problems of his own. On this first lap he had dropped from 6th place on the grid back to 13th.
Chaz Mostert who had started 8th on the grid managed to get by Matt Payne for 6th place. He wasted no time and went on the charge. Soon he was in 4th place just behind the leaders. By the end of the 1st lap he was in 3rd.
Within the next few laps Chaz Mostert passed Thomas Randle for second place.
The first car to pit aside from Will Brown at the race start, was Matt Payne on lap 20. He was in 3rd place but unable to challenge the 2 cars ahead. The team strategised to come in now and be better able to make ground with fresh tyres.
By the middle of the race Jack le Brocq who had a terrible start from his pole position was now out the front and leading. Cameron Waters and Chaz Mostert were right behind him.
Matt Payne’s pitting strategy paid off. In the second half of the race he managed to squeeze passed and take the lead. With 7 laps to go he had a 9.2 second lead over Cameron Waters in 2nd place with Chaz Mostert not far behind.
Waters and Mostert chased Matt Payne for all their experience was worth. The cars began to spread out. However, Matt Payne was just too fast and crossed the finish line 6.057 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters.
Mostert had slipped a little but came in 3rd place 7.6 seconds later.
It was an unexpected finish especially after this year’s dominance of Will Brown and Broc Feeney up until now.
Results for Race 14
1st Matt Payne – Grove Racing 2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing 3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
Regardless of a bad weekend for the Red Bull Ampol Racing team, Will Brown still leads the championship but only by 78 points over Broc Feeney.
The next event is the Panasonic Sydney Supernight July 19 – 21.
I hope you will join me. Until then keep those engines revving!
On the weekend of the 23 – 26 November 2023 was the Valo Adelaide 500.
The Adelaide street circuit was first opened in 1985 and hosted the F1 Australian Grand Prix until 1995. The street circuit came back into use in 1999 when Supercars moved their events from the Mallala Motorsport Park.
Jason Bright took the very first pole position at this venue. Craig Lowndes started the leg 1 from 3rd on the grid and won the opening race. The next day he was sent to the back of the field and still came through to win leg 2. It was the stuff that legends are made of.
This year’s Adelaide 500 was the 12th and final round of the 2023 Supercars Championship.
As one of the longer events on the calendar made up of 2 races of 250km each, it was always going to be a tough event. To add to the tension it was also the decider for the Driver’s Championship.
The defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen was trailing Brodie Kostecki in the number 1 spot by 131 points. A win in both races would total 300 points so the championship was still up for grabs. Shane Van Gisbergen is heading to the U.S. at the end of the season to try his hand at NASCAR so it could very well also be his final farewell to Supercars.
The points gap from 3rd place onwards was too great to contend for 1st or 2nd place. However, the points were close enough between 3rd, 4th and 5th for there to be a change on the final scoreboard for Will Brown, Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert.
The Final Event and the Final Decider! A setting for nail biting stuff!
The event started on Thursday with a wet Practice 1.
The pre-race sessions results are as follows:
Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 1
Thomas Randle was Fastest in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
Brodie Kostecki was also fastest in the top 10 Shootout.
For Race 27 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position which was his 9th pole for the year. David Reynolds was alongside him on the front row of the starting grid.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for first of 78 laps.
As the pack rounded turn 4 Will Brown tried passing Anton de Pasquale. Shane Van Gisbergen also tried following Will Brown to jump up in position. However, Anton de Pasquale made contact with Will Brown and then from behind Shane Van Gisbergen made contact with Will Brown. Brown’s car came to stop almost immediately. Shane Van Gisbergen was able to get back to the pits but it was soon evident that he wouldn’t be returning to the track. Not only was it all over for this race but also his ability to contend for the championship title. Such bad luck.
The safety car was deployed. It was only the opening lap and things were very messed up for Will Brown and Shane Van Gisbergen.
Later, after reviewing the incident the officials took no further action and no penalty was issued to any of the three cars involved.
Matt Payne and Cameron Hill were in the pits because of damage they received after the start.
The restart was on lap 6 and Brodie Kostecki was still in control of the race, followed by David Reynolds and Thomas Randle in 3rd place.
Broc Feeney passed James Courtney for 8th place.
