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 5-8 October 2023 was the Repco Bathurst 1000. It was round 10 of the 2023 Supercars Championship.
Mount Panorama was first opened on March 17, 1938. The track is actually a street circuit so outside of race dates it is a public road. Yes! That is the answer to your question, “Can I actually drive around the Bathurst track?” just remember it is a 60 zone.
The first event held at Mount Panorama was a motorcycle race on the 16th of April 1938, the Australian Tourist Trophy. Two days later the Australian Grand Prix took place (a motor car race).
Before becoming known as The Bathurst 1000 the race was called the Armstrong 500. The first few years it ran at Phillip Island and was then moved to Bathurst in 1963. In those days it was a 500 mile race (approx. 804Km) and was done with only a single driver. A few years after Australia changed to metric measurements the race was increased to 1000kms.
It has become the most well-known race in Australia and is also internationally revered. It’s the race that stops the nation and creates legends.
The legend of the King of the Mountain, Peter Brock was earned through this event. Peter Brock won his first Bathurst in 1972 in the days without a co-driver. He then went on to win again in 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1987. No other driver has beaten his record of 9 Bathurst 1000 wins.
This year was the 60th running of the Repco Bathurst 1000. An incredible milestone for any race event.
This year the event kicked off under almost perfect weather conditions. A surprise to all as Bathurst is known for some pretty challenging conditions at this time of the year.
The pre-race sessions kicked off on the Thursday and went through to Sunday morning. The results were:
Will Brown was fastest in Practice 1
David Russell was fastest in Practice 2
David Reynolds was fastest in Practice 3
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 4
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
Richie Stanaway was fastest in Practice 5
Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 6
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in the Shootout
Brodie Kostecki and co-driver David Russell were fastest in the warm up
In Race 24 Brodie Kostecki earned pole position but his co-driver David Russell was behind the wheel of car 99 for the start. Alongside them was co-driver Jamie Whincup after main driver Broc Feeney scored second place on the front row of the grid. There were 16 out of 28 co-drivers who started the race behind the wheel. So, it was quite a common strategy.
As the lights went green, they took off and Jamie Whincup led into turn 1 for the first of 161 laps. Pole sitter David Russell was right under his rear wing only 0.174 seconds behind.
The cars further back in the pack were dicing for places outside the top 10.
Early on Will Brown had gained 5 places up to 12th. James Golding had gained 1 spot after starting 4th on the grid.
Jamie Whincup had a hard time getting some space between himself and David Russell in 2nd place. By lap 4 Jamie Whincup managed to increase his lead to only 0.498 seconds. It was another 1 second back to James Golding in 3rd.
On lap 5 James Courtney ran wide on the exit to the final corner but didn’t lose any places.
Thomas Randle got up the inside of Lee Holdsworth exiting Forest Elbow for 10th place.
Jamie Whincup had managed to increase his lead to around 1 second over David Russell.
Richie Stanaway finally got up the inside of Garth Tander to move into 5th place. His next target was Cameron Waters sitting in 4th position.
The first car to pit in this race was car 96 of Macauley Jones and Jordan Boys on lap 10.
Between lap 4 and 10 Jamie Whincup managed to extend his lead 1.525 seconds over David Russell.
Further back Will Brown was on the charge. He was up 10 spots after starting 17th on the grid. He now smoothly passed Garth Tander moving into 6th place and was only 2.8 seconds away from the lead.
On lap 17 Craig Lowndes started slowing down due to a broken gear lever mount and was forced to pit.
James Golding in 3rd was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 18.
Car 3 driven by Todd Hazelwood and Tim Blanchard pitted on lap 21. Soon after they were investigated for a pit stop infringement and issued a 15 second time penalty to be served on their next stop. Although disappointing it was still early in the race. They had another 5 hours to catch up.
On lap 24 Dean Fiore co-driver to Bryce Fullwood made contact with Simona de Silvestro at The Chase. Simona de Silvestro who returned from her homeland, Switzerland especially for this race was pushed off the road onto the grass. There was no damage to speak of and she re-joined the race easily. Race officials took no further action on the incident.
Kevin Estre (co-driver to Matt Payne) had a big lockup at turn 1 and ended up in the sand trap. He couldn’t get out on his own and the first safety car was deployed so the recovery vehicle could assist.
While the Yellow flag was out (indicating drivers to slow down and stay in formation behind the safety car) all drivers except 2 took the opportunity to pit.
David Reynolds was under investigation for jumping ahead in the safety car line. He was later issued a pit lane drive thru penalty. That didn’t go down too well and David Reynolds started to argue the case when told by his race engineer Alistair McVean. After the restart he was reluctant to give back 3rd place to Broc Feeney and even refused to take the drive thru penalty on the next lap. Race Director James Taylor had to warn him that he still did have to take it.
The restart which was on lap 30 saw Shane Van Gisbergen immediately took the race lead off Dylan O’Keeffe (co-driver to James Golding).
Broc Feeney was in 3rd place (after Reynolds let him pass) and then managed to get by Dylan O’Keeffe for 2nd place.
The 2 Red Bull cars were now running 1st and 2nd on the track, followed by O’Keeffe and then Reynolds.
Bryce Fullwood made contact and pushed Aaron Love off the track at The Chase. Bryce Fullwood was later issued a penalty for his actions.
On lap 39 Scott Pye made contact with Dale Wood who then went off track into the gravel trap. The safety car was sent out while Dale Wood’s car was pulled out and luckily able to return straight to the race.
When they restarted Mark Winterbottom was out front followed by Fabian Coulthard and Brodie Kostecki.
Meanwhile car 6 driven by James Moffat was under investigation for an unsafe pit release. It was later on lap 43 when he was issued a 5 second time penalty.
Brodie Kostecki soon passed Fabian Coulthard to take 2nd position.
Then Richie Stanaway got up the inside of Declan Fraser for 4th place. His next target was Fabian Coulthard in 3rd place. It wasn’t long after that Richie Stanaway made his move pushing Fabian Coulthard down another spot to 4th.
The 2 Brad Jones Racing cars with Jack Smith and Macauley Jones in the driver’s seat made contact with each other at The Chase. They both went off the track and both had minor damage that required a visit to the pits ASAP.
Not long after Macauley Jones received a 15 second time penalty for the driving infringement.
On lap 71 Dean Fiore co-driver to Bryce Fullwood was under investigation for a pit lane infringement and was issued a time penalty.
James Moffat hit the wall coming out of The Dipper and came to a stop in a dangerous part of the track. Officials thought he would not be able to get out of the predicament on his own and sent out the 3rd safety car of the race. Before help could arrive, James Moffat was able to get going again. Unfortunately, it was only to get back to the pits in his smashed up car to then find out he would not be returning to the race.
Car 888 driven by Craig Lowndes had to serve a pit lane penalty after he turned off the ‘pit limiter’ to early while in the pit lane.
Richie Stanway clocked the best lap time of the race on lap 92. He had also moved up to 2nd place after passing Tony Dalberto.
Jamie Whincup rounded up Garth Tander which took him from 5th up to 4th place. “The Goat” was now only 7.9 seconds away from the lead. He then pitted on lap 93 to hand the wheel over to Broc Feeney who would race all the to the end.
Richie Stanaway pitted soon after on lap 97 from the number 1 position and Shane Van Gisbergen took the driver’s seat for the final stage of the race.
Once these two Red Bull Ampol Racing Team cars came out of the pits, Shane Van Gisbergen returned to the number 1 spot with his team mate Broc Feeney not far behind.
On lap 137 of 161 (25 laps remaining) Broc Feeney was slowing due to a gearbox issue stopping him from changing gears. He slipped from 2nd to 3rd allowing Brodie Kostecki to pass him. Broc Feeney had to head to the pits. It was unlucky timing being so close to the end of the race.
The team were able to repair the issue, but Broc returned to the track in 24th position. Unfortunate for him to go from a podium contender to the back of the pack.
It was later revealed that all 3 of the 888 Engineering cars had the same issue (the 2 cars of Gisbergen and Feeney driving for Red Bull Ampol Racing and also the Craig Lowndes/ Zane Goddard duo driving under the Super Cheap Auto banner. It’s surprising any of them finished.
With 18 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was still out front with a good lead of 15.010 seconds over Brodie Kostecki.
In the last laps Shane Van Gisbergen controlled the race and was too far ahead for Brodie Kostecki to challenge him for the win.
It was incredible to watch as Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging ahead to finally cross the line with a 19.9 seconds lead over Brodie Kostecki.
Shane Van Gisbergen is now a 3-time winner of the Bathurst 1000.
It puts him in striking distance of the season leader Brodie Kostecki for the remaining two events. Can he now become a 4-time Supercars Champion before he heads to the US in 2024? Its going to be fun finding out.
Results for Race 24
1st Shane Van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki and David Russell – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Anton de Pasquale and Tony Dalberto – Shell V-Power Racing Team
Out of the 28 starters only 24 cars finished the race. 4 cars got a DNF.
Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 131 points over Shane Van Gisbergen. With 2 events to go (4 races) in the 2023 championship it is going be an exciting finish to the year,
The next event is the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 on the 27th – 29th October 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 29 – 30 July 2023 was the Beaurepairs Sydney Supernight, the 7th round of this year’s Supercars championship.
The event was held at Sydney Motorsport Park in New South Wales.
Originally named Eastern Creek Raceway, the New South Wales state government approved its development back in 1988 and opened on the 10th of November, 1990. The first Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) race was held in 1993. The ATCC was the previous title before being renamed V8 Supercars in 1997).
This event was a special occasion for me, aside from being in my home town of Sydney it was the first time I have been able to get to any track since 2017. It was a lot of fun and I was glad to finally have wheelchair accessible transport (thanks Dad) and the general threat of COVID gone. It was great to be back!
The event started on the Saturday but I managed to get there for only the Sunday.
In the pre-race sessions:
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was also fastest in Practice 2
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 18 Andre Heimgartner started on pole position with Brodie Kostecki alongside him.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown went into turn 1 in 1st and 2nd place. The pole sitter Andre Heimgartner had dropped from 1st to 5th place after a bad start off the line.
Cameron Hill made a blinder of a start. He had made up 4 spots after starting 8th on the grid.
The cars further back in the pack were dicing for positions outside the top 10 while the leading cars held their positions.
The 2 Erebus Camaros were out in front and controlling proceedings early on.
Brodie Kostecki had half a second lead over Will Brown by lap 2.
Shane Van Gisbergen was also making way and gained 2 spots after starting in 20th on the grid.
Jack le Brocq in 5th place was soon under assault from Andre Heimgartner after he lost his pole position. However, instead of gaining a spot he lost his own spot to James Golding who snuck by him.
The leaders were comfortable out front while the cars behind were chasing them. This was probably the cause of Jack Smith in car 4 receiving a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
The first car to pit was Anton de Pasquale on lap 11.
James Golding was again on the move and got up the inside of Cameron Hill at turn 2 for 5th place.
Chaz Mostert also tried to go around the outside of Cameron Hill, but he couldn’t make the move stick.
Cameron Hill was being a cork in the bottle he was holding up the cars behind him.
After Anton de Pasquale completed his pitstop he came back out in 25th position.
A lap later Chaz Mostert finally got past Cameron Hill at turn 1 and Will Davison got up the inside of Andre Heimgartner for 8th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen then got up the inside of Scott Pye to move into 12th place. The defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 8 places since the start.
By lap 13 Scott Pye had dropped back to 22nd position and chose to make his first pit stop and rethink strategy.
Cameron Hill pitted on lap 14 along with James Courtney and Thomas Randle.
By lap 17 of 51 the top 13 cars were still yet to take their stops.
Will Brown was the first of the front runners to pit followed by Will Davison, Cameron Waters and Jack le Brocq.
Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted a lap later, lap 18.
Soon after Todd Hazelwood and James Courtney received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits.
It wasn’t over for Todd Hazelwood. He received a pit lane drive thru penalty for a refuelling breach on his first stop.
In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner had assumed the race lead while frontrunners were pitting. Soon he went into the pits handing the lead over to Brodie Kostecki who was followed by Cameron Waters and Will Brown in 3rd place.
