Shane van Gisbergen has stormed to a convincing victory in the first of two races on the Gold Coast this weekend. As a result, he has been crowned 2022 Supercars champion, with three races still to be completed.
Needing only 33 points to claim the title, the Red Bull racer could have cruised to finish 24th to win that crown. He does, however, like to do things in style, which he did by winning today’s race.
Starting second, van Gisbergen got away well to put the pressure on pole-sitter David Reynolds over the opening laps. A rhythm was quickly formed, the expected chaos not unfolding through superb driving and awareness from the field in their entirety.
It was all about van Gisbergen, however, as he claimed victory by a comfortable 17 seconds over Reynolds. Chaz Mostert held off a charging Will Davison for fourth, whilst Cam Waters overcame contact with the wall exiting the chicane, which caused him to spin, to finish fifth.
Fourth place for Davison was as equally impressive as van Gisbergen’s win, he had started ninth before a slow stop saw him running at the rear of the field early. He charged throughout the race, not quite able to pick off mostert for a podium in an excellent final lap battle.
Anton de Pasquale also drove a clean race to finish sixth, whilst Brodie Kostecki, James Courtney, Mark Winterbottom and Nick Percat rounded out the top 10.
Chris Pither was the second best Kiwi, finishing 16th in a clean, solid run.
It was a difficult race for Andre Heimgartner, who was the only non-finisher in the field with mechanical gremlins.
Tim Brown was the other driver to go laps down, contact with the wall exiting the chicane damaging his car and seeing him return to the lane. He did re-emerge, however 13 laps down.
It’s been a year of domination from the Kiwi, today’s victory making it 20 for the year, from 31 attempts. Following victory at Bathurst, van Gisbergen broke Scott McLaughlin’s record for the most race wins in a season, that win being his 19th.
The year started strongly for the new champion as he claimed the season opener, backing it up with a victory in Race 3 after a sixth in Race 2.
Heading to Symmons Plain for Round 2, the Kiwi dominated the event to take a clean sweep, three race victories to his name.
Next up was the Melbourne 400, run in support of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. On a track known for its difficulty to pass, van Gisbergen finished third in Race 1 before winning races 2 and 3.
He dropped off the pace in the fourth race at that event, finishing in 21st place. This marks only one of two times the Kiwi has finished outside the top 10 in 2022.
In Perth, van Gisbergen won two of the three races before a “difficult” round at Winton saw him only take one victory in three races.
Next up was the Darwin Triple Crown, another “difficult” round which saw two third places and a 21st. This is the only round in 2022 where van Gisbergen failed to score a win.
Two further clean-sweeps followed, first with both events at the Townsville 500 and next with three victories at The Bend. Sandown followed and added two more race victories to the tally.
The next two rounds were the most iconic victories of 2022, including two wins at the final ever Pukekohe SuperSprint, the Kiwi’s home race. Just weeks later, he went to the mountain and partnered with Garth Tander to win the Bathurst 1000.
Now, here we are, yet another victory, this time on the Gold Coast. The domination continues, and with three rounds to go, there’s no doubt van Gisbergen will be a hot pick to build on his record season.
Race Report
Starting from pole, Reynolds backed up his incredible Top 10 Shootout lap by leading the field into Turn 1. Van Gisbergen immediately locked in behind with Waters close behind, pulling up alongside Reynolds at one point but not able to work his way past on the tight circuit.
It was a clean first few laps, Mark Winterbottom the biggest mover off the start and working his way into ninth, from 13th, by Lap 3.
A rhythm was quickly established, with Reynolds and van Gisbergen building a slight gap over the third-placed Waters.
James Courtney and Davison were among the first to make their first box, on Lap 8, a slow stop by the Shell V-Power team see Davison drop to the rear of the field.
The field broke up their stops over the next few laps, whilst the leaders remained out and battled between themselves. This paid dividends for van Gisbergen on Lap 16 as he worked his way past Reynolds to take the lead of the race.
The championship leader came in for his stop the lap after Reynolds, on Lap 26, to emerge just in front of the Australian, the undercut not quite working for Penrite Racing.
Once everyone had made their stops, by Lap 39, the true running order returned with van Gisbergen leading Reynolds and Waters, de Pasquale and Davison respectively.
It did, however, become a race of strategy with overtaking difficult, teams running their own races in terms of fuel intake and tyre management.
As the race crossed the halfway point Reynolds began to complain of a loose steering wheel, the team forced to frantically work on getting a spare up to standard come his final stop.
He maintained his net position following that stop on Lap 54, van Gisbergen also maintaining the lead after his the following lap.
The lead from here grew out to over 11 seconds with 20 laps remaining, Reynolds still holding second, now off Chaz Mostert who had worked his way forward through proceedings.
Van Gisbergen was cruising from here, and continued to do so to take victory by some 18 seconds over Reynolds.
Mostert was locked in a fierce battle with Davison over the final lap, able to him off to round out the podium. A spin and contact with the wall mid-way through the race was not enough to stop Cam Waters from claiming fifth.
Supercars returns to the Gold Coast tomorrow for another 250km race.