On lap 15 David Reynolds took the lead off Brodie Kostecki with some incredible manoeuvring through turns 8 and 9.
The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 16.
Broc Feeney was next to pit on lap 19. When he re-joined the race he was in 20th place with clear track ahead.
Up front it started getting busy. Thomas Randle moved up to 2nd place dropping Brodie Kostecki back to 3rd place.
Cameron Waters in 4th place was 3 + seconds behind. The front of the pack were beginning to spread out.
Soon after, Thomas Randle pitted from second place handing over the spot to Cameron Waters.
Thomas Randle came out of the pits and was like a rocket. Within a few laps he managed to move up through the pack and regain 2nd place.
Cameron Waters wasn’t happy to give back the second spot to Thomas Randle and found the opportunity to pass him. Once again, the order of the top 3 cars changed.
In the middle of the race Cameron Waters was still holding second place right on the rear bumper of David Reynolds in the lead. He found his opportunity and with precision driving made the pass to get the number one spot.
Further back in the pack, Todd Hazelwood received a 5 second time penalty for contact with another car.
David Reynolds never gave up the fight to regain 1st place. With 17 laps to go he did the fastest lap of the race, 119.957 seconds. Unfortunately, it didn’t give him what he wanted. He was also under pressure from Thomas Randle in 3rd place. The front 3 cars were once again tight and left no room for error.
Cameron Waters stayed strong and held the lead using his experience to fend off the two drivers right on his tail.
Soon Cameron Water and David Reynolds edged away from Thomas Randle still holding 3rd place.
They were both on fire screaming ahead of the pack.
They crossed the finish line 0.67 seconds apart and way ahead of the others. Thomas Randle came in 14.353 seconds later to earn 3rd place. It was an incredible finish for an intense race.
Results for Race 27
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
2nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.
3rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing & Tradie Racing.
In Race 28 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position for the 10th time this season. This is an incredible feat and he was given the Armor All Pole Award for year along with $10,000. Next to him on the front row of the grid was Matt Payne.
As they took off Matt Payne got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 78 laps. As much as Brodie Kostecki tried he was not able to pass Matt Payne.
Further back Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to pass Anton de Pasquale but also wasn’t able to execute a pass. It wasn’t until a few laps later that he got into his stride.
On lap 2 Broc Feeney was able to get up the inside of Cameron Waters for 4th place.
David Reynolds made his move on lap 3 to pass Todd Hazelwood for 9th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen was now moving through the pack and had now passed Anton de Pasquale, Will Davison and Will Brown for 11th place.
On lap 6 Nick Percat made contact with Jack le Brocq who went off the track and into the tyre-wall at the final turn. Surprisingly, he managed to get himself out and the safety car did not have to be deployed.
After investigation the incident the officials took no further action against either driver.
By lap 10 Matt Payne had a 1.2 second lead over Brodie Kostecki.
Broc Feeney was putting pressure on Chaz Mostert for 3rd place. He managed to get by at turn 6.
Shane Van Gisbergen showed how eager he was to make up for the NC (Not Complete) he received in the first race at this event. He did the fastest lap of the race, 120.735 seconds.
On lap 11 Chaz Mostert was desperately trying to get 3rd place back from Broc Feeney. In his attempt Chaz Mostert made contact with him and did manage to pass. It was a messy attack and Chaz Mostert was later issued a 5 second time penalty.
Shane Van Gisbergen was the first of the Red Bull cars to take a pit-stop.
In the pit area Macauley Jones was spun around by Tim Slade who was coming out of his garage.
In the middle of the race Matt Payne was still in control with a 4.8 second lead over Broc Feeney flowed by David Reynolds in 3rd.
As the race continued Matt Payne kept edging ahead. Towards the end of the race, he had a 7.5 second lead over Broc Feeney and was on target to claim his maiden win with Penrite Racing.
Noone seemed able to make ground on the rookie Matt Payne. In fact he managed to edge further ahead of the competitors.
He crossed the line with a 8.548 second lead over Broc Feeney. David Reynolds come in 3rd a few seconds later.
It was a spectacular and solid win for Matt Payne. Congratulations!
Results for Race 28:
1st Matt Payne – Grove Racing.
2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.
A massive congratulations to Erebus Motorsport and Brodie Kostecki. Well done!
