Shane Van Gisbergen Does The Double At Mount Panorama

Before last October’s Bathurst 1000, Mount Panorama was not a happy hunting ground for Shane Van Gisbergen, who narrowly missed out on winning the race in 2016 and 2019.

He has now won three races in a row at the circuit, including taking a clean sweep of victories at this weekend’s Mount Panorama 500.

Today’s performance from Van Gisbergen was even better than that of yesterday, with the man himself saying that the middle stint of the race was the best drive he’d ever had.

The only foot Van Gisbergen put wrong in race two was at the start, where he bogged down compared to Cameron Waters, who took the lead around the outside going into turn one.

But Van Gisbergen was right behind Waters all the way until the first round of compulsory pit stops, keeping the gap under a second and setting near identical lap times to the Tickford driver.

The lead changed hands on lap 16, with Van Gisbergen overtaking Waters, who had just exited the pit lane, on Mountain Straight, after Waters had made his stop a lap after Van Gisbergen did.

Then came that incredible middle stint from Van Gisbergen where the Red Bull Ampol driver extended his lead to 4.2 seconds by lap 24, when he made his second pit stop.

The gap was insurmountable for Waters, and Van Gisbergen left the pits still in the lead with a comfortable margin, which he held onto to take the race win by over six seconds.

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Waters finished in second, collecting a good haul of points that was much needed after the struggles of yesterday with a power steering-related issue.

Walkinshaw Andretti United were again showing pace with Chaz Mostert finishing in third, but only started in fifth after not delivering again in qualifying, something that Mostert knows he needs to work on ready for the Sandown SuperSprint in three weeks’ time.

Both of the Dick Johnson Racing drivers didn’t have that great an afternoon, with Anton De Pasquale getting his defence against Chaz Mostert wrong going into The Chase, where he went wide as he positioned the car on the inside on entry, which made for a tighter turn that he couldn’t make, and so he conceded third position to Mostert on lap 14.

Will Davison also went wide, but at Murray’s Corner on lap 31, which allowed Jamie Whincup to move up into sixth position.

De Pasquale finished fourth, while Davison finished in seventh.

However, while it was a disappointing afternoon for DJR, there have been encouraging signs this weekend through the provisional pole for De Pasquale yesterday, and Davison’s podium in race one.

The team has gone through major changes in the offseason and the learning curve that Davison has been pointing to is still ongoing, although that is a process that will need to be speedy if they want to get into the thick of the championship battle, which is obviously still up for grabs at such an early stage in the season.

Van Gisbergen leaves Bathurst with a 33-point championship lead over Mostert in second place, while impressive fourth and fifth-place finishes this weekend from Team 18’s Mark Winterbottom sees the 2015 series champion in third place on 231 points.

Supercars shifts to a sprint race format until July, with the Sandown SuperSprint up next on the weekend of March 20-21, serving as the replacement for the postponed Australian Grand Prix, at which Supercars hold support races.

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