Townsville Supercars: Van Gisbergen wins all-Triple Eight thriller
Shane van Gisbergen held off a fierce attack from Triple Eight teammate Jamie Whincup to win the second heat of the Townsville SuperSprint.
The two Red Bull Holden drivers were locked in battle for the majority of the race, van Gisbergen shadowing his teammate across the first stint.
At the stops the battle kicked up a gear when Whincup took on three new tyres, while van Gisbergen went for a faster two-tyre stop to give him track position.
Initially he had around four seconds up his sleeve, however the gap quickly shrunk thanks to Whincup's superior tyre grip.
On Lap 21 Whincup started his play to reclaim the lead, van Gisbergen forced to defend into the final corner. It was the same for the next few laps, Whincup finally getting alongside the #97 on Lap 25.
But van Gisbergen's defence was up to the task, the Kiwi holding the inside line down to Turn 2 to keep Whincup at bay.
That took the sting out of Whincup's attack, the seven-time series champion then dropping back with his tyre advantage gone.
Van Gisbergen's final winning margin was 4.5s.
"It was awesome," said van Gisbergen. "We chose to take two tyres to try and get in front and all I had to do was keep him behind for three or four laps until he toasted his fresh one. It was a pretty cool battle, pretty tense. I'm sure there were some tight moments in the garage, but it was good fun."
Whincup added: "I guess the whole pitlane wants us to have a blue, but it's not going to happen. Great team points for both cars.
"I wouldn't be surprised if something in my car is bent, I really struggled to brake probably about four laps from the stop. And I had quite a bad vibration.
"I did what I could at the start to try and gap away from everyone to minimise the stacking risk for both cars to give us both an advantage before the stop. But I probably burnt myself out trying to play the team game."
It was a dominant showing from Triple Eight, with Chaz Mostert the best of the rest in third, 8s behind the winner. He spent the back end of the race under serious fire from Will Davison, the pair crossing the line nose-to-tail.
Todd Hazelwood was an impressive fifth ahead of Scott Pye, Brodie Kostecki, Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds.
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 97 |  Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | - | ||
| 2 | 88 |  Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | 4.547 | 4.547 | 4.547 |
| 3 | 25 | Chaz Mostert | Holden Commodore ZB | 8.125 | 8.125 | 3.578 |
| 4 | 17 | Will Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 8.507 | 8.508 | 0.382 |
| 5 | 14 | Todd Hazelwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 17.445 | 17.445 | 8.938 |
| 6 | 20 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 19.243 | 19.244 | 1.798 |
| 7 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 24.099 | 24.099 | 4.855 |
| 8 | 11 | Anton De Pasquale | Ford Mustang GT | 28.081 | 28.081 | 3.982 |
| 9 | 26 | David Reynolds | Ford Mustang GT | 29.006 | 29.007 | 0.925 |
| 10 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom | Holden Commodore ZB | 32.524 | 32.524 | 3.518 |
| 11 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Mustang GT | 37.723 | 37.723 | 5.199 |
| 12 | 3 | Tim Slade | Ford Mustang GT | 38.734 | 38.734 | 1.011 |
| 13 | 34 | Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 43.282 | 43.283 | 4.549 |
| 14 | 2 | Bryce Fullwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 43.365 | 43.365 | 0.082 |
| 15 | 8 | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 48.556 | 48.557 | 5.192 |
| 16 | 44 | James Courtney | Ford Mustang GT | 51.951 | 51.952 | 3.395 |
| 17 | 22 | Garry Jacobson | Holden Commodore ZB | 56.807 | 56.808 | 4.856 |
| 18 | 5 | Jack Le Brocq | Ford Mustang GT | 58.807 | 58.808 | 2.000 |
| 19 | 4 | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB | 59.043 | 59.044 | 0.236 |
| 20 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Ford Mustang GT | 1'00.495 | 1'00.496 | 1.452 |
| 21 | 19 | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore ZB | 1 lap | ||
| 22 | 35 | Zane Goddard | Holden Commodore ZB | 6 laps | ||
| 23 | 96 | Macauley Jones | Holden Commodore ZB | |||
| 24 | 9 | Will Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | |||
| View full results | ||||||
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