On lap 32 David Reynolds went off the track between turns 9 and 10. He hit the wall and the stricken Ford Mustang wouldn’t move. The Safety car was deployed while they removed car #26.
The race restarted on lap 39. Chaz Mostert soon made a pass of Jack le Brocq to move into 4th place and only 0.748 seconds behind Will Brown in 3rd.
Shane Van Gisbergen was up to 6th place and looking for further gains. As the race got closer to the finish he was on the charge and managed to pass Jack le Brocq. Shane Van Gisbergen was now only 1.144 seconds from the back of the podium.
On lap 42 Shane Van Gisbergen showed just how much he wanted that podium finish and did the fastest lap of the race, 130.064.
By the final 10 laps the top 5 places had not changed but quite spread out. Brodie Kostecki had a good lead and was on target for his first win since the Melbourne Grand Prix in March.
On lap 44 Declan Fraser received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
James Golding managed to go around the outside of James Courtney at turn 8 with 7 laps to go.
With 2 laps to go Chaz Mostert was up 7 places after starting 9th on the grid. Shane Van Gisbergen was behind in 3rd having moved up from a start of 20th on the grid.
However, the gaps between the top 3 couldn’t be closed. In the end Brodie Kostecki crossed the finish line with a 7 second margin over Chaz Mostert. Shane Van Gisbergen was a further 10.479 seconds behind.
A post race penalty was issued to Shane Van Gisbergen for contact with Will Brown so unfortunately Shane was recorded in 7th place on the final results. Will Brown inherited the podium finish in 3rd. Credit is still owed to Shane Van Gisbergen for a phenomenal drive.
Results for Race 18
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United 3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Qualifying for Race 19 and earned pole position bringing his career pole total to 48. I would love for him to get another 2 more and reach a half century before he leaves Supercars at the end of this season.
Andre Heimgartner sat alongside Shane Van Gisbergen on the starting grid.
As they took off Andre Heimgartner got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney were in 2nd and 3rd.
Will Brown and David Reynolds made contact and left the track. As they rejoined they were now in 24th and 25th place. Race control immediately put the incident under investigation. It took a while but they declared no penalties would be issued.
Shane Van Gisbergen was soon closing in on the back of the leader Andre Heimgartner. Broc Feeney in 3rd was followed by Brodie Kostecki.
Chaz Mostert had moved up 5 places into 11th after starting 16th on the grid.
On the second lap James Golding and Thomas Randle made contact. Although they kept going the officials were investigating the incident and later issued time penalties to both drivers.
On lap 4 Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off Andre Heimgartner at turn 6.
Just to make a statement, Shane Van Gisbergen then did the fastest lap of the race 131.993.
The first car to pit was Broc Feeney from 4th place on lap 16. When he came back out he was in 24th place.
The front runners were tightly packed. Shane Van Gisbergen was still the leader with a 1 second gap over Andre Heimgartner. Then it was only 0.968 of a second back to Brodie Kostecki.
Further back in the running Declan Fraser received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Then Will Brown and Macauley Jones received a bad sportsmanship flag for the same reason.
By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was in a commanding position with a 6.7 second lead over Andre Heimgartner. The front runners were yet to pit. Andre Heimgartner was the first to make his stop from 2nd place.
Shane Van Gisbergen took his stop towards the end of the race and returned to the track in 7th place. He must have known he was in great shape because the 6 cars in front still had to take their pit stops so he would naturally assume the lead when they did.
One by one they peeled off the track for the mandatory pit stop leaving Shane Van Gisbergen back in the number 1 spot with a 3 second lead over Andre Heimgartner. It was then 1.4 seconds back to Broc Feeney in 3rd place.
As the race was coming to its conclusion Shane Van Gisbergen was showing his authority and seemed uncatchable as he edged ahead.
After his incident on lap 2 Thomas Randle was in trouble again but this time only receiving a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
James Courtney was next in line for a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
In a surprise on the last lap Anton de Pasquale passed Broc Feeney for 3rd place. Broc Feeney had no time to make it up. Anton de Pasquale took the podium finish in 3rd. Andre Heimgartner had finished 10.4 seconds earlier in 2nd place with Shane Van Gisbergen taking the chequered flag 5.5 clear of him.
It was a spectacular finish for SVG and I’m so glad I was at the track on that day!
Results for Race 19
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing 2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing 3rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V Power Racing Team
Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 41 points over his teammate Will Brown. Shane Van Gisbergen is only 54 points off the championship lead and Broc Feeney is 4th with 57 points off the championship lead. With 5 events remaining the championship title could be any of these great drivers.
The next event is the OTR Supersprint at the Bend on 18 – 20 August 2023.
On the weekend of the 16- 18 of June was the Betr Darwin Triple Crown.
Being in the Northern Territory the weather for this event is always hot and sunny with temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees ambient, which makes the in-car temperatures 40 degrees plus. The Triple Crown is always held in the middle of winter because any other time of the year would be way too hot putting the drivers at risk.
The opening date of the Hidden Valley Raceway was 1986 but Supercars didn’t venture north until 1998.
The track is 2.8km with 14 turns and the event is made up of three races (thus, the name “Triple Crown”) of 35 laps each.
Fox Sports presenter, Riana Crehan was absent from her usual role on this weekend because she and husband Will Davison are expecting the birth of their first child (any minute).
Hidden Valley Raceway always makes me think of this freaky fact; It was here that Craig Lowndes won his 100th race back in 2015 on his team Triple Eight on their 888th race in his car which was numbered 888.
The event kicked off according to schedule and the results of the pre-race sessions follow:
Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 1
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 13 Cameron Waters started on pole position for the first time this year and the 20th time in his career. Alongside him in the number 2 position was Broc Feeney.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 35 laps. Mark Winterbottom who started 3rd on the grid moved up to 2nd place when Broc Feeney ran wide at turn 1.
The opening stages were fairly chaotic because everybody was trying make gains from back in the field.
Jack le Brocq also ran wide on approach to turn 1 and dropped all the way down to 12th place.
Declan Fraser went into the garage on the opening lap after he sustained damage in the mayhem.
James Courtney got turned around by Andre Heimgartner at turn 14 on lap 2, sending him to the back of the pack.
