V8 Supercars

Gripping strategy gives Van Gisbergen the win in second race at Hidden Valley

3 Mins read

A late-race safety-car period and superior tyre strategy gave Shane van Gisbergen his second V8 Supercars career win in Sunday’s 200 kilometre race of the SKYCITY Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin.

With just eleven laps remaining, series leader Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup, had looked certain to take the victory before a high-speed crash involving Karl Reindler of Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing, brought out the safety-car.

Leading the pack at the restart and setting up a re-run of the previous day’s dramatic third safety car restart race were Whincup, Team Vodafone’s Craig Lowndes, Orrcon Steel FPR’s Mark Winterbottom and Fujitsu Racing GRM’s Lee Holdsworth.

For the first time this weekend, teams could use a set of the softer, faster tyres at their discretion during the 200km race and Whincup and Holdsworth who had pitted from first and second on lap 43, both going to the hard tyres were helpless against those soft option tyre runners.

Winterbottomand Lowndes were the early winners, leap-frogging Whincup. But it was the 22-year old van-Gisbergen, who having started in twelfth, stormed through to claim victory, reeling in Winterbottom and then Lowndes with just three laps to go. The win moves the SP Tools Racing driver above Saturday’s winner, Rick Kelly, to third in the title race.

“That was awesome! Yesterday was a bit of a shambles but we had a bit of luck with that last Safety Car and that’s what we were hoping for with our strategy,” said the ecstatic New-Zealander.

“I could see Craig was in trouble with his rear tyres and I didn’t have much left when I passed him either. But it’s perfect for our championship,” he continued.

Lowndes claimed his second podium finish in as many days, whittling the gap to teammate and points leader Whincup down to 156 points, almost the equivalent of one race win. Winterbottom finished in third place, making up for a disappointing result in the first race.

Lucky 7 Racing’s Tim Slade, Supercheap Auto Racing’s Russell Ingall rounded out the top five, followed home by Whincup, Trading Post FPR Falcon driver Will Davison, Irwin Racing’s Alex Davison, Jim Beam Racing’s Steven Johnson and Jana Living Racing’s Jason Bargwanna.

After a crash in race one, Jason Bright's weekend went from bad to worse when the Team BOC Commodore detonated an engine on lap 11, leaving a trail of oil on the circuit. The spill resulted in him, Toll Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney, Karl Reindler and Rick Kelly all sliding off the track.

Saturday race winner Jack Daniel’s Racing’s Rick Kelly was also to later lose out badly when his fuel strategy forced the early use of his Sprint tyres and he finished in twentieth.

The next round will be the Sucrogen Townsville 400 from 8-10 July.

Race 13 results:

Pos Entrant Driver Vehicle Fastest Lap Fastest Lap Time Race Time Laps Points
1 SP Tools Racing Shane van Gisbergen Falcon FG 51 01:10:6435 01:27:04:3716 69 150
2 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes Commodore VE2 49 01:09:8139 01:27:05:2655 69 138
3 Orrcon Steel FPR
Falcon
Mark Winterbottom Falcon FG 49 01:09:8240 01:27:06:1017 69 129
4 Lucky 7 Racing Tim Slade Falcon FG 46 01:10:6596 01:27:06:5474 69 120
5 Supercheap Auto
Racing
Russell Ingall Commodore VE2 47 01:10:6386 01:27:09:4492 69 111
6 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup Commodore VE2 9 01:10:5574 01:27:11:5742 69 102
7 Trading Post FPR
Falcon
Will Davison Falcon FG 56 01:10:5268 01:27:12:1848 69 96
8 Irwin Racing Alex Davison Falcon FG 48 01:09:9182 01:27:15:0812 69 90
9 Jim Beam Racing Steven Johnson Falcon FG 48 01:10:7126 01:27:15:6765 69 84
10 Jana Living Racing Jason Bargwanna Commodore VE2 51 01:10:2019 01:27:17:3615 69 78
11 The Bottle-O Racing Team Paul Dumbrell Falcon FG 57 01:09:9252 01:27:17:5202 69 72
12 Fujitsu Racing GRM Michael Caruso Commodore VE2 48 01:09:7450 01:27:19:1062 69 69
13 Jim Beam Racing James Moffat Falcon FG 54 01:10:7231 01:27:20:4378 69 66
14 VIP Petfoods Steve Owen Commodore VE2 51 01:10:8403 01:27:20:4652 69 63
15 Fujitsu Racing GRM Lee Holdsworth Commodore VE2 2 01:10:3369 01:27:22:5310 69 60
16 Mother Energy Racing Team Jonathon Webb Falcon FG 47 01:10:4025 01:27:24:9813 69 57
17 Wilson Security
Racing
Tony D’Alberto Falcon FG 51 01:10:7063 01:27:29:1436 69 54
18 Bundaberg Racing Fabian Coulthard Commodore VE2 51 01:10:2223 01:27:32:2109 69 51
19 Triple F Racing Dean Fiore Falcon FG 49 01:10:3362 01:27:33:4502 69 48
20 Jack Daniel’s Racing Rick Kelly Commodore VE2 41 01:10:9453 01:27:44:0197 69 45
21 Stratco Racing David Reynolds Commodore VE2 63 01:11:1628 01:27:49:8758 69
22 Pepsi Max Crew Greg Murphy Commodore VE2 18 01:11:8012 01:27:36:1328 68 39
23 Gulf Western Oil
Racing
Warren Luff Commodore VE2 48 01:10:3397 01:28:05:6452 68 36
24 Toll Holden Racing
Team
James Courtney Commodore VE2 46 01:09:8966 01:27:40:5068 63 33
25 Fair Dinkum Sheds
Racing
Karl Reindler Commodore VE2 52 01:12:4089 01:28:05:2757 63 30
26 Toll Holden Racing
Team
Garth Tander Commodore VE2 6 01:11:7237 01:27:37:5319 56 27
DNF Jack Daniel’s Racing Todd Kelly Commodore VE2 6 01:12:4631 58:23:7959 45 0
DNF Team Boc Jason Bright Commodore VE2 6 01:12:2644 12:17:4783 10 0
170 posts

About author
Andy is our resident V8 Supercars reporter. He also runs the V8 Supercars fan site www.v8scglobal.com and works as a freelance motorsport writer (with experience in both the World and British Touring Car Championships). You can find him on Twitter at @andychampness or contact him via his website www.andychampness.co.uk
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