This was the final race for the 2023 season. The next event will be the Bathurst Superfest on the 16th to the 25th of February 2024.
It’s with a sense of sadness that we say farewell to Shane Van Gisbergen. Well done on everything you have achieved in Supercars and best of luck for your new adventures in Nascar. Go get em!
On the weekend of 27 – 29 October 2023 was the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
It was round 11 of the 12 rounds in the 2023 Supercars Championship.
The Gold Coast race at Surfers Paradise is a street circuit which was first opened in 1991. The challenging 4.47 km circuit alongside a strip of beaches has several fast sections and four chicanes.
From 1991 to 2008 the Gold Coast Indy 300 was an annual open-wheel motor race event. In the early days Supercars were there as a support category but from 2002 through to present it has been a round of the Supercars Championship. This year was the 21st event at the venue that has held 44 V8 Supercars races to date.
As expected, it was perfect Queensland weather excepting a small shower on the first practice day. In the pre-race sessions:
Scott Pye was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Top 10 Shootout
In Race 25 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Matt Payne alongside him.
As they took off Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 85 laps that makes up the 250km race. Matt Payne was right on his tail.
After starting 3rd on the grid Shane Van Gisbergen dropped to 5th before the first turn.
As Thomas Randle got to the first turn he took a shortcut across the chicanes. The officials spotted it but took no further action.
As Tim Slade got to the first turn another car made contact and spun him around. The safety car was deployed to slow drivers while he extracted himself from the dangerous position at the turn.
Brodie Kostecki was on the charge. He started 10th on the grid because his shootout lap was disallowed for going out of bounds. Now he had jumped to 7th place.
Within a few laps Chaz Mostert passed Thomas Randle to get up to 3rd place and was only 0.672 seconds behind Matt Payne.
The first car to pit was Broc Feeney on lap 9, along with Anton de Pasquale. They returned to clear track in 24th and 25th place.
Thomas Randle got by Chaz Mostert for 3rd spot.
It then seemed like the drivers were struggling with the high speed track. First Matt Payne received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Soon after both Chaz Mostert and Will Brown received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits.
Then it was Todd Hazelwood’s turn to receive a bad sportsmanship flag for the same reason.
Shane Van Gisbergen overtook Chaz Mostert for 4th position and was only 2.3 seconds behind Thomas Randle in 3rd place and only 4 seconds off the race lead.
Jack le Brocq alerted the team he was leaking fuel and went into the garage.
Brodie Kostecki was now in 5th place right behind Shane Van Gisbergen in their personal title battle for this year’s championship.
Cameron Waters pitted early and came back out in 8th place. When the top 7 cars took their pit stops he would resume the lead.
On lap 28 Shane Van Gisbergen took the number 1 spot off Matt Payne.
A few laps later Shane Van Gisbergen pitted and Brodie Kostecki followed him in. They came back out in 5th and 7th place.
In the middle of the race Broc Feeney was the first of the Red Bull cars to take his final pitstop. Meanwhile his teammate, Shane Van Gisbergen did the fastest lap of the race and was 6.1 seconds away from the lead.
Further ahead, David Reynolds was battling with Thomas Randle for 2nd and 3rd place.
Towards the end of the race with only 11 laps to go Cameron Waters was 1.4 seconds ahead of David Reynolds. It was another 2 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen in 3rd place.
Chaz Mostert once again exceeded track limits. This time he received a 5 second time penalty.
With 10 laps to go Cameron Waters still had the lead over David Reynolds but Shane Van Gisbergen had closed the gap to only 0.315 seconds.
Soon Shane Van Gisbergen took over David Reynolds. The gap to Cameron Waters in 1st was just 0.362 seconds.
With only a few laps remaining Shane Van Gisbergen was desperately looking for an opportunity to overtake for the lead and win. However, Cameron Waters is a seasoned driver. He kept his cool and defended the number 1 spot. Shane Van Gisbergen kept on his tail to the end of the race.
As they crossed the finish line there was only 0.194 seconds between them. It was a spectacular tight finish.
Results for Race 25:
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing
In Race 26 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position for the 8th time this year. Alongside him was David Reynolds.
As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 85 laps.