Shortly after David Reynolds had a big lockup at turn 1 and went off the track. He hit the pits on lap 3 to change the front left tyre.
While the drivers behind were battling for places inside the top 10, Cameron Waters was out front leading the race until lap 5. When he was coming down the main straight he came over the radio to his team and said “My car is on fire!”. His race engineer Sam Potter ordered him, “get out mate!” so Waters pulled over and jumped from the driver’s seat. He grabbed the fire extinguisher from the Fire Marshall and put the flames out himself!
The lead was now in the hands of the sport veteran, Mark Winterbottom.
The safety car was deployed to remove Cameron Waters Monster Energy ‘Flaming’ Ford Mustang from the tack.
Meanwhile, the majority of the field chose to take their pit stops while the safety car was out. The pit lane was extremely busy.
Restart was on lap 11 and soon enough the cars back in the pack were jostling for positions again, while the leaders maintained track position.
Jack Smith went off the track at turn 1. Scott Pye made connection with someone or something and had torn the right rear wheel guard. The tyre was now rubbing on the dangling piece of guard. His team instructed him to keep going and they’ll let him know if it gets dangerous.
On Lap 16 the safety car was deployed for the second time due to a grass fire.
It took a few laps under the safety car before the race went back to green.
As the cars returned to their battle Chaz Mostert was able to take advantage and gained 3 spots moving up to 8th place.
The leaders kept in place but Mark Winterbottom was under huge pressure from Broc Feeney only 0.449 seconds behind. Will Davison in 3rd place was over a second behind Feeney.
Broc Feeney pushed hard but in the end, Mark Winterbottom was able to prevail and win the opening race at Darwin.
This has broken a 7 year winless streak for Mark Winterbottom. His last win was Perth 2016.
It was fantastic to see!
Results for Race 13
1st Mark Winterbottom – Team 18 2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Racing 3rd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team
In Race 14 Broc Feeney earned pole position. Alongside him was Andre Heimgartner.
Generated by pixel @ 2023-06-18T23:36:11.103002
Broc Feeney got the jump off the start and led into turn 1 for the first of 35 laps. Meanwhile, Shane Van Gisbergen gained 1 spot and moved into 3rd place.
Matt Payne and Declan Fraser made contact and went off the track at turn 7. It dropped them back to 25th and 26th place.
Both cars headed to the pits for repairs. Not long after Matt Payne was able to rejoin the race but Declan Fraser was not so lucky. It took a while for his car to be repaired losing several laps.
Otherwise, the opening stages were relatively clean.
The first car to take an unforced pit was Jack Smith on lap 5.
Around this stage of the race Brodie Kostecki had lost 2 spots from his starting position of 4th. Jack le Brocq went off the track at turn 7 losing a number of places. At the front end Broc Feeney had carved a 1.225 second lead over Andre Heimgartner with Shane Van Gisbergen in pursuit.
Scott Pye pitted on lap 9 from 12th place.
James Golding was battling with Brodie Kostecki for positions 5th and 6th and they put on a great show.
Will Brown was the first of the front runners to pit along with Macauley Jones.
In the middle of the race Nick Percat pitted from 14th position. When he came back out he was in 20th place.
The leading three drivers stayed locked in and edged away from the rest of the pack.
After David Reynolds took his pit stop he was issued a 5 second time penalty for a pit lane merging breach.
Broc Feeney was the first of the two Red Bull cars to take the mandatory stop on lap 20. He returned to the track in 4th place. There was a strategy in this. Andre Heimgartner had already pitted and was now out of the leading three cars. Shane Van Gisbergen who was in second place now received the lead from teammate Feeney. Also, the leading 3 cars were yet to pit; Shane Van Gisbergen, Bryce Fullwood and Cameron Waters. Once they did Broc Feeney would automatically resume the lead.
On lap 29 Will Davison had gone into the garage with a bent right front steering arm. This took him out of the top 10.
Broc Feeney resumed the lead and soon had a 2 second gap over Shane Van Gisbergen in second place.
With 3 laps to go Broc Feeney would have felt he had the race win in the bag.
Broc Feeney drove faultlessly the remaining laps and crossed the line 1.4 seconds ahead of his illustrious teammate Shane Van Gisbergen. Andre Heimgartner followed another 1.8 seconds later to take 3rd place.
A great one / two finish for the Red Bull Ampol Racing team.
Results for Race 14
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing 2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing 3rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
In Race 15 Jack le Brocq started on pole position and once again alongside him was Andre Heimgartner.
As they took off Jack le Brocq led the field through turn 1 for the first of 35 laps.
Scott Pye was hit from behind and had pretty substantial damage on the right rear corner. Brodie Kostecki also had issues on the first lap, receiving steering damage on the right side.
Todd Hazelwood put in a challenge to Shane Van Gisbergen for 8 place but he couldn’t get the pass executed for a while. It wasn’t long before Shane Van Gisbergen took back 8th.
After repairs to the steering arm Brodie Kostecki re-joined the race but was 3 laps down and running last.
Scott Pye also had to take his pit early to remove flapping rear bumper for the second time that weekend. He returned to the track in 25th place.
David Reynolds came into the pits for his compulsory stop on lap 10.
In the middle of the race Declan Fraser made connection with another competitor and received a 15 second time penalty
Broc Feeney and Will Brown running 3rd and 4th pitted at the same time on lap 17.
The race leaders Jack le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner took their pit stops on the next lap.
Towards the end of the race Matt Payne got turned around by Jack Smith at turn 6 sending him to the back of the pack.
With three laps to go Jack le Brocq had managed to hold the number one spot and carve a 1.8 second lead over Andre Heimgartner in 2nd place. They were both well ahead of the rest of the pack.
Heimgartner pushed hard to close the gap but at no stage seemed a threat to le Brocq.
Jack le Brocq crossed the line 1.3 seconds clear of Andre Heimgartner. It was a further 8.4 seconds before Broc Feeney crossed the line to come in 3rd.
It was a spectacular finish especially for the young Broc Feeney who managed a podium place in all three races of the Darwin Triple Crown; 2nd,1st and then 3rd. It earned him a win for the entire round.
