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Shane van Gisbergen bounced back from a disastrous Saturday to score a major victory in race two at the Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint.
The Red Bull Holden Racing team made a good start from fourth on the grid, knocking Cameron Waters out of the start and Scott McLaughlin out at Turn 2.
Van Gisbergen then went on to stalk polesitter Nick Percat until he found a way around Turn 13 on lap seven and walked away.
The Kiwi pitted for four tires on lap 17, two laps after McLaughlin and teammate Jamie Whincup took three each, and was unrivaled the entire time.
Percat was out for another four laps but rejoined not only behind van Gisbergen, McLaughlin and Whincup, but also Todd Hazelwood, who took on two tires on lap 16, and Jack Le Brocq from the first brake.
Percat did a short job with the last pair, but couldn’t fight his way back to the podium.
Van Gisbergen finished 8.4 seconds clear of McLaughlin at the flag, marking the 2016 champion’s first victory since Newcastle last year.
It’s also a win in the 200th race of the Supercar Championship for Triple Eight – Roland Dane’s team becomes the first team to accomplish that feat.
“It feels good. In the weeks we’ve had, my team has never given up and to get a win like that we smoked them, it was amazing,” said van Gisbergen.
“We put the [tyre] pressures a little so we were strong at first and I knew I had to catch it [Percat] Before everything overheated
“It was quite aggressive, but we did it. It was a really cool race. Two hundred wins for Triple Eight, what a great feeling. “
When asked about the start, McLaughlin added: “Risk versus reward. Obviously, Shane can risk a bit more, but we’re in a pretty good position right now.
“I just fit in there. If you go outside, sometimes you get muscular … I was playing pretty safe, but I’m pretty happy. “
Meanwhile, Percat was disappointed not to convert pole position and a good start to victory.
“I knew very early that we would not have the long game like the three of us on the podium,” he admitted.
“It’s close, we’ve ticked the box in qualifying, we’ve improved it a bit and we’ve been fine-tuning the race car since last week.
“We have closed the gap, but we need another piece.”
Waters took a solid fifth ahead of Scott Pye, who continued to show impressive race pace, running a long first stint on his way from 11th on the grid.
Hazelwood took the flag in seventh place, but received a 15-second penalty for a pitlane infraction, which left him in 14th place.
“As soon as I dropped down and started to load the clutch, I felt like the pit limiter wasn’t on, so for some reason it went off when the car was in the air,” he said.
“It was a bit violent and I turned it on as soon as I could, but unfortunately I got the penalty.”
That gave Le Brocq seventh place, while Lee Holdsworth ensured that three Tickford Mustangs finished in the top eight.
Like Team 18’s stablemate Pye, Mark Winterbottom was also in the charge, trailing ninth from 19th on the grid.
Chaz Mostert was last in the top 10, having started 13th and executing an aggressive strategy: gaining track position by entering the pits early, but then faded late on old tires.
Mostert endured Rick Kelly in the final stages, taking a hit from the Castrol Mustang at Turn 11 that slowed both cars and ended with David Reynolds in the rear of Kelly.
As a result, Reynolds fell to 15th place, one place ahead of teammate Anton De Pasquale, who started 23rd on a difficult day thus far for Penrite Holden’s team.
Fabian Coulthard was another to fight, dropping four places from his 16th place in the standings.
A third and final 39-lap race will conclude the Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint later this afternoon.
McLaughlin now leads the championship by 149 points over Whincup, with Waters beating Mostert in third place.
