Michael Caruso became the 10th different driver in 12 races to claim a Supercars victory this season after dominating proceedings at Hidden Valley in Darwin.
Carouso jumped Kiwi polesetter Shane van Gisbergen, who got the better of an early restart to repay the compliment. Unfortunately official ruled he did so illegally and the resulting drive-through penalty took the Red Bull Holden driver out of the race consideration.
Caruso, from Nissan, enjoyed his second career win ahead of Jamie Whincup and Chaz Mostert. After moving back into the lead following van Gisbergen’s black flag penalty, the Nissan man dominated to win with comparative comfort.
There were plenty of incidents throughout the bruising 42 laps where Fabian Coulthard proved the best of the Kiwi drivers, finishing sixth in the Team Penske Ford after starting from 11th on the grid.
“I made a few spots before Turn 1 but it came undone at Turn 5 with drama in front of me, next to me and with nowhere to go I dropped back to 14th,” Coulthard said.
“Our race pace was good and having fresh tyres towards the end of the race really helped. I was able to claw my way back and pass a lot of cars. The car was very racy and so we need a little bit of luck tomorrow and shoot for the podium.”
Once the pit window opened, Caruso pitted with the early stop helping him leap frog Will Davison and ultimately end up with a healthy lead. From there he controlled race and held off a charging Whincup for the victory, his first for seven years, which was on the same track.
Scott McLaughlin, who struggled to be 15th in qualifying, had a solid race to climb into the top-10 and push up to third overall in the championship.
Chris Pither showed good speed and driving nous to jump from 19th on the grid to finish 14th for Super Black Racing, with van Gisbergen in 16th and Andre Heimgartner 18th.
The Supercars hit the track tomorrow with qualifying, a Top 10 Shootout and 200km race, all live on Sky Sports.
ITM Auckland SuperSprint 4-6 November: Tickets are on sale from as little as $19. Three-day trackside is priced from $90 with children aged 12 and under free trackside admission with a paying adult. Fanstands are from just $110 for three days and Platinum Reserved Grandstands with Paddock Pass priced at $300.
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