At turn 4 Tim Slade, James Courtney, Jack Smith and Macfauley Jones made contact and cars were spinning out of control in every direction. The cars back in the pack had to drive over the top of the first chicanes to avoid adding to the pileup. All four cars had come to a stop in this dangerous part of the track. The first safety car was deployed while the stranded cars were rescued.
The track was cleared by lap 8. However, it is the lead driver who gets to make the call for when the race goes back to green. Brodie Kostecki was waiting for the right moment to give the green light signal but the other drivers became impatient and started racing too soon. Confusion followed but the race still continued. It took a while for the officials to review, and it was only later that the offending drivers were penalised.
The first two cars to pit were Jack le Brocq and Will Davison on lap 9.
David Reynolds was challenging Brodie Kostecki for the lead and putting him under pressure. He was right on his tail and constantly on the attack.
Further back Shane Van Gisbergen got by Anton de Pasquale for 9th place. His next target was Cameron Waters in 8th place.
Brodie Kostecki held the lead until he pitted on lap 28. This relinquished the number 1 spot to David Reynolds. When Brodie Kostecki returned to the race he was in 12th place.
As the other drivers began to take their pit stops Brodie Kostecki moved up and eventually had the lead again.
Once again David Reynolds was right on his tail.
Towards the end of the race David Reynolds finally took advantage of a weak spot in the leader, Brodie Kostecki’s defence and passed him. I believe Brodie Kostecki didn’t aggressively defend the move at the risk of being knocked out of the race. All he had to do was get a podium finish ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen to protect his position in the season championship.
Cameron Waters was in 3rd place but was a few seconds behind and didn’t pose an immediate challenge to Brodie Kostecki.
With 7 laps to go James Golding had a massive shunt from behind and spun around landing in the tyre barrier. He almost collected Scott Pye in the process. They did make contact but luckily it seemed pretty light.
Shortly after Scott Pye’s car readings showed a big problem. He had to pull over immediately and the safety car was once again deployed.
When the race went back to green there was only 5 laps remaining. David Reynolds still had the lead over Brodie Kostecki, followed by Cameron Waters.
Brodie Kostecki was always close behind and a constant threat. At times there was less than 0.3 of a second between them. David Reynolds is a tough and seasoned driver. He never showed signs of cracking and at no time gave any opportunities away to his challengers.
In the end David Reynolds crossed the line 0.189 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki.
It was Reynold’s first race win since 2018 in what was probably the most exciting race of the year.
Congratulations to David Reynolds and his team, Grove Racing.
Results for Race 26:
1st David Reynolds – Grove Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
With 1 event made up of 2 races remaining, Brodie Kostecki leads over Shane Van Gisbergen by 131 points. Will Brown is 3rd and trails by 495 points, Broc Feeney is 504 points behind and Chaz Mostert is 640 points.
The grand finale event for the year will be the Valo Adelaide 500, 23 – 26 November 2023.
On the weekend of the 19 – 20 of August 2023 was the OTR Supersprint at The Bend.
The Tailem Bend racetrack was first opened in 2017 and is the youngest circuit in Australia. The Bend Motorsports Park is also known by its sponsorship name Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.
The Bend first hosted a V8-Supercars championship round in 2018 and has staged Supercars racing ever since. This includes two rounds during the Covid affected 2020 season.
This year’s round 8, the OTR Supersprint at “The Bend” was a significant round in the history books of the Australian Touring Car Championship – Supercars Championship. It was the 600th round of the championship since starting 63 years ago in 1960.
In the pre-race sessions for this years’ event:
Thomas Randle was fastest in Practice 1
Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 20 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position and alongside him was Thomas Randle.
At the start of the race Thomas Randle got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of the quick 20 laps.
As the rest of the pack came through turn 1 Jack Le Brocq made contact with Will Brown and chaos broke loose. Will Brown was spun around and tightly packed cars behind were going in all directions to avoid colliding with him. Some we simply unlucky, Jack Smith and Cameron Hill ploughed straight into him. Somehow Mark Winterbottom who was directly behind them missed the carnage.
The safety car was immediately despatched to clean up the mess. The three cars of Will Brown, Jack Smith and Cameron Hill were removed from the track unable to return and received a Not Complete (NC).
The officials had a look at the incident and decided to take no further action so no one was penalised.