Results for Race 15
1st Jack le Brocq – Matt Stone Racing 2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing 3rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship but only by 59 points over his teammate Will Brown and 91 points over Broc Feeney.
It still keeps Erebus in the lead of the teams championship by 222 points over the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.
There are 7 events remaining in the 2023 Supercars championship season.
The next event is the NTI Townsville 500 starting on July 7th 2023. I just can’t wait!!!!!
On the weekend of May 20 – 21, 2023 was the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint held at the Symmons Plain Raceway.
The raceway was first opened in March 1960. After the closure of the Longford Road circuit Symmons Plains quickly established its own reputation as Tasmania’s home of Motor Racing. The track is 2.4 km with 7 turns and must be one of the shorter tracks used in the Supercars Championship.
The Tasmania Supersprint was round 4 of the championship. Brodie Kostecki came into the round with a 100 point lead over Chaz Mostert in 2nd place.
It is the 50th time that the Supercars have visited. The track seems to be favoured by Triple Eight. They have won 25 out of the last 36 races in Tasmania.
Both Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat had milestones. It was Andre Heimgartner’s 100th round start in Supercars and Nick Percat started his 300th race in Supercars.
In the pre-Race sessions:
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 1
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 2
Will Brown was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 10 Will Brown started on pole position with Jack le Brocq alongside him.
At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 42 laps. The opening lap was relatively clean until James Courtney went into the wall at turn 6.
Coming out of turn 4 on the following lap Cameron Waters made contact with Brodie Kostecki which put him in the wall. Then Broc Feeney made contact with Chaz Mostert spinning him around. Scott Pye gave Broc Feeney a nudge and put damage on car 88 but he was able to keep going.
The result of the chaos had Chaz Mostert and Brodie Kostecki heading to the pits for repairs. As it turned out Chaz Mostert was not able to re-join the race.
James Courtney was another casualty from the turn 4 incident. A few laps later he went into the garage to replace a bent steering arm.
Will Brown was still leading with 1.8 seconds over Cameron Waters.
Shane Van Gisbergen was up 3 places from his grid start position and now in 6th.
It wasn’t long before Cameron Waters showed how much he wanted the win. He did the fastest lap of the race clocking in at 51.67 seconds.
Shane Van Gisbergen also showed his desire for a podium finish and got up the inside of Cameron Hill for 4th position.
The first car to pit in this race was Scott Pye on lap 14. He came in from 21st position and returned to the track in 22nd.
Mid-field Will Davison got up the inside of David Reynolds exchanging 15th and 16th place.
In the middle of the race James Golding pitted and David Reynolds followed him in. Andre Heimgartner and Cameron Waters then pitted from 3rd and 4th position.
Race leader, Will Brown made his pit stop on lap 23. He returned to the track in 5th place giving Shane Van Gisbergen the number 1 spot. At this stage there were still 8 cars to pit.
Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 27 from the lead of the race.
After Jack Smith took his pit stop he was investigated for an infringement. He was issued a 15 second time penalty post-race finish.
Now there were only 3 cars yet to pit; Todd Hazelwood, Matt Payne and Broc Feeney. Once they did Will Brown assumed the lead of the race.
Towards the end of the race Will Brown was still in the lead with 1.3 seconds over Andre Heimgartner. It was another 1.1 seconds back to Cameron Waters in 3rd.
Once Todd Hazelwood had pitted on lap 30 he re-joined in 15th place.
After this it was a sprint to the checkered flag.
Shane Van Gisbergen was in 4th position with fresher tyres for the sprint to the finish line but he was 8.2 seconds off the lead and 5.8 seconds away from Cameron Waters in 3rd place.
In the final Will Brown was still holding the lead over Andre Heimgartner. Shane Van Gisbergen was obviously not satisfied with 4th and managed to finally get past Cameron Waters to steal 3rd place.
Results for Race 10:
1st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing 3rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
In Race 11 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position, alongside him was Broc Feeney.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki pushed Broc Feeney wide at turn. Will Brown used the opportunity to go up to 2nd place while Broc Feeney was displaced back to 4th.
The opening lap was relatively clean until turn 6 when Shane Van Gisbergen went into tyre wall after a bump from David Reynolds. Shane Van Gisbergen managed to get the car out but had to head straight to the pits. The damage was worse than first thought. The damage would take so much time to repair he wasn’t able to return to the race. Luckily he was able to participate in the final race of the weekend.
Shortly after Will Brown took the lead off his teammate Brodie Kostecki.
The top 5 cars were packed close to each other and anything could happen to change the results.
Aggressions seemed to be increasing and Declan Fraser received a 15 second time penalty for a driving infringement.
Meanwhile, Will Davison clocked the fastest lap at 52.011 seconds.
The first car to pit (aside from Shane Van Gisbergen) was Mark Winterbottom on lap 13. Noone else followed him in.
By the middle of the race the top 13 cars had still not visited pits. It seemed they all were afraid to give up their positions.
Once Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown had pitted there was a 35 second gap between the two.
Towards the end of the end of the race Broc Feeney was in the lead with 0.721 seconds over the championship leader Brodie Kostecki. It was a further 1.4 seconds back to Will Brown in 3rd.
In the final laps the gap between the top 3 cars became even tighter.
Broc Feeney was looking solid out front even though they were right on his tail. The drivers behind were really battling for the minor places.
On the last lap Broc Feeney was in cruise mode with a confident lead of 2 seconds.
He kept his hard-earned lead to finish line ahead of Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown.
As he crossed the line Broc Feeney announced over the radio, “Team Sunday is back!”.
Results for Race 11:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
In Race 12 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Will Brown alongside him.
As they took off Will Brown got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 42 laps. Andre Heimgartner went off the track at turn 1 and so did Anton de Pasquale.
While the 2 Erebus Camaro’s were commanding proceedings everybody else was trying to play catch up. Further back in the field the 2 Penrite Racing cars were battling for positions outside the top 10 in 14th and 16th place.
At the second last corner Declan Fraser got turned around by Jack Smith.
Things went smoothly until lap 9 when Andre Heimgartner gave James Courtney a bump and they both went off into the gravel.
