For the first time, New Zealand motor racing star Shane van Gisbergen has claimed the lead in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
Van Gisbergen produced a stunning drive for Red Bull Racing to finish runner-up, glued to the bumper of winner Garth Tander (Holden Racing Team) after a dramatic opening race of the endurance series at the Wilson Security Sandown 500 in Melbourne.
With Jamie Whincup’s team penalised with a drive-through infringement, and ultimately finish in 13th place, van Gisbergen has overtaken his teammate in the lead of the championship.
No New Zealand driver has won the championship since Jim Richards in 1991.
It was an outstanding day for the New Zealand drivers with three finishing in the top six, after Scott McLaughlin just missed the podium in fourth and Fabian Coulthard raced home for sixth.
All eyes are now on van Gisbergen with the famed Bathurst and then Gold Coast stops remaining before the championship heads across the Tasman for the ITM Auckland SuperSprint at Pukekohe.
After the final rash of fuel and tyre stops today, van Gisbergen found himself more than 12 seconds behind Tander after being held up by a lapped car.
However the front fender panel of Tander’s car then came away from the chassis, and officials looked at a potential black flag penalty for the Holden team to correct the problem. They didn’t deem it a safety issue but the resulting drag allowed van Gisbergen to close the gap and was attached to his bumper in a thrilling final lap.
“I’m glad they let that thing run. It wasn’t really safe because it wouldn’t have been right to win that way,” van Gisbergen said. “It was exciting at the end. We had a good car but I couldn’t run him down. They were driving really well but they obviously had some drag at the end which slowed them up.
“Alex (co-driver Alex Premat) did a great job and now it’s on to Bathurst and we are stoked to be second here. And to grab the lead in the drivers’ championships is pretty cool.”
It proved a crazy day with the 500km race stopped for more than 30 minute to fix the safety barrier after a serious crash by Volvo rookie James Golding. While the youngster was unhurt, the delay reduced the 161 lap race by nearly 20 laps.
Then the predicted rain came on two occasions to further drench a sodden circuit, and with it came major changes to the race. Some stayed out on slick tyres and paid the penalty, while others who changed to wet tyres ran out of useful grip after the track dried.
Tander and teammate Warren Luff proved the most steady to claim the victory while van Gisbergen pushed hard in his final stint. It proved a Holden trifecta with Will Davison and owner Jono Webb holding off McLaughlin for third, after his Volvo co-driver David Wall fell back with tyre wear.
Several of the fancied runners had days to forget with Whincup’s chances wrecked when co-driver Paul Dumbrell unlatched his safety belt early on a fuel stop while defending champion Mark Winterbottom had a disaster after co-driver Dean Canto slipped off the track in the wet on slick tyres to push them to the back of the field.
Of the other Kiwi main drivers, Chris Pither and Richie Stanaway were 17th for Super Black Racing and Andre Heimgartner with Aaren Russell were 19th. Super Black Racing were ultimately caught out in the conditions, but not before Stanaway, in his first drive in the category, produced a stunning performance to drive the team into contention in the wet.
Van Gisbergen leads the championship on 2246 points, just seven ahead of Whincup with McLaughlin moving up to fourth and Coulthard up two spots to 12th. Pither also moves up to 18th and Heimgartner 24th.
The Pirtek Enduro Cup comprises the Wilson Security Sandown 500, the Supercheap Autos Bathurst 1000 and the Castrol Gold Coast 600. The Supercars then heads across the Tasman for the ITM Auckland SuperSprint at Pukekohe Park Raceway for the penultimate stop in the Championship,
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