Hometown hero Shane Van Gisbergen is hopeful Saturday’s Supercars race win at Pukekohe is the start of 2019 fightback by Holden.
The New Zealander secured his fifth Supercars race win at the track he grew up driving on, finishing ahead of Jamie Whincup in a Red Bull Holden Racing Team one-two at the Auckland SuperSprint.
That result was taken away post-race, however, with stewards stripping Whincup of his podium finish due to a second-lap collision with Nick Percat.
Stewards imposed a 15-second penalty on Whincup for the collision, meaning he drops to sixth, with Ford’s Cam Waters elevated to second and Holden’s David Reynolds third.
The victory is just the fourth win for a Commodore this season – three of which have been by Van Gisbergen – in a year dominated by Ford’s Mustang.
Van Gisbergen admitted aerodynamic adjustments made to the Commodore between the previous round at Tailem Bend in South Australia and Auckland had made a difference, giving the Holden driver hope of a big finish to the year, particularly with the Bathurst 1000 the next stop.
“I hope so, man. It was such a good day,” Van Gisbergen said.
“The boys have been working hard. The aero changes seem to have made a difference but whatever it’s great to finally get a win and especially at home.”
Whincup made the most of a fast car and a pit lane strategy gamble to climb from 12th at the starting grid to second.
The seven-time champion opted to pit early after Mark Winterbottom’s Irwin Racing Commodore inexplicably ran out of fuel on the 13th lap.
Having only taken on a small amount of fuel, Whincup surged through the field and when all the pit stops had been sorted found himself on the rear bumper of Van Gisbergen.
The early collision with Percat, however, ended up costing him a podium finish.
“There wasn’t much I could do. I was just bottled up stopped in the corner and he came back down a lot harder than I expected,” Whincup said.
“The question is could I have done more to avoid the situation?”
Championship leader Scott McLaughlin struggled to make any impact after qualifying sixth and came home fifth, eventually being bumped up to fourth by Whincup’s penalty.
Despite the disappointing day, the DJR Team Penske star holds a whopping 586-point lead in the title standings.
Van Gisbergen’s win lifts him to second on the standings, replacing Mostert, who drops below the Holden driver and third-placed Fabian Coulthard to fourth on the championship ladder.
Waters’ podium finish was bittersweet for Tickford, who had dominated practice and had three cars in the top four of the starting grid.
Mostert’s collision with Waters, which team principal Tim Edwards labelled “stupid”, left the ex-Bathurst champion’s Mustang crippled while Will Davison came home third but was then bumped down to ninth because of a 15-second penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit.
The Auckland SuperSprint wraps up on Sunday with another 200km race.