On lap 10 Broc Feeney managed to get up the inside of Jack le Brocq for 3rd place. Will Brown and his teammate Brodie Kostecki were still holding the number 1 and 2 spots.
The first car to pit in this race was Nick Percat on lap 12 from the back of the pack and had a loose brake pedal as a secondary issue. Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted. He was in 18th and when he came back out on the track was in 23rd place.
By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had worked his way up through the field and was able to take 11th place from Jack le Brocq. At this stage there were 9 cars yet to take their stops.
Will Brown pitted on lap 24 which left Broc Feeney in control of the race.
Towards the end of the race Will Brown had a 5.5 second lead over Broc Feeney. It was only 0.633 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen who had now worked his way into 3rd place.
Matt Payne’s car had suffered damage earlier and the tyre was rubbing on the front bumper. It was too close to the end of the race so he kept going to the finish line.
At the front of the pack Will Brown still kept his lead and finished with a 4 second gap over Broc Feeney and Brodie Kostecki.
Another spectacular finish for Erebus to end the weekend.
Results for Race 12:
1st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing 3rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 87 points over Will Brown. Erebus are also leading the teams’ championship by 276 points over the Red Bull Ampol Racing team.
There are only 8 rounds to go in the 2023 Supercars season. The next event is the Betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 16th to 18th 2023.
On the weekend of Apr 28 – 30 was 3rd Supercars Championship round, the Bosch Powertools Perth Supersprint at Barbagallo Raceway.
This track is a 2.4 km circuit with 7 turns. It was built by the Western Australia Sporting Car Club and called Wanneroo Raceway. The first race was in March 1969.
In 1992 a well-known race personality, Alf Barbagallo funded an extension to the track and the circuit was renamed to “Barbagallo Raceway”.
It was then renamed back to Wanneroo Raceway in 2020 but for naming rights reasons will be known as CARCO.com.au Raceway from August 2022 to November 2025.
Barbagallo Raceway is the name I grew up with and still refer to it as such. Wanneroo Raceway is a name I can get used to, but CARCO.com.au Raceway is just plain old strange.
The weekend marked milestones for both Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom. Davison started his 500th race and Winterbottom had his 600th race in Supercars.
The weekend got underway with only one practice followed by the first qualifying session. David Reynolds was fastest in Practice 1 and Shane Van Gisbergen earned pole position in Qualifying.
As drivers positioned themselves on the grid for Race 7, Brodie Kostecki was alongside pole sitter Shane Van Gisbergen.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1. Will Davison did a dive bomb trying to get up the inside of Thomas Randle but he couldn’t make move stick.
The leaders started pulling away and Jack le Brocq was the only one able to keep up. It created a gap between the frontrunners and the rest of the pack.
Nick Percat in 20th place was the first car to pit on lap 8. He returned to the track in 25th (last) place.
James Courtney had dropped 2 places and Will Brown had gained + 4 places.
James Courtney was being held up by Will Davison in battle with Thomas Randle.
Tim Slade was the first of the Nulon cars to pit. When he came back out he was in 24th position.
Tickford Racing had allowed Will Davison to drive through their pit bay but caused a panic when he almost made contact with James Courtney.
Back on the track Will Brown got up the inside of Macauley Jones on lap 16 for 14th place.
At turn 1 on the next lap Cameron Waters got up the inside of Macauley Jones.
Brodie Kostecki pitted on lap 18 which gave the lead of the race to Shane Van Gisbergen. After a 3.2 second stop he re-joined the race in 19th place.
In the middle of the race David Reynolds did the fastest lap of the race 55.946 seconds and earned him the 5 bonus points.
Shane Van Gisbergen still had the lead with a 2.4 second break over Jack le Brocq. The gap back to David Reynolds in 3rd place was 25 seconds.
As Cameron Waters was heading to the pit lane he got turned around by Andre Heimgartner. It ruined Cameron’s chances of a decent finish. Andre Heimgartner received a post-race time penalty also ruining his chances.
Towards the end of the race when every car had taken their mandatory pit stop, Brodie Kostecki resumed his lead.
With 2 laps to go Brodie Kostecki was blocking Shane Van Gisbergen’s attempt to pass. Kostecki was issued a bad sportsmanship flag and Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off him.
Shane Van Gisbergen had to fight hard but kept the lead crossing the finish line 0.594 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki. It was only 0.953 seconds back to David Reynolds in 3rd.
This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 3rd race win at Barbagallo (Waneroo or CARCO.com.au raceway or whatever the hell you want to call it!). It also brings his career tally to 78 wins.
Results for Race 7:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing 2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport 3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing
In Race 8 Will Brown started on pole position and alongside him was David Reynolds.
At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1 while David Reynolds had to tuck back in behind.
After starting 4th on the grid Brodie Kostecki managed to pass David Reynolds at turn 7 to go into 2nd place. He was still 1.3 seconds away from his teammate and leader, Will Brown.
Anton de Pasquale also passed David Reynolds at turn 7 for 3rd place. David Reynolds must have lost his focus and ran wide catching the edge of the sand trap coming out of turn 7. It dropped him back to 11th position.
James Courtney then passed Anton de Pasquale for 3rd position and was 2.5 seconds behind the two leaders.
Matt Payne had gained 2 places to be up in 6th position, while Cameron Waters got up the inside of Todd Hazelwood for 9th.
Anton de Pasquale received a 15 second driving infringement time penalty for nudging another car.
The first car to pit was Cameron Hill in last place with a with a gear shift problem. The team put the go jacks under the rear of car 35 and went in to sort out the dramas.
Will Brown still had the lead with a 1.2 second gap over teammate Brodie Kostecki. Will Brown proved himself a real competitor and did the fastest lap of the race 55.956 seconds. This earned him the 5 bonus points for the race and championship leader board.
In the middle of the race Brodie Kostecki in 2nd place took his pit stop to avoid double stacking with his teammate Will Brown who was in the lead.
With 13 laps to go the two Erebus cars were back in the lead of the race. It was a dominant display with no threat from behind.
They had the race under complete control and kept their lead all the way to the finish.
Will Brown crossed the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki. It was a further gap of 3.5 seconds back to James Courtney in 3rd place.
