Shane van Gisbergen has defied a lowly grid position and broken collarbone to record a stunning victory in Race 3 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint.
A late gamble and a brilliant charge through the field from 17th place, saw van Gisbergen steal the win from under the nose of Cameron Waters on the final lap, with Jamie Whincup fighting to third.
A disappointing qualifying for the race saw Van Gisbergen starting from 17th on the grid, with Chaz Mostert clinching a first pole since Tailem Bend last year.
“I was a bit annoyed with myself in qualifying, it was up to me and not my injury, and I just didn’t get it right,” commented van Gisbergen. “In the race, the car was awesome. I got a great start, a good first lap, worked hard to save my tyres and slowly picked off some of the drivers for position.
“The car at the very beginning wasn’t very good – it was very pushy with the rears, but then it got better. I managed to catch the guys at the font, but I think Chaz (Mostert) helped me a bit as he slowed everyone up, but I honestly didn’t expect that.
“I thought everyone was going to pit on lap five or six, or when the pit window opened, but everyone kept going. I was a bit surprised and didn’t think our strategy would work for us, but we just had the speed in the end. It was a fun battle at the end where I managed to pull a big move on Chaz, although I didn’t think it was going to work considering we were three-wide, but it was pretty cool. I can’t thank the team enough as well, they’ve been bloody awesome this weekend.”
Van Gisbergen recently broke his collarbone in a mountain bike accident. He has now won all three races of the 2021 Supercars season.
Supercars Race 3 Result
1/ Shane van Gisbergen
2/ Cameron Waters
3/ Jamie Whincup
4/ Mark Winterbottom
5/ Anton De Pasquale
6/ Chaz Mostert
7/ Nick Percat
8/ Andre Heimgartner
9/ James Courtney
10/ Jack Le Brocq
11/ David Reynolds
12/ Scott Pye
13/ Tim Slade
14/ Todd Hazelwood
15/ Macauley Jones
16/ William Brown
17/ Brodie Kostecki
18/ Jack Smith
19/ Zane Goddard
20/ Garry Jacobson
21/ Fabian Coulthard
22/ Will Davison
23/ Jake Kostecki
24/ Bryce Fullwood
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