THE GIZ DOES THE BIZ
SHANE Van Gisbergen took another step towards his first Supercars title with the Red Bull Racing Australia upstart defying a 10-second penalty to survive a Gold Coast 600 war.
In another Surfers Paradise street fight that saw the infamous concrete crush cars and break dreams, Van Gisbergen wiped away a pit-lane stop-go penalty to continue his championship charge by holding off Scott McLaughlin (Volvo) and teammate Jamie Whincup.
Van Gisbergen’s Gold Coast 600 hopes looked to have been dashed when his co-driver Alex Premat was slapped down by a 10-second penalty that should have ruined the pair’s race.
But Van Gisbergen instead put a stranglehold on the championship trophy by burning fastest lap after lap to win after a spectacular 265km/h crash left him to survive just two green laps when Fabian Coulthard smashed straight into a concrete wall.
“That was pretty cool,’’ Van Gisbergen said. “We got that penalty but we were able to get the job done so it has been a very good day. The car was amazing and Alex was super fast so it was a great day. We will come back and try and do it again tomorrow.”
Whincup kept himself in the title hunt fighting his way to third in a solid Bathurst bounce back.
He now trails Van Gisbergen by 160 points in what is a two-way title fight.
“We are happy with third. We have a good car and we will now tune it up and see what we can do tomorrow,’’ Whincup said.
The latest instalment of the Gold Coast 600 opened with Alex Premat blasting his way to the front after Van Gisbergen continued his championship charge by putting the No. 97 Red Bull on pole position.
The French co-driver was pursued by Paul Dumbrell in a start that ensured his co-driver Jamie Whincup remained in the two-way title fight with Van Gisbergen.
Rolling the dice with little to lose after a horror Bathurst campaign, Mark Winterbottom was the only fulltime driver to start the race with the reigning champion opting to strap down from position nine.
Winterbottom fired his flying Falcon up to third as Russell Ingall and Craig Baird became the street circuit’s first victims after Jonathon Webb caused the first of the carnage.
Bathurst winner Webb was brought back to earth with a pitlane penalty denting he and Will Davison’s Endurance Cup hopes.