On the weekend of the 16 – 18 of February 2024 was the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour.
The Bathurst 12 Hour was first run in 1991 so this year marks a milestone as the 21st running.
The Bathurst 12 Hour is not officially a part of the Supercars season. However, many of the Supercars drivers take part in the grand event. It is made of 4 classes; Pro AM, Silver, GT4 and the invitational class. Being a gruelling 12 hours on one of the most difficult tracks in the country, each car has three drivers that take turns behind the wheel.
Sheldon Van Der Linde claimed pole position and the Allan Simonsen Trophy for BMW team, WRT. Local Broc Feeney of the Triple 8 team qualified his 888 Mercedes to earn provisional pole position.
The race kicked off under safety car in the dark of Sunday at 5:45am. Bathurst is known for its erratic weather conditions but they started with a dry track and no major challenges. For the next 12 hours there was a spectacular display of driving from local and international teams alike.
2024 Bathurst 12 Hour Highlights
On the start, Sheldon Van Der Linde immediately made a break from the pack. Within a few laps he already created a gap of about 10 car lengths but there was still a long way to go.
There were no major incidents before the sun came up and all 25 cars were still on track.
At about the 75 minute mark, number 19 Racing Ginetta G55 GT4 caught fire in the pit lane. They were the first retirement of the race.
The first safety car was deployed after 2 hours 40 minutes of racing when the 701 Vortex spun off the track into the sand trap as it headed towards the S’s.
As the 12 hour countdown got to 8hrs 36 minutes car number 91 found the fence at turn 2 and came to a standstill on the blind corner.
A few minutes before they marked the 5th hour of driving, Charles Weerts behind the wheel of the pole sitting car made contact at “The Cutting”. In spectacular fashion his car was out of control and the rear mounted the concrete barrier sliding along for over 50 meters. He was lucky to have not gone right over the top. The damage was so severe # 32 was now out of the race. The team was doing so well throughout the whole weekend it is a great shame they were not able to continue. I am sure they would have been contenders for a win and offered up much more of their competitive driving.
When they were into the 6th hour of racing Bathurst did what Bathurst does. The weather changed completely and the rain came down heavily. At times there were sheets of water covering the track.
Cars were going off the track left, right and centre. The international drivers began sticking behind local drivers who knew the track and how to manage in the wet conditions. Still many cars aquaplaned off the challenging track and there were many moments that had viewers holding their breath.
Local Matt Campbell behind the wheel of #912 had the lead in the Manthey Racing / EMA Motorsport Porsche.
He was challenged multiple times with the biggest coming from the #13 Phantom Global Racing/Team 75 Porsche entry driven by Bastian Buus, Joel Eriksson and NZ local Jaxon Evans. The other challenge came from the SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes driven by Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul and Luca Stolz.
With 30 minutes remaining there was less than 1 second between the leading 3 cars and less than 8 seconds back to 8th place. It was anyone’s game and there was no room for mistakes.
The rain had stopped but the track was still wet. With leading cars so close to each other the competitive driving was incredibly fierce.
With 15 minutes on the clock the leading Porsche #912 with Matt Campbell behind the wheel edged ahead to create a 5+ second lead. Noone was giving up. Drivers were flying down the straights side by side heading into corners looking for any opportunity to make a pass.
Matt Campbells driving was incredible. He kept the lead in the #912 Porsche and even though the gap closed down to just over 2 seconds, he looked confident and strong on that last lap.
The #75 Mercedes driven by Jules Gounon crossed the finish line within 2.6 seconds to take 2nd place followed by the #22 Audi.
For Matt Campbell this is his second Bathurst 12 Hour win. It also breaks the Mercedes 3 time winning streak.
On the weekend of the 23 – 26 November 2023 was the Valo Adelaide 500.
The Adelaide street circuit was first opened in 1985 and hosted the F1 Australian Grand Prix until 1995. The street circuit came back into use in 1999 when Supercars moved their events from the Mallala Motorsport Park.
Jason Bright took the very first pole position at this venue. Craig Lowndes started the leg 1 from 3rd on the grid and won the opening race. The next day he was sent to the back of the field and still came through to win leg 2. It was the stuff that legends are made of.
This year’s Adelaide 500 was the 12th and final round of the 2023 Supercars Championship.
