SVG makes perfect start to series
MOTORSPORT: Two pole positions, two race wins.
The numbers don’t get much better for Holden’s Shane van Gisbergen after the opening weekend of the Supercars championship in Adelaide.
As his Red Bull Holden Racing Team stablemate and defending champion Jamie Whincup failed to finish a Supercars race for the first time in 136 races, van Gisbergen made it four wins from as many starts on the streets of Adelaide in Sunday’s 250km finale.
In front of a record crowd of 85,100, van Gisbergen made the most of Whincup’s drama to leave South Australia with a 32-point lead in the championship standings.
It’s the 2016 champion’s 26th race win in his career and he joins Whincup (08, 09) and Marcos Ambrose (04, 05) as the only drivers to claim four consecutive victories in Adelaide.
Bathurst 1000 winner David Reynolds, who briefly jumped van Gisbergen mid-race following a pit stop before being overtaken a few laps later, took out second place and leave Adelaide in second place on the championship standings.
Holden veteran Garth Tander came home third in a solid result for the 40-year-old driver.
Whincup was 11 seconds clear at the front with 30 laps gone when his gearbox blew up.
The seven-time driver’s champion attempted to steer his Commodore back to the pits for repairs but the damage to his transaxle was too great and he had to retire for the first time since the Gold Coast event in 2013.
Ford driver Scott McLaughlin, who started the day just behind the Red Bull pair on the grid, had to settle for a 10thplace finish after a puncture on lap 25 scuppered any hope he held of a podium finish.
The championship’s next stop is the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne from March 22-25.