Van Gisbergen Takes His Second Bathurst Title
SVG and co-driver, Garth Tander, climbed from 7th on the grid and overcame a 5-second time penalty to take the win. Hot on the heels of his podium finish at the Rally of New Zealand last week, Giltrap Sponsored driver, Shane van Gisbergen has secured his second Bathurst 1000 title in spectacular fashion. With a deluge of rain over the weekend and in the opening stanza it was an incident-filled race, essentially every one of the 28 strong grid incurred some form of damage, a penalty or spun at least once throughout the 161 laps.
The Bathurst weekend didn’t start out winningly for SVG, the 33 year old Kiwi wasn’t happy with braking performance during initial practice sessions. The Red Bull Ampol Racing team quickly sorted the issue and Co-driver, Garth Tander went out to set the fastest time in the next practice session. It was a wet qualifying session, van Gisbergen marred by a clash with Macauley Jones when SVG thought Jones was letting him through. Van Gisbergen concluded qualifying 4th, but was relegated to 7th after a stewards decision around the tangle with Jones. The torrential rain also made it unsafe to hold the traditional top-ten shoot out qualifying session, the first time in decades that session couldn’t run.
Fellow Kiwis and wildcard entrants, Richie Stanaway and Giltrap Group Sponsored, Greg Murphy, qualified in 5th. Stanaway reaffirming punters of his talent despite famously walking away from Supercars and indeed all motorsport three years ago.
As anyone familiar with Bathurst will attest, it’s less about your starting position and where you are in the final third of the race. Tander drove cleanly and decisively during a treacherous first stint, with two separate and significant safety car incidents in the first 6 laps. Carnage ensued for the first 57 laps where the safety car was be required another 4 times.
But van Gisbergen was clearly quick and would eventually pull out to a huge 17-second lead in the dryer conditions and as the track ‘rubbered up’ the number 97 car would just get faster and faster.
It was looking like a runaway win for van Gisbergen and Tander, but two more safety car incidents in the final stages of the race compressed the field. Putting the hard charging Chaz Mostert, Brodie Kostecki and Cameron Waters all on fresh tyres and within striking distance.
The final 16 laps were frantic, Mostert and van Gisbergen throwing their ZB Holden Supercars around the Mountain circuit at qualifying lap pace. The Kiwi holding off the challenge from Mostert to secure his second Bathurst victory and Garth Tander’s fifth victory.
This would be the swansong for Holden at the great race. The brand has been synonymous with Supercars for generations but with General Motors shutting the doors on Australian manufacturing in 2020, the ZB commodore will now be phased out of competition as the series transitions to the new generation chassis next year.
Van Gisbergen will be piloting a Chevrolet Camaro in 2023.