As one of the longer events on the calendar made up of 2 races of 250km each, it was always going to be a tough event. To add to the tension it was also the decider for the Driver’s Championship.
The defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen was trailing Brodie Kostecki in the number 1 spot by 131 points. A win in both races would total 300 points so the championship was still up for grabs. Shane Van Gisbergen is heading to the U.S. at the end of the season to try his hand at NASCAR so it could very well also be his final farewell to Supercars.
The points gap from 3rd place onwards was too great to contend for 1st or 2nd place. However, the points were close enough between 3rd, 4th and 5th for there to be a change on the final scoreboard for Will Brown, Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert.
The Final Event and the Final Decider! A setting for nail biting stuff!
The event started on Thursday with a wet Practice 1.
The pre-race sessions results are as follows:
Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 1
Thomas Randle was Fastest in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
Brodie Kostecki was also fastest in the top 10 Shootout.
For Race 27 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position which was his 9th pole for the year. David Reynolds was alongside him on the front row of the starting grid.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for first of 78 laps.
As the pack rounded turn 4 Will Brown tried passing Anton de Pasquale. Shane Van Gisbergen also tried following Will Brown to jump up in position. However, Anton de Pasquale made contact with Will Brown and then from behind Shane Van Gisbergen made contact with Will Brown. Brown’s car came to stop almost immediately. Shane Van Gisbergen was able to get back to the pits but it was soon evident that he wouldn’t be returning to the track. Not only was it all over for this race but also his ability to contend for the championship title. Such bad luck.
The safety car was deployed. It was only the opening lap and things were very messed up for Will Brown and Shane Van Gisbergen.
Later, after reviewing the incident the officials took no further action and no penalty was issued to any of the three cars involved.
Matt Payne and Cameron Hill were in the pits because of damage they received after the start.
The restart was on lap 6 and Brodie Kostecki was still in control of the race, followed by David Reynolds and Thomas Randle in 3rd place.
Broc Feeney passed James Courtney for 8th place.
On lap 15 David Reynolds took the lead off Brodie Kostecki with some incredible manoeuvring through turns 8 and 9.
The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 16.
Broc Feeney was next to pit on lap 19. When he re-joined the race he was in 20th place with clear track ahead.
Up front it started getting busy. Thomas Randle moved up to 2nd place dropping Brodie Kostecki back to 3rd place.
Cameron Waters in 4th place was 3 + seconds behind. The front of the pack were beginning to spread out.
Soon after, Thomas Randle pitted from second place handing over the spot to Cameron Waters.
Thomas Randle came out of the pits and was like a rocket. Within a few laps he managed to move up through the pack and regain 2nd place.
Cameron Waters wasn’t happy to give back the second spot to Thomas Randle and found the opportunity to pass him. Once again, the order of the top 3 cars changed.
In the middle of the race Cameron Waters was still holding second place right on the rear bumper of David Reynolds in the lead. He found his opportunity and with precision driving made the pass to get the number one spot.
Further back in the pack, Todd Hazelwood received a 5 second time penalty for contact with another car.
David Reynolds never gave up the fight to regain 1st place. With 17 laps to go he did the fastest lap of the race, 119.957 seconds. Unfortunately, it didn’t give him what he wanted. He was also under pressure from Thomas Randle in 3rd place. The front 3 cars were once again tight and left no room for error.
Cameron Waters stayed strong and held the lead using his experience to fend off the two drivers right on his tail.
Soon Cameron Water and David Reynolds edged away from Thomas Randle still holding 3rd place.
They were both on fire screaming ahead of the pack.
They crossed the finish line 0.67 seconds apart and way ahead of the others. Thomas Randle came in 14.353 seconds later to earn 3rd place. It was an incredible finish for an intense race.
Results for Race 27
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
2nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.
3rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing & Tradie Racing.
In Race 28 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position for the 10th time this season. This is an incredible feat and he was given the Armor All Pole Award for year along with $10,000. Next to him on the front row of the grid was Matt Payne.
As they took off Matt Payne got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 78 laps. As much as Brodie Kostecki tried he was not able to pass Matt Payne.
Further back Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to pass Anton de Pasquale but also wasn’t able to execute a pass. It wasn’t until a few laps later that he got into his stride.
On lap 2 Broc Feeney was able to get up the inside of Cameron Waters for 4th place.
David Reynolds made his move on lap 3 to pass Todd Hazelwood for 9th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen was now moving through the pack and had now passed Anton de Pasquale, Will Davison and Will Brown for 11th place.
On lap 6 Nick Percat made contact with Jack le Brocq who went off the track and into the tyre-wall at the final turn. Surprisingly, he managed to get himself out and the safety car did not have to be deployed.
After investigation the incident the officials took no further action against either driver.
By lap 10 Matt Payne had a 1.2 second lead over Brodie Kostecki.
Broc Feeney was putting pressure on Chaz Mostert for 3rd place. He managed to get by at turn 6.
Shane Van Gisbergen showed how eager he was to make up for the NC (Not Complete) he received in the first race at this event. He did the fastest lap of the race, 120.735 seconds.
On lap 11 Chaz Mostert was desperately trying to get 3rd place back from Broc Feeney. In his attempt Chaz Mostert made contact with him and did manage to pass. It was a messy attack and Chaz Mostert was later issued a 5 second time penalty.
Shane Van Gisbergen was the first of the Red Bull cars to take a pit-stop.
In the pit area Macauley Jones was spun around by Tim Slade who was coming out of his garage.
In the middle of the race Matt Payne was still in control with a 4.8 second lead over Broc Feeney flowed by David Reynolds in 3rd.
As the race continued Matt Payne kept edging ahead. Towards the end of the race, he had a 7.5 second lead over Broc Feeney and was on target to claim his maiden win with Penrite Racing.
Noone seemed able to make ground on the rookie Matt Payne. In fact he managed to edge further ahead of the competitors.
He crossed the line with a 8.548 second lead over Broc Feeney. David Reynolds come in 3rd a few seconds later.
It was a spectacular and solid win for Matt Payne. Congratulations!
Results for Race 28:
1st Matt Payne – Grove Racing.
2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.
A massive congratulations to Erebus Motorsport and Brodie Kostecki. Well done!
This was the final race for the 2023 season. The next event will be the Bathurst Superfest on the 16th to the 25th of February 2024.
It’s with a sense of sadness that we say farewell to Shane Van Gisbergen. Well done on everything you have achieved in Supercars and best of luck for your new adventures in Nascar. Go get em!
On the weekend of 27 – 29 October 2023 was the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
It was round 11 of the 12 rounds in the 2023 Supercars Championship.
The Gold Coast race at Surfers Paradise is a street circuit which was first opened in 1991. The challenging 4.47 km circuit alongside a strip of beaches has several fast sections and four chicanes.
From 1991 to 2008 the Gold Coast Indy 300 was an annual open-wheel motor race event. In the early days Supercars were there as a support category but from 2002 through to present it has been a round of the Supercars Championship. This year was the 21st event at the venue that has held 44 V8 Supercars races to date.
As expected, it was perfect Queensland weather excepting a small shower on the first practice day. In the pre-race sessions:
Scott Pye was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Top 10 Shootout
In Race 25 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Matt Payne alongside him.
As they took off Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 85 laps that makes up the 250km race. Matt Payne was right on his tail.
After starting 3rd on the grid Shane Van Gisbergen dropped to 5th before the first turn.
As Thomas Randle got to the first turn he took a shortcut across the chicanes. The officials spotted it but took no further action.
As Tim Slade got to the first turn another car made contact and spun him around. The safety car was deployed to slow drivers while he extracted himself from the dangerous position at the turn.
Brodie Kostecki was on the charge. He started 10th on the grid because his shootout lap was disallowed for going out of bounds. Now he had jumped to 7th place.
Within a few laps Chaz Mostert passed Thomas Randle to get up to 3rd place and was only 0.672 seconds behind Matt Payne.
The first car to pit was Broc Feeney on lap 9, along with Anton de Pasquale. They returned to clear track in 24th and 25th place.
Thomas Randle got by Chaz Mostert for 3rd spot.
It then seemed like the drivers were struggling with the high speed track. First Matt Payne received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Soon after both Chaz Mostert and Will Brown received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits.
Then it was Todd Hazelwood’s turn to receive a bad sportsmanship flag for the same reason.
Shane Van Gisbergen overtook Chaz Mostert for 4th position and was only 2.3 seconds behind Thomas Randle in 3rd place and only 4 seconds off the race lead.
Jack le Brocq alerted the team he was leaking fuel and went into the garage.
Brodie Kostecki was now in 5th place right behind Shane Van Gisbergen in their personal title battle for this year’s championship.
Cameron Waters pitted early and came back out in 8th place. When the top 7 cars took their pit stops he would resume the lead.
On lap 28 Shane Van Gisbergen took the number 1 spot off Matt Payne.
A few laps later Shane Van Gisbergen pitted and Brodie Kostecki followed him in. They came back out in 5th and 7th place.
In the middle of the race Broc Feeney was the first of the Red Bull cars to take his final pitstop. Meanwhile his teammate, Shane Van Gisbergen did the fastest lap of the race and was 6.1 seconds away from the lead.
Further ahead, David Reynolds was battling with Thomas Randle for 2nd and 3rd place.
Towards the end of the race with only 11 laps to go Cameron Waters was 1.4 seconds ahead of David Reynolds. It was another 2 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen in 3rd place.
Chaz Mostert once again exceeded track limits. This time he received a 5 second time penalty.
With 10 laps to go Cameron Waters still had the lead over David Reynolds but Shane Van Gisbergen had closed the gap to only 0.315 seconds.
Soon Shane Van Gisbergen took over David Reynolds. The gap to Cameron Waters in 1st was just 0.362 seconds.
With only a few laps remaining Shane Van Gisbergen was desperately looking for an opportunity to overtake for the lead and win. However, Cameron Waters is a seasoned driver. He kept his cool and defended the number 1 spot. Shane Van Gisbergen kept on his tail to the end of the race.
As they crossed the finish line there was only 0.194 seconds between them. It was a spectacular tight finish.
Results for Race 25:
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing
In Race 26 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position for the 8th time this year. Alongside him was David Reynolds.
As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 85 laps.
At turn 4 Tim Slade, James Courtney, Jack Smith and Macfauley Jones made contact and cars were spinning out of control in every direction. The cars back in the pack had to drive over the top of the first chicanes to avoid adding to the pileup. All four cars had come to a stop in this dangerous part of the track. The first safety car was deployed while the stranded cars were rescued.
The track was cleared by lap 8. However, it is the lead driver who gets to make the call for when the race goes back to green. Brodie Kostecki was waiting for the right moment to give the green light signal but the other drivers became impatient and started racing too soon. Confusion followed but the race still continued. It took a while for the officials to review, and it was only later that the offending drivers were penalised.
The first two cars to pit were Jack le Brocq and Will Davison on lap 9.
David Reynolds was challenging Brodie Kostecki for the lead and putting him under pressure. He was right on his tail and constantly on the attack.
Further back Shane Van Gisbergen got by Anton de Pasquale for 9th place. His next target was Cameron Waters in 8th place.
Brodie Kostecki held the lead until he pitted on lap 28. This relinquished the number 1 spot to David Reynolds. When Brodie Kostecki returned to the race he was in 12th place.
As the other drivers began to take their pit stops Brodie Kostecki moved up and eventually had the lead again.
Once again David Reynolds was right on his tail.
Towards the end of the race David Reynolds finally took advantage of a weak spot in the leader, Brodie Kostecki’s defence and passed him. I believe Brodie Kostecki didn’t aggressively defend the move at the risk of being knocked out of the race. All he had to do was get a podium finish ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen to protect his position in the season championship.
Cameron Waters was in 3rd place but was a few seconds behind and didn’t pose an immediate challenge to Brodie Kostecki.
With 7 laps to go James Golding had a massive shunt from behind and spun around landing in the tyre barrier. He almost collected Scott Pye in the process. They did make contact but luckily it seemed pretty light.
Shortly after Scott Pye’s car readings showed a big problem. He had to pull over immediately and the safety car was once again deployed.
When the race went back to green there was only 5 laps remaining. David Reynolds still had the lead over Brodie Kostecki, followed by Cameron Waters.
Brodie Kostecki was always close behind and a constant threat. At times there was less than 0.3 of a second between them. David Reynolds is a tough and seasoned driver. He never showed signs of cracking and at no time gave any opportunities away to his challengers.
In the end David Reynolds crossed the line 0.189 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki.
It was Reynold’s first race win since 2018 in what was probably the most exciting race of the year.
Congratulations to David Reynolds and his team, Grove Racing.
Results for Race 26:
1st David Reynolds – Grove Racing
2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
With 1 event made up of 2 races remaining, Brodie Kostecki leads over Shane Van Gisbergen by 131 points. Will Brown is 3rd and trails by 495 points, Broc Feeney is 504 points behind and Chaz Mostert is 640 points.
The grand finale event for the year will be the Valo Adelaide 500, 23 – 26 November 2023.
On the weekend of 29 – 30 July 2023 was the Beaurepairs Sydney Supernight, the 7th round of this year’s Supercars championship.
The event was held at Sydney Motorsport Park in New South Wales.
Originally named Eastern Creek Raceway, the New South Wales state government approved its development back in 1988 and opened on the 10th of November, 1990. The first Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) race was held in 1993. The ATCC was the previous title before being renamed V8 Supercars in 1997).
This event was a special occasion for me, aside from being in my home town of Sydney it was the first time I have been able to get to any track since 2017. It was a lot of fun and I was glad to finally have wheelchair accessible transport (thanks Dad) and the general threat of COVID gone. It was great to be back!
The event started on the Saturday but I managed to get there for only the Sunday.
In the pre-race sessions:
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was also fastest in Practice 2
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 18 Andre Heimgartner started on pole position with Brodie Kostecki alongside him.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown went into turn 1 in 1st and 2nd place. The pole sitter Andre Heimgartner had dropped from 1st to 5th place after a bad start off the line.
Cameron Hill made a blinder of a start. He had made up 4 spots after starting 8th on the grid.
The cars further back in the pack were dicing for positions outside the top 10 while the leading cars held their positions.
The 2 Erebus Camaros were out in front and controlling proceedings early on.
Brodie Kostecki had half a second lead over Will Brown by lap 2.
Shane Van Gisbergen was also making way and gained 2 spots after starting in 20th on the grid.
Jack le Brocq in 5th place was soon under assault from Andre Heimgartner after he lost his pole position. However, instead of gaining a spot he lost his own spot to James Golding who snuck by him.
The leaders were comfortable out front while the cars behind were chasing them. This was probably the cause of Jack Smith in car 4 receiving a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
The first car to pit was Anton de Pasquale on lap 11.
James Golding was again on the move and got up the inside of Cameron Hill at turn 2 for 5th place.
Chaz Mostert also tried to go around the outside of Cameron Hill, but he couldn’t make the move stick.
Cameron Hill was being a cork in the bottle he was holding up the cars behind him.
After Anton de Pasquale completed his pitstop he came back out in 25th position.
A lap later Chaz Mostert finally got past Cameron Hill at turn 1 and Will Davison got up the inside of Andre Heimgartner for 8th place.
Shane Van Gisbergen then got up the inside of Scott Pye to move into 12th place. The defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 8 places since the start.
By lap 13 Scott Pye had dropped back to 22nd position and chose to make his first pit stop and rethink strategy.
Cameron Hill pitted on lap 14 along with James Courtney and Thomas Randle.
By lap 17 of 51 the top 13 cars were still yet to take their stops.
Will Brown was the first of the front runners to pit followed by Will Davison, Cameron Waters and Jack le Brocq.
Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted a lap later, lap 18.
Soon after Todd Hazelwood and James Courtney received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits.
It wasn’t over for Todd Hazelwood. He received a pit lane drive thru penalty for a refuelling breach on his first stop.
In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner had assumed the race lead while frontrunners were pitting. Soon he went into the pits handing the lead over to Brodie Kostecki who was followed by Cameron Waters and Will Brown in 3rd place.
On lap 32 David Reynolds went off the track between turns 9 and 10. He hit the wall and the stricken Ford Mustang wouldn’t move. The Safety car was deployed while they removed car #26.
The race restarted on lap 39. Chaz Mostert soon made a pass of Jack le Brocq to move into 4th place and only 0.748 seconds behind Will Brown in 3rd.
Shane Van Gisbergen was up to 6th place and looking for further gains. As the race got closer to the finish he was on the charge and managed to pass Jack le Brocq. Shane Van Gisbergen was now only 1.144 seconds from the back of the podium.
