Van Gisbergen wins a thriller in Pukekohe’s last Supercars race

Shane van Gisbergen has won the last ever Supercars race at his home circuit of Pukekohe after a hair-raising battle with Cameron Waters.

A bungled pit stop at the Shell V-Power Racing Team took pole-sitter Will Davison out of the effective lead, leaving Waters to try and fend off two New Zealanders in Andre Heimgartner and van Gisbergen for victory.

The Tickford Racing driver was ragged, losing most of his gap to Heimgartner with an off at the chicane, before just keeping van Gisbergen at bay after another error at the Hairpin.

He was nearly spinning into the wall a lap later when they made contact through Turn 11, but eventually ceded first position to the Red Bull Ampol Racing entry with just over two laps of 41 remaining.

THE FINAL RACE OF THE 2023 REPCO SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP ON ONE OF THE WORLD’S BEST STREET CIRCUITS.
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In the end, van Gisbergen prevailed, from eighth on the grid, by margin of 1.1160s over the #50 Monster Energy Mustang of Waters, with Brad Jones Racing’s Heimgartner third in the #8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore.

CLICK HERE for van Gisbergen reaction

At lights out, pole-sitter Davison got a slightly better launch than fellow front row starter Waters, who tucked in and rubbed the rear bar of the #17 Mustang as they switched from Turn 1 into Turn 2.

At the back of the field, James Courtney (#5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang) ended up spinning heavily into the wall after contact with Todd Hazelwood (#35 Truck Assist ZB Commodore) and possibly also Tickford team-mate Jake Kostecki (#56 Tradie Mustang), with those drivers having been four-wide with Jack Smith (#4 SCT Logistics ZB Commodore) off the start.

Under the Safety Car which ensued, it was Davison heading Waters, Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang), Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore), Heimgartner, Scott Pye (#20 Nulon ZB Commodore), David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang), van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore), Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore), and Nick Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore).

Courtney was unharmed but a long delay unfolded in order to reposition the concrete blocks, before a restart on Lap 12.

Van Gisbergen was seventh once he dived past Reynolds at the Hairpin on Lap 14, as Waters continued to tail Davison at the very front of the field.

Pye pitted from a busy group on Lap 16 and Feeney was into the lane from just behind De Pasquale’s rear wing on Lap 18.

De Pasquale himself and Heimgartner were in a lap later for rears and the BJR crew were able to give their man the jump on the Dick Johnson Racing entry.

Heimgartner also got out ahead of Feeney and, after some rubbing through the Turn 2/Turn 3/Turn 4 complex, held the spot to consolidate an effective gain of yet another position.

Waters stopped on Lap 21 and Davison on Lap 22, at which point the DJR driver’s race unravelled.

Car #17 was dropped with the left-rear not tightened properly and, after a slow lap during which he ceded the effective race lead to Waters anyway, Davison was soon back to the pits for another left-rear, and then again to serve a drive-through for an unsafe release.

Van Gisbergen took service on Lap 25 and rejoined an effective third, but he and Heimgartner were right up behind Waters after the Tickford driver had an off at Turn 5.

They were the official top three when the pit stop cycle wrapped up at the end of Lap 30, before van Gisbergen went down the inside of Heimgartner next time through at Turn 5.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver faced a 0.86s deficit to Waters as Feeney ran in fourth, from De Pasquale, Pye, Mostert, Percat, Reynolds, and Tim Slade (#3 CoolDrive Mustang) in 10th.

Waters pinched a brake and ran deep at the Hairpin on Lap 34, but held the position on that occasion.

A lap later, van Gisbergen outbraked Car #50 at the same corner, but Waters fought back as they accelerated towards the final sweepers.

They made contact, #97’s left-front to #50’s right-rear, as they turned onto the main straight and van Gisbergen got out of the throttle as Waters somehow saved a big slide and clung on to the race lead.

On Lap 39, van Gisbergen opted for a criss-cross at the Hairpin and executed it to perfection, completing the pass as they turned back onto the main straight, after which he was never headed.