The restart was on lap 5 and it was the cars outside of the top 10 that were dicing for position.
The first cars to pit were Broc Feeney, James Courtney, Bryce Fullwood and Jack le Brocq on lap 6.
The leaders stayed out to maintain their track position while the going was good.
Brodie Kostecki passed Chaz Mostert for 2nd place. He was now only 0.588 seconds off the race lead, Thomas Randle.
In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner pitted from 10th place. No one else followed him into the pits.
Brodie Kostecki soon found the opportunity and passed Thomas Randle for the lead. Thomas Randle and Chaz Moster knew it was a losing battle to try and chase the championship leader and all three pitted on lap 12. Macauley Jones also came in. There were now only 6 drivers yet to pit.
With 9 laps remaining the challenge was now on. Once the 6 cars ahead pitted Brodie Kostecki assumed the lead of the race with Thomas Randle and Chaz Mostert right behind him.
With 8 laps to go Cameron Waters, Shane Van Gisbergen and Nick Percat all pitted, only leaving 3 cars to pit.
The top three drivers kept their positions until the final laps when Chaz Mostert was able to pass Thomas Randle for 2nd place.
Even though the front runners were reasonably close together, on the last lap no one could catch Brodie Kostecki.
He crossed the line 1.71 seconds ahead of Chaz Mostert. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Cameron Waters.
Results for Race 20
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing
In Race 21 Thomas Randle started on pole position for the first time since starting his full time Supercars career in 2022.
Brodie Kostecki started next to pole and led off the start line into turn 1 for the first of 20 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen who started 4th on the grid immediately moved up to 3rd place.
Meanwhile the cars further back in the pack were battling for places outside the top 10.
Inside the top 10 Will Davison, Cameron Waters and Jack le Brocq all got spun around at turn 6 which put them back in the running order. They dropped down to 22nd, 24th and 25th place.
Race control investigated the incident and not long after issued Jack le Brocq with a drive thru penalty for the driving infringement that was the cause.
The first car to pit in this race was Mark Winterbottom on lap 3. He started 24th on the grid and was probably just wanted to get out of the traffic.
Brodie Kostecki did the fastest lap of the race 152.106 seconds on lap 5.
Chaz Mostert was behind Thomas Randle and 2.8 seconds off the lead.
Nick Percat, Bryce Fullwood and Macauley Jones all pitted on the same lap.
In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still in 4th place but running was 36 seconds off Brodie Kostecki’s lead.
While still commanding the number 1 spot, Brodie Kostecki was the first of the front runners to pit with 8 cars still yet to take their stops. 6 of these were the top 6 cars so when they did pit it would allow Brodie Kostecki to resume his lead.
Towards the end of the race no one else was able to chase down the leaders.
Brodie Kostecki was still in 1st place followed by Thomas Randle, Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds and Shane Van Gisbergen.
The series leader Brodie Kostecki seemed untouchable. He crossed the line 1.0866 seconds clear of Thomas Randle. Chaz Mostert was 1.06342 seconds further back in 3rd place.
For Brodie Kostecki it was his 2nd win for the weekend. Also Thomas Randle had his second podium finish. A great result for both of them.
Results for Race 21
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing
3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
In Race 22 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.
As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1. Nick Percat made a blinder of a start and was in 2nd place by turn 1.
After passing Nick Percat, Cameron Waters got up inside of Thomas Randle at turn 6 and managed to make the move stick.
Cameron Waters was now in second place hunting down the race leader Brodie Kostecki who only had a 0.574 second lead.
The cars behind were battling for pit priority.
Just behind those front runners Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to get up the inside of Will Davison but couldn’t make the move stick.
That was when Will Davison did the fastest lap of the race, 152.502 seconds.
Within a few laps Brodie Kostecki had a 1.3 second lead over Cameron Waters. I was amazed at the pace that he had.
The first car to pit was Bryce Fullwood on lap 5. He came in way too quick and hit the dirt by the pit lane entry. He recovered quite easily but after review by race control it was deemed a driving infringement and he was issued a 15 second time penalty.
It wasn’t long before the drivers back in the pack also pitted to get out of the traffic.
Todd Hazelwood got up the inside of David Reynolds between turns 2 and 3.
On lap 9 Nick Percat was the first of the front runners to take his mandatory pit stop.