Results for Race 8
1st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport 3rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing
In Race 9 Broc Feeney, the young and upcoming star of Red Bull Ampol Racing started on pole position. Alongside him was Brodie Kostecki.
Broc Feeney got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 42 laps. The opening lap was relatively clean except for Jack le Brocq spinning Declan Fraser around at turn 7. Le Brocq was later issued a 15 second time penalty to be served at his mandatory pit stop.
Broc Feeney had a 3/4 second lead over Brodie Kostecki with David Reynolds staying competitive in 3rd.
Will Brown then seemed to come out of nowhere jumping over Brodie Kostecki and David Reynolds to take 2nd place.
The back of the field also had interesting action. Shane Van Gisbergen gained 2 places from his start in 21st position up to 19th.
Chaz Mostert got up the inside of his ex-teammate Cameron Waters for 8th place.
Will Brown for the second time this weekend recorded the fastest lap, 55.718 seconds.
Matt Payne was first passed by Anton de Pasquale and then Shane Van Gisbergen. Gisbergen was now in 18th place.
The first car to pit was Tim Slade in 5th position on lap 12. He returned the track in 17th place.
In the middle of the race both Will Davison and Brodie Kostecki pitted together from 11th and 12th place.
Towards the end of the end of the race Broc Feeney had a 12.7 second lead over Chaz Mostert and 4 cars were still yet to take their pit stop.
Broc Feeney wowed the crowd. He held the lead all the way to the checkered flag to claim his 3rd career win 6.4 seconds clear of Will Brown. Truly an amazing finish.
Congratulations Broc.
Results for Race 9:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
Brodie Kostecki has extended his championship lead to 100 points and also takes his team Erebus to the top of the Teams Championship.
The next event is the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 19 – 21 of May 2023.
On the weekend of Mar 30 – Apr 2nd was the Beaurepairs Melbourne Supersprint. It was round 2 of the 2023 Supercars Championship and held at Albert Park in Melbourne Victoria.
The event was a support category of the Rolex Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The Albert Park circuit is 5.3km with 14 turns. Supercars has been there every year all but 2007, 2020 and 2021.
The weekend represented big milestones for some drivers.
Chaz Mostert started his 300th race in Supercars.
In the second race Mark Winterbottom started in his 595th race. It is a track that he seems to favour having previously won 7 races at the venue, a win count that he shares with Shane Van Gisbergen.
Macauley Jones also hit his 150th race start on the Sunday of the weekend.
Congratulations!
With this in mind, plus the first time that the Gen 3 cars race at this track and it being part of the Australian F1 Grand Prix, it was set to be an exciting weekend.
In the pre- race sessions
Mark Winterbottom was Fastest in Practice 1 Tim Slade and Shane Van Gisbergen both caused red flags because they both went into the wall at turn 5 or turn 7.
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Practice 2
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Qualifying.
The first of the four sprint races started on the Thursday of this event. It was Race 3 of the season with Anton de Pasquale on pole position Brodie Kostecki alongside him.
At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 19 laps. Brodie Kostecki was trying his best to take the lead and gave Anton de Pasquale a nudge at turn 5. Brodie Kostecki had to pull back and it allowed Shane Van Gisbergen to displace him.
Chaz Mostert was part of the front running pack but lost a spot when Jack le Brocq made an impressive pass at turn 3.
By the end of the first lap Bryce Fullwood gained 6 spots. After starting from 23rd on the grid he was up to 18th. If he kept this up he would be a threat to the leaders.
lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen found the space to make his move and took the race lead off Anton de Pasquale. From that point on, he was able to control proceedings from the lead.
The first car to pit in this race was Cameron Hill from the back of the field on lap 9.
There were challenges for position happening everywhere. Drivers had to be aggressive in such a short race.
Cameron Waters was trying to pass Brodie Kostecki and Chaz Mostert was putting pressure on Cam Waters in a battle for 3rd, 4th and 5th place.
Meanwhile, Broc Feeney was battling with James Courtney for 8th position.
Anton de Pasquale was right on the tail of race leader Shane Van Gisbergen.
At one point Cameron Waters ran extremely wide exiting turn 10 which dropped him down to 6th place.
It allowed Will Brown to get in the mix, but Chaz Mostert got the better of him and was again challenging Brodie Kostecki for 3rd place.
With the continual attacks, James Courtney and Broc Feeney also became part of the challenge for those positions. In an instant Jack le Brocq was running 9th position.
The gap between 1st and 2nd was 1.2 seconds with about 1.3 seconds back to 3rd.
Both Will Davison and Andre Heimgartner came into the pits to make their stop and rejoined the race in 22nd and 23rd place.
James Golding and David Reynolds pitted on lap 10. There were still 19 cars yet to pit. Everyone was reluctant to relinquish track position.
With 8 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.3 second lead over Anton de Pasquale. Brodie Kostecki closed the gap in 3rd position to 0.847 seconds.
Mark Winterbottom had no radio and Team 18 had to use a pit board to communicate with him.
Once the front runners took their pit stops, Shane Van Gisbergen was back in the lead.
With 4 laps to go Brodie Kostecki got past Anton de Pasquale for 2nd place while the leader Shane Van Gisbergen was in cruise mode. There were 16 cars who had not yet pitted so the pits it was going to be very busy in that area for the remaining laps.
With 3 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had edged out a 2.6 second lead over Brodie Kostecki.
On the final lap Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.5 second lead over Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown. They were closing in on him incredibly quickly. All he had to do was hang in there, defend his lead and not make any mistakes.
Brodie Kostecki was making a massive effort to catch the leader but there just wasn’t enough time. Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the finish line with only a 0.3909 of a second lead over Brodie Kostecki. Will Brown crossed the line third 1.5616 seconds later.
Results for Race 3:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
Race 4 started late due to a crash in the Formula 3000. All the races on the weekend were time certain being a support category to the Australian F1 Grand Prix. It was almost assured they would not complete all 15 laps, but they didn’t know how many laps they would get. Drivers would have to be very aggressive to gain and keep position given the time limit.
Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with Will Brown alongside him.
