Shane van Gisbergen has bounced back from a disastrous opening race at the Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint on Saturday to take two race wins on Sunday. It was the 200th Supercars Championship race victory for his Triple Eight Team, becoming the first team to achieve that feat.
“It was awesome to contribute to Triple Eight’s 200th Supercars race win with a couple of my own today,” said van Gisbergen. “It’s so great for the team and cool to be a part of it. We made the most of yesterday’s dramas for today’s races. We had good tyres, and the strategy was perfect for the first race.
“We had really good pace at the start and managed to get the win. We ran really long in the second race before pitting, and we were fighting hard to get back on the podium and then the safety car came out which worked in our favour.
“It’s great to be able to close out the weekend with a Red Bull Holden one-two as well. It’s been an awesome weekend for us and I’m stoked to break #97’s drought, and to be able to get back-to-back wins was even better.”
In Saturday’s race, Van Gisbergen suffered a mechanical on lap 22 and after spilling oil over the track and was forced to make a second stop for repairs. He was given a black flag after he rejoined the race because his car continued to spill oil across the track. It was day-over for him.
Current championship leader Scott McLaughlin managed two podiums coming in second and third in Sunday’s races, having claimed the win on Saturday (Race 22).
“It wasn’t too bad a day because we had a really fast car,” commented McLaughlin. “I think the first qualifying session today was good because I got P2 and I was happy with that. But in the second qualifying session, I got held up at the end of my lap which I think would have put me somewhere between 2nd and 4th. Instead, I got 10th.
“In Race 23, the car wasn’t exactly amazing, but we finished 2nd because of a good strategy call. We tuned up the car for Race 24, and it was mint. We pitted for tyres and some clean air, and the car looked after the tyres so well. We managed to bring it home in 3rd.”
After finishing fourth in Race 22 on Saturday, Jamie Whincup followed this up wit two podiums on Sunday and remains second overall on the points table.
“We managed to get P2 for the overall round result so I’m obviously happy with that, but unfortunately a few of the other teams found some real pace in between the two events,” commented Whincup. “At the same time, I’m pretty proud of what DC (David Cauchi, #88 race engineer) did with today’s race strategy. We took some big risks engineering the car and we certainly improved today – the car was much better.
“We’re just as quick as anyone else, but we’re just missing that last little bit which we’re going to need to find before Bathurst to be able to take it to car #17 and take some points away from them.
“It’s a fantastic weekend for Triple Eight as well; 200 race wins. That’s a massive milestone when you think of when we witnessed Lowndesy’s first win in 2005 back at Eastern Creek, so I’m very fortunate to have been able to contribute to that milestone.
“Of course, finishing the long four-week stint with a one-two is a really great feeling. We’re all a bit weary, quite fatigued and quite homesick so we’re really looking forward to going home.”
McLaughlin leads the Driver’s Championship by 143 over Whincup. Coulthard is still in P7. The Shell V-Power Racing Team leads the Teams’ Championship by 42 points over Red Bull Racing.
Race 23 Results
| Class. | Driver | Gap |
| 1 | Shane van Gisbergen | 39 laps |
| 2 | Scott McLaughlin | 8.395 |
| 3 | Jamie Whincup | 10.239 |
| 4 | Nick Percat | 13.567 |
| 5 | Cameron Waters | 14.807 |
| 6 | Scott Pye | 16.127 |
| 7 | Jack Le Brocq | 33.856 |
| 8 | Lee Holdsworth | 36.308 |
| 9 | Mark Winterbottom | 38.404 |
| 10 | Chaz Mostert | 42.978 |
| 11 | Rick Kelly | 43.192 |
| 12 | Bryce Fullwood | 43.421 |
| 13 | James Courtney | 44.404 |
| 14 | Todd Hazelwood | 48.110 |
| 15 | David Reynolds | 48.303 |
| 16 | Anton De Pasquale | 49.481 |
| 17 | Garry Jacobson | 52.138 |
| 18 | Macauley Jones | 52.505 |
| 19 | Alex Davison | 52.637 |
| 20 | Fabian Coulthard | 52.751 |
| 21 | Chris Pither | 56.057 |
| 22 | Jack Smith | 58.301 |
| 23 | Jake Kostecki | 58.784 |
| 24 | Andre Heimgartner | 1:03.752 |
Race 24 Results
| Class. | Driver | Gap |
| 1 | Shane van Gisbergen | 39 laps |
| 2 | Jamie Whincup | 0.993 |
| 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 3.031 |
| 4 | Chaz Mostert | 3.454 |
| 5 | Scott Pye | 6.836 |
| 6 | Todd Hazelwood | 7.659 |
| 7 | Nick Percat | 8.099 |
| 8 | Fabian Coulthard | 9.451 |
| 9 | James Courtney | 10.015 |
| 10 | Lee Holdsworth | 12.072 |
| 11 | David Reynolds | 12.077 |
| 12 | Cameron Waters | 13.085 |
| 13 | Mark Winterbottom | 14.137 |
| 14 | Jack Le Brocq | 14.711 |
| 15 | Alex Davison | 15.074 |
| 16 | Rick Kelly | 15.615 |
| 17 | Andre Heimgartner | 16.084 |
| 18 | Bryce Fullwood | 17.150 |
| 19 | Macauley Jones | 18.346 |
| 20 | Garry Jacobson | 19.361 |
| 21 | Jack Smith | 19.766 |
| 22 | Jake Kostecki | 20.366 |
| DNF | Anton De Pasquale | |
| DNF | Chris Pither |
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