Behind Waters and Heimgartner finished Feeney in fourth, one spot up on De Pasquale, whose car was repaired by DJR after a sizeable crash in Race 28, earlier in the day.

Mostert took sixth, ahead of Pye, Reynolds, Percat, and Slade, with Davison a lap down in 22nd and Hazelwood making the finish at six laps down in 23rd.

With van Gisbergen also taking the five fastest lap points, his championship lead is now 525 points over Waters, and he also secures the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.

The next event of the Repco Supercars Championship is the Repco Bathurst 1000, at Mount Panorama on October 6-9.

Results: Race 29, ITM Auckland SuperSprint

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Laps	Race time
1	97	Red Bull Ampol Racing	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:40.0655
2	50	Monster Energy Racing	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	41	54:41.1815
3	8	R&J Batteries Racing	Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:41.6920
4	88	Red Bull Ampol Racing	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:43.2791
5	11	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	41	54:45.6921
6	25	Mobil 1 Optus Racing	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:46.2930
7	20	Nulon Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:47.4824
8	26	Penrite Racing	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	41	54:48.5835
9	2	Mobil 1 NTI Racing	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:52.6972
10	3	CoolDrive Auto Parts	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	41	54:53.0290
11	31	Subway PremiAir Racing	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:58.0870
12	18	IRWIN Racing	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	41	54:59.0081
13	14	Middy’s Electrical Racing	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	41	55:04.7275
14	10	Penrite Racing	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	41	55:05.3836
15	56	Tradie Racing	Jake Kostecki	Ford Mustang GT	41	55:05.6846
16	22	PremiAir Coca Cola Racing	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	41	55:06.8265
17	96	Kubota Racing	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	41	55:07.2909
18	55	Castrol Racing	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	41	55:11.8927
19	99	Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	41	55:12.5520
20	4	SCT Logistics Racing	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	41	55:14.7248
21	34	Truck Assist Racing	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	41	55:17.3582
22	17	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	40	55:35.2071
23	35	Truck Assist Racing	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	34	55:17.4994
NC	5	Snowy River Racing	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT

Fastest lap (bonus): Shane van Gisbergen, 1:03.0287, Lap 28

Drivers’ championship

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Shane van Gisbergen	2782
2	Cameron Waters	2257
3	Will Davison	2180
4	Anton De Pasquale	2113
5	Chaz Mostert	2004
6	Broc Feeney	1852
7	David Reynolds	1742
8	Andre Heimgartner	1592
9	Brodie Kostecki	1485
10	Tim Slade	1435
11	Mark Winterbottom	1429
12	James Courtney	1421
13	William Brown	1312
14	Lee Holdsworth	1308
15	Nick Percat	1280
16	Scott Pye	1212
17	Todd Hazelwood	1162
18	Bryce Fullwood	1056
19	Macauley Jones	997
20	Thomas Randle	973
21	Jack Le Brocq	937
22	Jake Kostecki	931
23	Chris Pither	927
24	Jack Smith	862
25	Garry Jacobson	513
26	James Golding	444
27	Jordan Boys	168
28	Zak Best	162
29	Jayden Ojeda	150

Teams’ championship Updated

Pos	Car(s)			Team	Pts
1	88	97		Triple Eight Race Engineering	4634
2	11	17		Dick Johnson Racing Team	4293
3	5	(6)	50	Tickford Racing	3678
4	2	25		Walkinshaw Andretti United	3254
5	10	26		Grove Racing	3050
6	9	99		Erebus Motorsport	2797
7	8	14		Brad Jones Racing	2648
8	18	20		Team 18	2621
9	34	35		Matt Stone Racing	2099
10	22	31	(76)	PremiAir Racing	1884
11	55	56		Tickford Racing	1874
12	4	96		Brad Jones Racing	1859
13	3			Blanchard Racing Team	1435
14	49			Image Racing	168
15	78			Tickford Racing	162
16	27			Walkinshaw Andretti United	150