Thomas Randle also pitted from 5th place. When he come back out he was in 12th.
There were 11 cars still yet to pit.
On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen took his pit stop. On departure the right rear wheel gun was still in place. A very dangerous mistake to make and as a result of this 888 were docked 30 teams championship points post-race.
There were only 2 cars remaining to pit, Brodie Kostecki and Mark Winterbottom.
Chaz Mostert hit the unlucky lap number 13 making contact with another driver and received a bad sportsmanship flag.
The front runners kept their position but Brodie Kostecki had to defend the number 1 spot from Cameron Waters constant threat. The others were a little further back so it was really between those 2 drivers.
On the last lap Broc Feeney who had managed to stay in the top 10 was helped off the track by David Reynolds. It was so unfortunate for the young driver as he dropped down to 24th place.
Brodie Kostecki managed to hold off Cameron Waters all the way to the checkered flag. He crossed the line with only a 0.946 second margin. It was another 6+ seconds before Thomas Randle crossed the line in 3rd place.
Brodie Kostecki must have felt it was a magic weekend getting 3 of 3 wins. Thomas Randle was another driver that must have been pretty happy earning a 3rd, 2nd and then another 3rd place.
Results for Race 22
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing
3rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing
Brodie Kostecki still leads the drivers championship by 137 over Shane Van Gisbergen in 2nd place Broc Feeney is still in 3rd place he is only 228 points off the lead of the championship.
Will Brown is in 4th 258 points behind the series leader Brodie Kostecki.
Chaz Mostert is 5th 313 points off the series lead.
The next event is the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on the 15 – 17 of September 2023.
There are 4 events remaining 1200 points still up for grabs.
Sandown and Bathurst are 300 points each for the winners.
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 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.
On the weekend of the 17th to 19th of June 2022 was the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.
This year’s event at Darwin will be the 26th time that the Supercars championship has held a round at the Hidden Valley Raceway. A total of 67 races have been held since the event debuted on the calendar in 1998.
The event is made up of 3 races, 38 laps each. Thus the name, ‘Triple Crown’.
New Zealanders have dominated the winners list in the recent history of Hidden Valley, winning 12 of the past 16 races. Current Supercars Championship leader Shane Van Gisbergen has won 3 races in that time, while Scott McLaughlin has won 8 races and his teammate Fabian Coulthard won 1.
Shell V-Power Racing Team driver Will Davison started his 500th race on Saturday at Darwin. He has become just the 10th active driver to achieve this feat. What a milestone! Congratulations!
Shane Van Gisbergen just returned from France after his debut performance in the Le Mans 24 Hours aboard a Ferrari. So, while everyone else had a 3 week break before this event, he was working extra hard and getting jetlagged.
In the pre-race sessions
Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Will Davison was fastest Armour All Qualifying.
In Race 16 Will Davison started on pole position for the 24th time in his Supercars career. Alongside him was his teammate, Anton de Pasquale.
At the start of the race the 2 Shell V-Power Racing drivers got off the line quite evenly.
Andre Heimgartner gave Will Davison a bump going down the main straight, but nothing came of it. Then at turn 1, Anton de Pasquale went around the outside of Will Davison to take the lead.
Further back in the pack Macauley Jones went off the track at turn 1 onto the grass.
At turn 5 the two leaders, Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale made contact but Anton de Pasquale kept the lead.
Will Brown made contact with Chris Pither. Will Brown kept driving but he knew there was something wrong with the car.
Jack Smith went off the track on the way out of turn 6.
Jake Kostecki ran wide on the exit of the last turn. David Reynolds got spun around by Bryce Fullwood at the same corner a lap later. David Reynolds car was damaged and it was revealed later had a broken left rear toe link.
On lap 3 Cameron Waters ran wide on the exit of turn 5 but sustained no damage and was still in the race.
Will Brown was losing pace and was the first to come into the pits on lap 4. The incident with Chris Pither in lap1 had earned his car a broken the left front steering arm.
Chris Pither’s cool suit had failed early in the race and the Darwin heat which turned his a cool suit into a hot suit! He kept going and waited for a strategic time to pit and worry about cool suit then.
Jack Smith was the next to pit on lap 6.