At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1. Meanwhile further back in the pack David Reynolds got turned around at the first corner by Cameron Waters and Mark Winterbottom. His car ended up off the track and trapped in the sand. The safety car was deployed and the race was under yellow flag conditions. As they followed the safety car around the track in formation, Nick Percat caught fire on the left front of his Ford Mustang. He managed to get back to the pits independently but couldn’t re-join the race.
It took until lap 4 for the race to return to green and recommence. Shane Van Gisbergen immediately tried to go around the outside of Will Brown in the lead. He couldn’t make the move stick and as a result of the madness up front Shane Van Gisbergen dropped from 3rd down to 6th.
The first of the drivers to pit in this race were Will Brown, Will Davison, Jack le Brocq, Andre Heimgartner, Matt Payne and Scott Pye.
Soon after his pit stop Jack le Brocq hit the wall damaging the left front corner. He couldn’t move and the race went under ‘yellow’ while he was retrieved, and the wall repaired. He would become another driver in this race to not return to the track.
In the end the race finished on lap 8 behind the safety car while they were still repairing the wall.
It was unfortunate to finish this way but couldn’t be helped. In formation behind the safety car they crossed the finish line; Brodie Kostecki with his first career win, James Courtney and Shane Van Gisbergen.
Post race finish, James Courtney was issued a penalty for an unsafe release in the pits. Unfortunately it pushed him back to 22nd place on the recorded results. The drivers between 3rd and 22nd were elevated 1 spot. For the two Red Bull Ampol Racing cars it was an unexpected podium finish with Shane Van Gisbergen bumped up to 2nd and Broc Feeney to 3rd.
Results for Race 4:
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
In Race 5 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position alongside him was Will Brown.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 followed by Will Brown. The cars further back in the pack were battling for ascendancy. At turn 5 James Golding made contact with Mark Winterbottom and pushed him into the wall. Winterbottom received damage on the left hand side and headed to the pits. He was the first car to receive an NC (not Complete).
Before the end of the lap James Courtney’s car caught fire. He managed to get back to the pits independently but would not return to this race or the last race for the weekend. He was the second car to receive an NC.
On the second lap Anton de Pasquale got turned around by Matt Payne. James Courtney became collateral damage of the incident. The safety car was deployed and the pit lane closed. Pasquale and Courtney became the two other cars to leave the track and receive an NC.
On the restart Brodie Kostecki was still in the lead followed by Will Brown and Bryce Fullwood. Meanwhile Shane Van Gisbergen passed Andre Heimgartner to take 6th position.
In the middle of the race authorities issued Matt Payne a Pit Lane Drive Thru Penalty for the incident he caused in lap 1 with Mark Winterbottom.
Towards the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had moved up to 5th position and now had Will Davison in front of him.
James Golding got turned around by Chaz Mostert when they were 3 wide coming out of turn 3. Luckily, they both continued in the race.
After Brodie Kostecki took his pitstop he resumed the lead of the race.
With only a couple of laps to go, Brodie Kostecki held his lead and crossed the line first. He was followed by Will Davison, Bryce Fullwood, Shane Van Gisbergen and then Will Brown.
Post race finish both Will Davison and Bryce Fullwood received 15 second penalties for an unsafe pit release. It was the second time at this event that post race penalties were issued altering the podium results. Once the time penalties were applied, Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown were bumped up two places so the recorded results now showed them as 2nd and 3rd place on the podium.
Results for Race 5:
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
In only his second year as a full time driver Broc Feeney earned himself his maiden pole position for Race 6. Alongside him was Chaz Mostert.
As they took off Broc Feeney surprisingly got the jump over the far more experienced Chaz Mostert. It took until turn 5 before Mostert could make his move for the race lead. Almost immediately after Will Brown also passed Broc Feeney dropping the pole sitter back to 3rd.
Broc Feeney and his team felt this was the best time to try and get some clean air out of the traffic. He was the first car to pit along with almost half the pack at the end of lap 1, including; Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood, Brodie Kostecki, Cameron Waters, Nick Percat, Anton de Pasquale, Declan Fraser and Macauley Jones.
On return to the track Bryce Fullwood almost hit the wall on the exit of turn 10. Somehow he managed to avoid the collision and it seemed like a miracle escape.
Shortly after Anton de Pasquale was given a 15 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release.
Will Brown managed to take the race lead off Chaz Mostert but immediately under the pressure made a driving error and spun around. It cost him dearly and dropped back to 20th position. He then realised he had a steering issue and head to the garage.
In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was still in the lead, followed by Bryce Fullwood and Will Davison.
With 6 laps to go Chaz Mostert’s tyres were starting to blister. It took his edge away and Bryce Fullwood got by him.
At this point in the race the top 9 cars were still yet to take the mandatory pit stop. Once they did there was another change to the lead, Broc Feeney was back up front.
On lap 12 Cameron Hill bumped the fence between turns 9 and 10 and damaged the left side of his car. He headed for the pits but with only 1 lap to go he didn’t make it back onto the track. He became the only car in this race to receive an NC.
Broc Feeney kept his lead. He crossed the finish line with just under a second gap over Andre Heimgartner, followed by Brodie Kostecki a further 1+ seconds later.
Bryce Fullwood came in 4th but post race copped a 15 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release. It pushed him down the recorded results as 18th place.
For Broc Feeney this was his first win for 2023 and second career win. Things seem to be moving fast for this rising star. Can’t wait to see things as they unfold for him.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 02: (EDITORS NOTE: A polarizing filter was used for this image.) Broc Feeney driver of the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during race 4 of the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400, part of the 2023 Supercars Championship Series at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on April 02, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Results for Race 6:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
When handing out the trophies for Race 6, Broc Feeney selected his father, Paul to collect the team trophy on behalf of the Red Bull Ampol Racing. A nice way of honouring his family support.
After the points were tallied for the event, Brodie Kostecki became the recipient of the Larry Perkins Trophy for 2023. He also became the new championship leader by 32 points over Chaz Mostert.
Shane Van Gisbergen is 3rd, only 86 points behind the number 1 spot on the ladder.
The next event is the Bosch Power Tools Supersprint on April 28th – 30th, 2023.
On the weekend of 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 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.
