The Bend Supercars: Van Gisbergen cruises to victory

It was the lead Tickford cars that got the best of the start, shock polesitter Zak Best holding onto the lead as Cam Waters snuck under van Gisbergen at Turn 1. Best then settled into what looked to be a comfortable one-second lead ahead of his teammate. Initially the greatest threat to his lead came from race control which reviewed a suspected jump start before deciding against any further action.

As Best continued to lead across the first stint there was a change of position behind on lap seven when van Gisbergen dived inside Waters at Turn 1 to claim second. He then turned the heat onto Best, eventually getting through to the lead at Turn 3 on lap 11. Waters took his mandatory service right before the lead changed hands, resuming behind an early-stopping Will Davison.

Best followed suit on lap 12 and resumed behind Waters, while van Gisbergen trucked on with an overcut strategy. Chaz Mostert brought himself into the game with a reasonably long first stint, a lap 15 stop bringing him out between Waters and Best. A lockup and trip across the gravel for Waters at Turn 1 on lap 17 then helped Mostert close up on Waters before he charged into third place.

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics Van Gisbergen waited until lap 20 to take his service, the Kiwi resuming in a comfortable lead over Davison and Mostert. From there he could just manage the gap back to the field as he cruised to victory. “The car was magic,” said van Gisbergen.

“I’ve been struggling with my driving but the car has been really good. Just hard to drive, but racing under the limit it was fine. “I had a great battle at the start with Cam and Zak, he was driving really well as well.

But it cost us some time so we had to run long to get some clear air. It was an awesome day. ” Van Gisbergen now leads by 323 points which means he has more than a round up his sleeve.

Davison did well in the second stint to nurse tyres that had been on the car since lap 5 to second place. He was followed home by Mostert and the two Tickford drivers Waters and Best. Brodie Kostecki finished sixth ahead off Broc Feeney and David Reynolds, while Anton De Pasquale dropped back to ninth.

Andre Heimgartner recovered from his slightly underwhelming qualifying effort by moving up to 10th in the race. The Bend SuperSprint continued with two more races tomorrow. The Bend SuperSprint Race 1 results Cla # Driver Car Time Gap Interval 1 97 Shane van Gisbergen Holden Commodore ZB 2 17 Will Davison Ford Mustang GT 2.

2227 3 25 Chaz Mostert Holden Commodore ZB 4. 0888 4 6 Cameron Waters Ford Mustang GT 10. 4553 5 78 Zak Best Holden Commodore ZB 10.

8632 6 99 Brodie Kostecki Holden Commodore ZB 11. 4282 7 88 Broc Feeney Holden Commodore ZB 11. 7643 8 26 David Reynolds Ford Mustang GT 13.

2936 9 11 Anton De Pasquale Ford Mustang GT 13. 7233 10 8 Andre Heimgartner Holden Commodore ZB 14. 4812 11 55 Thomas Randle Ford Mustang GT 17.

1168 12 20 Scott Pye Holden Commodore ZB 18. 1578 13 2 Nick Percat Holden Commodore ZB 20. 1370 14 5 James Courtney Ford Mustang GT 20.

7408 15 10 Lee Holdsworth Ford Mustang GT 21. 0182 16 18 Mark Winterbottom Holden Commodore ZB 24. 7133 17 14 Bryce Fullwood Holden Commodore ZB 25.

0493 18 35 Todd Hazelwood Holden Commodore ZB 25. 1013 19 31 James Golding Holden Commodore ZB 25. 8861 20 9 Will Brown Holden Commodore ZB 31.

3037 21 34 Jack Le Brocq Holden Commodore ZB 32. 2222 22 96 Macauley Jones Holden Commodore ZB 32. 2805 23 3 Tim Slade Ford Mustang GT 33.

0330 24 22 Chris Pither Holden Commodore ZB 35. 1432 25 49 Jordan Boys Holden Commodore ZB 35. 4297 26 4 Jack Smith Holden Commodore ZB 38.

7309 27 56 Jake Kostecki Ford Mustang GT 1’05. 3206 View full results shares comments.