No one else followed Broc Feeney into the pits on lap 8. When he re-joined, he had no cars in front or behind him. It was perfect timing.
The cars further back in the pack also began thinking about pitting to get clear track.
The race leaders were still Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison. Will Davison was under pressure from the cars behind which were; Andre Heimgartner, Shane Van Gisbergen, Chaz Mostert, Mark Winterbottom, Bryce Fullwood, Jake Kostecki, Scott Pye and Cameron Waters.
On lap 10 Chaz Mostert was closing in on Andre Heimgartner for 4th position.
Lap 11 revealed the position changes further back in the pack. Chris Pither had dropped 4 spots from his starting position and was now 15th. Lee Holdsworth had moved from a start in 26th and was now 17th.
James Courtney had gained 7 spots and was in 12th. Brodie Kostecki was up 2 spots, Jack Le Brocq gained 4, Nick Percat was in 14th, he had gained 7 places.
Tim Slade tried to go around the outside of Garry Jacobson and did it.
Bryce Fulwood pitted on lap 16 but then had to serve a 15 second penalty for turning David Reynolds around in the early stages of this race.
In the middle of the race, lap 19 of38 there were 13 cars out of 27 yet to pit. It was an unusual situation. Most would normally pit by now.
Will Davison peeled off to the pits on lap 20, followed by the other leader Anton de Pasquale on lap 21. Shane Van Gisbergen stayed out until lap 23. He had 18.601 second lead over Tim Slade.
Shane Van Gisbergen re- joined the race in 10th place.
On lap 24 the leaders were Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth and Thomas Randle who were the last three yet to pit. They were shadowed by Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison in 4th and 5th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen made a charge on lap 25, first taking Scott Pye and then Broc Feeney on the same lap. He was now in 6th place.
Tim Slade and Lee Holdsworth pitted on lap 25 leaving Thomas Randle in the lead but still yet to pit. He finally came in on lap 26 put the effective leaders back at the front; Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison were followed by Chaz Mostert, Andre Heimgartner and Shane Van Gisbergen in 5th.
The track was well spread but time was running out.
Shane Van Gisbergen wanted to shake things up. On lap 29 he passed Andre Heimgartner to take 4th place. He also did the fastest lap of the race, timed at 1m 07.223s and earning 5 bonus points for the championship ladder.
He was still not satisfied and wanted a place on the podium. He was now chasing down one of the fastest drivers on the track, Chaz Mostert. Between laps 29 and 32 he reduced the gap from 3.227seconds to under 1 second.
On lap 33 Shane Van Gisbergen made his move takes 3rd place from Chaz Mostert.
Anton de Pasquale still held the lead of 1.5+ seconds over Will Davison and does not make a single mistake.
Shane Van Gisbergen was not just happy making it to the podium and now wants 2nd place from Will Davison. He relentlessly chases him and between laps 33 and 36 manages to squeeze the gap down from 1.5 to .2 seconds.
Shane Van Gisbergen was right on his tail but loses rear grip. The gap increased .5 seconds. It was a lost opportunity and there were only 2 laps remaining.
Will Davison was too worried about Shane Van Gisbergen on his tail to make any ground on Anton de Pasquale in the lead.
Anton de Pasquale crossed the line for his first win of 2022. Will Davison was next followed by Shane Van Gisbergen right on his bumper. There was a reasonable gap to Chaz Mostert and Andre Heimgartner in 4th and 5th.
Results for race 16
1st Anton de Pasquale – Shell V Power Racing Team.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V Power Racing Team.
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.
In Race 17 Cameron Waters started on pole position and alongside him was David Reynolds.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters was neck and neck with David Reynolds up to turn 1 where he got the lead. Somehow Will Davison squeezed through at the turn to take 2nd place from David Reynolds. Shane Van Gisbergen was right behind the 3 leading drivers.
As the pack came through turn 6 Thomas Randle and Scott Pye spun uncontrollably off the track. There were about 4 or 5 cars involved and it seemed like mayhem. James Courtney’s smashed up car was stranded and unable to move from the middle of the road. The safety car was deployed but pretty quickly the officials red flagged the race so the track could be cleared.
James Courtney’s car was such a mess that it was obvious he would not be coming back out to finish the race. It was even doubtful that he would compete in the next race the same afternoon.
