In a near-perfect weekend, Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen has dominated the second race on the Gold Coast to cap off a successful return for the Repco Supercars Championship.
A massive pile up on lap 3 halted proceedings as the clean-up began after James Golding lost control through the exit of the back chicane hitting the tyre bundle as he bounced off the concrete wall. The following drivers had nowhere to go, as Thomas Randle hit the tyre bundle as he made it through with considerable damage as worse was to come.
Golding, Lee Holdsworth, Broc Feeney, Todd Hazelwood, Nick Percat and Macauley Jones were also victims, the latter’s Brad Jones Racing Holden ZB Commodore even caught on fire.
Other drivers including Randle, Jake Kostecki, James Courtney, Jack Le Brocq and Tim Slade were among many walking wounded.
As this had occurred the Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Mustang of Will Davison had taken the lead at the opening chicane in controversial circumstances as he failed to make it through after making an outside pass on van Gisbergen.
This came to nothing as the race was red flagged and restarted.
Davison led the field away as he held onto the lead until lap 11 when he was overtaken by van Gisbergen, who opened up a 5s margin when the Mustang driver pitted on lap 25.
Stopping three laps later, van Gisbergen didn’t return to the lead as Mostert short-filled and stayed at the head of the pack during the middle stint.
However, it was back to the status quo as van Gisbergen returned to the lead before a second safety car was needed after Randle’s Castrol Racing Mustang stopped on track.
Behind, there was contact between Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus driver Will Brown and Scott Pye in the Alspec Commodore, with the latter losing out as a 5s penalty was imposed to the young driver.
In the end, van Gisbergen took the win from the Mobil 1 Optus Racing Commodore of Mostertas Davison took third.
Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds concluded an excellent weekend for the squad in fourth as Brown’s teammate Brodie Kostecki followed ahead of IRWIN Racing driver Mark Winterbottom, the Monster Energy Racing entry of Cameron Waters, Andre Heimgartner in a stellar comeback drive for R&J Batteries Brad Jones Racing, the Coca Cola PremiAir Racing Commodore of Chris Pither and Slade in the Blanchard Racing Team Mustang rounded out the top 10.
Adelaide awaits for the Repco Supercars Championship for the Valo 500 on December 1-4.