Shane van Gisbergen has outlasted Will Davison to record his 16th win of the season. Van Gisbergen helped himself to a second Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint win of the day.
The Kiwi’s points lead blew out with Cam Waters and Anton De Pasquale both striking trouble.
Waters ran off chasing Chaz Mostert at Turn 9 in the closing laps. De Pasquale, meanwhile, suffered damage after early contact with Davison.
Van Gisbergen’s 16th win drew him level with Craig Lowndes’ haul set in 1996.
Only Scott McLaughlin’s record 18 wins, set in 2019, is in van Gisbergen’s way.
The victory was also the 70th of van Gisbergen’s long career, which began way back in 2007.
Broc Feeney scored his second podium of the year after a late overtake on Mostert.
“It was critical in those first few laps, what an awesome battle,” van Gisbergen said.
“It’s a shame Anton got damage, and we couldn’t all fight it out.
“So stoked for the team, double podium, congrats to Broc.
“]Davison’s] been really fast all weekend, I followed him yesterday, he was driving very well.
“That race, I knew I had to get him at the start… I didn’t look in the mirror, I just kept pushing.”
Davison and van Gisbergen walked away from the field off the line. Jake Kostecki spun in front of the field and was collected by Todd Hazelwood, with Chris Pither and Macauley Jones also implicated. Van Gisbergen hounded Davison and cleared the Shell V-Power Ford into Turn 6.
An error by van Gisbergen at Turn 11 helped Davison close in, only for De Pasquale to hit his teammate.
De Pasquale immediately came in with broken steering, and lost six laps in the pits.
Davison chased van Gisbergen despite smoke haemorrhaging from the rear of the #17 Mustang. Van Gisbergen, Davison, Mostert, Waters and Feeney were covered by 1.5s by lap 8.
The smoke cleared from Davison’s car once Mostert pitted on lap 9 in an effort to undercut the leaders.
Van Gisbergen, Davison, Waters and Feeney carried on, with Winterbottom keeping a watching brief.
Winterbottom and Feeney stopped on lap 15 and 16 respectively.
Red Bull Ampol Racing dragged van Gisbergen in on lap 17, and he emerged just ahead of Mostert.
Waters and Brown made their stops on lap 19, leaving Davison in clear air on his own.
Davison finally stopped from the lead on lap 23, and on cold tyres, dropped two seconds to van Gisbergen.
Davison dropped Mostert, who fell into the clutches of Waters. However, Waters made a critical error at Turn 9, and dropped to 10th. The gap to van Gisbergen plateaued at two seconds, despite Davison setting a personal best lap on lap 28.
Davison set the fastest lap of the race on the following lap, and clinched the five bonus points. Davison closed the margin to 0.8s with three laps remaining, but van Gisbergen held on to score career win No. 70. The end margin was a scant 0.4s, with Feeney 11.8s behind his teammate.
Van Gisbergen now has a whopping 500-point lead over Waters, with Davison and De Pasquale just behind.
Red Bull Ampol Racing opened up its teams’ championship lead to 196 points.
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Keyword: Supercars: Van Gisbergen outlasts Davison in Sandown finale