When the race restarted at the end of lap 4, Shane Van Gisbergen immediately went on the attack but failed to get 3rd place from David Reynolds.
The cars soon settled into race pace but the leaders were pulling away from the rest of the pack.
On lap 7 Will Brown drove the fastest lap of the race whilst in 20th position.
Thomas Randle who was involved in the lap 1 melee of spinning cars came into pit with related damage. He wouldn’t be coming back out on the track for the rest of the race.
Brodie Kostecki was the next to pit on lap 8. Soon others began to pit as well.
After pitting, Broc Feeney rejoined the race and crossed right in front of Brodie Kostecki coming down the straight. It must of shocked Broc Feeney quite a bit because at the coming turn he left the track onto the grass. It could have been a loss of grip from fresh cold tyres but I think it was a crack in focus.
Shane Van Gisbergen had maintained 4th position all this time but couldn’t manage to get closer to the top 3 drivers. On lap 18 he changed strategy and came into the pits.
The 3 leaders soon followed suit and came in as well.
Chaz Mostert in 5th place came in on lap 21.
Now every car had taken the mandatory pit stop (excepting the 2 cars of Pye and Courtney who were out of the race). The leaders were now David Reynolds, Anton de Pasquale and Bryce Fullwood.
The Darwin temperature had risen and cars were taking a second pit stop.
On lap 23 David Reynolds and Anton de Pasquale left the lead and took their second stops.
By lap 25 things had evened out and the leaders had resumed their places; Cameron Waters, Will Davison, Shane Van Gisbergen and then Anton de Pasquale.
The order of the leading drivers stayed the same. The only important change was that David Reynolds was inching towards the front again. With 7 laps to go he moved into 5th place behind Anton de Pasquale.
The 3 leaders were not giving their podium places up and stayed in their formation. Cameron Waters crossed the line first. Will Davison was next, followed by Shane Van Gisbergen.
Results for Race 17:
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
In race 18 Will Davison started on pole position alongside him was Anton de Pasquale.
At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump off the line and led into turn 1 from his teammate Will Davison Scott Pye started the final race from the pit lane due to the damage sustained at the start of race 17.
During the early stages the 2 Dick Johnson Racing cars were running 1st and 2nd the rest of the field were trying to keep up with the leaders.
I was amazed that Anton de Pasquale took the lead in to turn 1 but the other drivers didn’t want them to win.
When the pitstops got underway while leaders stayed out longer while the drivers pitted first.
The race leaders early on were Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison.
In the middle of the stops were complete and Anton de Pasquale was still in the lead of the race.
After the restart Chaz Mostert took the lead of the race while Shane Van Gisbergen wanted to get onto the podium but as a result of the contact he finished 21st and now has now got a 214 lead over Anton de Pasquale.
On lap 25 of 38 Garry Jacobson and Zac Best hit wheel to wheel on the approach up to turn 6, and as a result of the contact the left front wheel was broken and as result the BP Ultimate safety car was deployed to remove Zac Best’s car 78, as a result of deployment of the safety car it smashed Chaz Mostert because the lead he had was gone. Before the Safety car Shane Van Gisbergen was in 4th position he only had Will Davison Anton de Pasquale and Chaz Mostert to pass for the win.
On the restart with 9 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was getting the benefit of the draft from the back of Will Davison’s car on approach to turn 1 Shane Van Gisbergen pushed him wide on the exit of turn 1, meanwhile Shane Van Gisbergen dropped 2 spots into 6th position with 8 laps to go due to power steering failure. Then with 6 laps to go Chaz Mostert was under huge pressure from Anton de Pasquale for race lead and race win, but he held on what an amazing drive Shane Van Gisbergen got a 15 second penalty for a driving infringement and as a result he finished 21st. Garry Jacobson got a pit lane drive thru penalty for a driving infringement with 7 laps to go Also car 99 driven by Brodie Kostecki had a pit lane penalty for a safety car restart breach.
In the end Chaz Mostert was the winner of race 18.
Results for race 18
1st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
2nd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V Power Racing Team.
3rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
The next event is the NTI Townville 500 July 8th to the 10th 2022.
Garry Jacobson has left Premier Hire Racing and Zane Godard for Townsville.
