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Fabian Coulthard won a spectacular opening race at the Repco The Bend SuperSprint, where title rivals Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin met on the first lap.
Although the rain that threatened to spice up the action never came, the first Supercars race at The Bend on the Dunlop soft compound tire was lacking in nothing for the action.
Fifth-ranked starter Coulthard won a thrilling late-race battle to lead Jack Le Brocq, while rookie Bryce Fullwood completed an unlikely podium.
The result ended a 41-race winless streak for Coulthard, making the most of a difficult day for Shell V-Power Racing teammate McLaughlin.
McLaughlin took the lead off Whincup, van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert, who had made a slow start from ARMOR ALL Pole.
But McLaughlin’s lead would only last until Turn 17, where Whincup dived inside and locked the rear brakes as Shell Ford covered.
Side contact from the sliding Commodore sent both cars off the road: Whincup backed down in 10th and McLaughlin in 19th.
They were eighth and 17th when they both pitted five laps later, with McLaughlin coming out of the lane 10 seconds ahead after Whincup served a 15-second penalty.
Van Gisbergen had inherited the lead thanks to his crash on the first lap and held first place until entering the pits on lap eight of 24.
It made it back to the top once the pit stop cycle was complete, but with the Red Bull Commodore chewing on its tires, the Kiwi was under great pressure.
Despite having tires three laps older than Van Gisbergen, Le Brocq hounded the leader and briefly hit the front with an inside move at Turn 17 on Lap 19.
Van Gisbergen, however, took up the spot at the start and, with Le Brocq open, Coulthard demoted the Supercheap Mustang to third place.
Le Brocq rallied second to Coulthard at Turn 6 on lap 22 and then had another shot at van Gisbergen, only to once again fall behind Shell’s entry into the battle.
Van Gisbergen eventually lost the lead at Turn 1 the next lap, where Coulthard and Le Brocq found their way through the ailing Red Bull entrance.
That left both Ford drivers fighting for the win: Coulthard held for 0.4693s.
McLaughlin took the flag in third place, but received a 15-second penalty for a collision on lap 22 with Lee Holdsworth while battling for fourth place.
That demoted McLaughlin to 15th place and gave Bryce Fullwood the first podium of his career, ahead of Andre Heimgartner, Cameron Waters, Rick Kelly, Scott Pye and Anton De Pasquale.
Van Gisbergen dropped to ninth place, while Whincup also struggled with the tires at the end, finishing 19th to follow McLaughlin in the standings by 151 points.
Mostert was another who struggled with tire life in the race, finishing 12th.
There were no such concerns for Coulthard, who scored a great victory during his start in the 200th round of the Supercar Championship.
“Forty-one was a long time ago, so my 200th round start as well, so getting a win is incredible,” he said beaming.
“Can’t thank my boys enough, little Marky [Fenning, engineer] I got my car okay so we look forward to our time there at the end.
Meanwhile, Le Brocq had mixed emotions about second place.
“You live and you learn. I’m kind of annoyed with myself for putting the car in the wrong place basically,” he said.
“I thought we had the car to win today, so it’s a bit frustrating for me, but it’s still a pleasure and an incredible result for everyone in the team.”
