Wheelnut woe prevents van Gisbergen triple
AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS HIDDEN VALLEY (AUS) 19-20 JUNE ROUND 5/12
Shane van Gisbergen went within a stuck wheelnut of clean-sweeping the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley.
The Kiwi was well on track to win Saturday’s opener after muscling his way past polesitter Anton De Pasquale at the first corner and settling into a comfortable lead. But his good work from the first stint was undone by a stubborn wheelnut during the Triple Eight-run Holden’s mandatory stop, the 30-second delay meaning the best he could manage was 13th.
That was good news for Chaz Mostert, who started eighth but found himself running third on the opening lap after surviving a Turn 1 pile-up that took out De Pasquale and other frontrunners including Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye. He then overhauled Nick Percat to move into second before inheriting a second victory in his Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden thanks to van Gisbergen’s wheel issue.
On Sunday, Will Davison burst out of the blocks with two lap-record-shattering pole positions for his DJR Ford on the new supersoft control tyre. But he could not convert either pole into a win, van Gisbergen beating him off the line from the outside of the front row on both occasions to set up an impressive pair of wins.
Davison could match van Gisbergen on pace, but didn’t have the speed to get back past, the veteran forced to settle for two seconds.
Jamie Whincup was third in both of Sunday’s races following an underwhelming 12th on Saturday, his margin to runaway series leader van Gisbergen now 221 points.