Tailem Bend Supercars: Whincup wins, Van Gisbergen takes points lead

At lights out, Whincup got away while Van Gisbergen was forced into the middle of a three-wide situation with Tim Slade and Craig Lowndes splitting him.

It was Slade who came out on top, but Whincup was long gone after a clean start.

Andre Heimgartner clobbered the rear of another car (Garth Tander), while entering the pits. Soon after, another Nissan driver in Simona de Silvestro was penalized for an unsafe pit release.

Whincup did not pit early however, leading the first 11 laps before making his first stop emerging 3.7 seconds ahead of Van Gisbergen, who got around Caruso after he went wide.

Lee Holdsworth would retire from the race on Lap 20 with apparent mechanical issues, pulling off into the infield.

Whincup extended his advantage to over five seconds until Van Gisbergen made his second stop of the race at the halfway point at Lap 21. A couple laps later, Whincup followed suit. He now held nine seconds over his teammate, but didn’t reclaim the lead until Mark Winterbottom pitted on Lap 30.

In the closing laps, a mistake in Turn 1 by Slade allowed David Reynolds to sneak through.

But up front, it was all Whincup as he pulled out to an 11.2 second lead at the checkered flag in a dominant showing. Van Gisbergen and Reynolds filled out the other two positions on the podium.

“Yeah, big thanks to all the engineers at Red Bull,” said Whincup. “They worked tirelessly throughout the weekend to make sure we had two fast cars.

“I know it’s cliche but full credit to the team, they worked hard behind the scenes.”

Slade was forced to settle for fourth, followed by Nick Percat, Scott Pye, Will Davison, Craig Lowndes, Michael Caruso and Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top-ten.

The title fight has tightened up considerably with Van Gisbergen actually eclipsing McLaughlin and seizing control of the championship standings.

“Yeah that’s pretty awesome, but such a long way to go,” said Van Gisbergen. “We need to keep our heads down.”

There’s now just a 19-point split between the title rival.

Race 2 Results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB
2	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	11.289
3	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	13.457
4	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	20.544
5	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	22.064
6	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	24.688
7	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	26.372
8	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	30.594
9	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	32.414
10	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	34.966
11	99	Anton de	Holden Commodore ZB	43.585
12	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	44.419
13	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	47.099
14	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	47.378
15	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	47.784
16	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	49.080
17	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	53.534
18	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.267
19	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.297
20	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.881
21	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'22.058
22	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	1'36.088
23	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'45.007
24	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'45.587
25	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1 Lap
	18	Lee Holdsworth   Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB
	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima
	42	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB