Van Gisbergen wins 2021 Supercars opener at Mt Panarama

Shane van Gisbergen dominated and won the opening race of the 2021 Repco Australia Supercars Championship on Saturday. Back at Mount Panarama, Bathurst, the Kiwi driver has picked up where he left off at the end of last season, having won the 2020 Bathurst 1000.

“Honestly, I was just happy to be spraying champagne all over RD (Roland Dane, Team Owner) on the podium today,” commented van Gisbergen.

“I had a really good start and managed to clear Tim (Slade) who had a shocker, then tried to get ahead of Cam (Waters) but just had too much aero wash.

“I tried to save tyres for the end of the stint as it was impossible to pass in those early stages, but fortunate for me, Cam (Waters) had some problems and had to pit. I saw the bonnet on his car pop up and then I knew he was out of the running.

“With the way the cars are these days, it’s so important to qualify well. My pace was really good, the car was even better, and I’m over the moon to get my first win for the season. It was so good to see all the fans on the hill again and to see an atmosphere back at the track, it was awesome.”

The race was punctuated by separate dramas for Cameron Waters (power steering issue), Tim Slade (crash on lap 35) and Anton De Pasquale (lap 7), with the latter triggering the sole BP Ultimate Safety Car intervention of the race.

“Obviously it’s a big hit for me because I threw away what was potentially going to be a good result,” reflected de Pasquale. “That’s a shame because the car was pretty decent. I was probably just pushing it too hard early on, trying to hang with the guys at the front.” 

Second home was Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United) with Will Davison, making a return to full-time racing in Supercars with DJR Racing, in third.

The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to the track for ARMOR ALL Qualifying on Sunday at 10:05am (local time).

Race 1 Results