On lap 42 Shane Van Gisbergen showed just how much he wanted that podium finish and did the fastest lap of the race, 130.064.
By the final 10 laps the top 5 places had not changed but quite spread out. Brodie Kostecki had a good lead and was on target for his first win since the Melbourne Grand Prix in March.
On lap 44 Declan Fraser received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
James Golding managed to go around the outside of James Courtney at turn 8 with 7 laps to go.
With 2 laps to go Chaz Mostert was up 7 places after starting 9th on the grid. Shane Van Gisbergen was behind in 3rd having moved up from a start of 20th on the grid.
However, the gaps between the top 3 couldn’t be closed. In the end Brodie Kostecki crossed the finish line with a 7 second margin over Chaz Mostert. Shane Van Gisbergen was a further 10.479 seconds behind.
A post race penalty was issued to Shane Van Gisbergen for contact with Will Brown so unfortunately Shane was recorded in 7th place on the final results. Will Brown inherited the podium finish in 3rd. Credit is still owed to Shane Van Gisbergen for a phenomenal drive.
Results for Race 18
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport 2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United 3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Qualifying for Race 19 and earned pole position bringing his career pole total to 48. I would love for him to get another 2 more and reach a half century before he leaves Supercars at the end of this season.
Andre Heimgartner sat alongside Shane Van Gisbergen on the starting grid.
As they took off Andre Heimgartner got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney were in 2nd and 3rd.
Will Brown and David Reynolds made contact and left the track. As they rejoined they were now in 24th and 25th place. Race control immediately put the incident under investigation. It took a while but they declared no penalties would be issued.
Shane Van Gisbergen was soon closing in on the back of the leader Andre Heimgartner. Broc Feeney in 3rd was followed by Brodie Kostecki.
Chaz Mostert had moved up 5 places into 11th after starting 16th on the grid.
On the second lap James Golding and Thomas Randle made contact. Although they kept going the officials were investigating the incident and later issued time penalties to both drivers.
On lap 4 Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off Andre Heimgartner at turn 6.
Just to make a statement, Shane Van Gisbergen then did the fastest lap of the race 131.993.
The first car to pit was Broc Feeney from 4th place on lap 16. When he came back out he was in 24th place.
The front runners were tightly packed. Shane Van Gisbergen was still the leader with a 1 second gap over Andre Heimgartner. Then it was only 0.968 of a second back to Brodie Kostecki.
Further back in the running Declan Fraser received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Then Will Brown and Macauley Jones received a bad sportsmanship flag for the same reason.
By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was in a commanding position with a 6.7 second lead over Andre Heimgartner. The front runners were yet to pit. Andre Heimgartner was the first to make his stop from 2nd place.
Shane Van Gisbergen took his stop towards the end of the race and returned to the track in 7th place. He must have known he was in great shape because the 6 cars in front still had to take their pit stops so he would naturally assume the lead when they did.
One by one they peeled off the track for the mandatory pit stop leaving Shane Van Gisbergen back in the number 1 spot with a 3 second lead over Andre Heimgartner. It was then 1.4 seconds back to Broc Feeney in 3rd place.
As the race was coming to its conclusion Shane Van Gisbergen was showing his authority and seemed uncatchable as he edged ahead.
After his incident on lap 2 Thomas Randle was in trouble again but this time only receiving a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
James Courtney was next in line for a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
In a surprise on the last lap Anton de Pasquale passed Broc Feeney for 3rd place. Broc Feeney had no time to make it up. Anton de Pasquale took the podium finish in 3rd. Andre Heimgartner had finished 10.4 seconds earlier in 2nd place with Shane Van Gisbergen taking the chequered flag 5.5 clear of him.
It was a spectacular finish for SVG and I’m so glad I was at the track on that day!
Results for Race 19
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing 2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing 3rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V Power Racing Team
Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 41 points over his teammate Will Brown. Shane Van Gisbergen is only 54 points off the championship lead and Broc Feeney is 4th with 57 points off the championship lead. With 5 events remaining the championship title could be any of these great drivers.
The next event is the OTR Supersprint at the Bend on 18 – 20 August 2023.
On the weekend of the 16- 18 of June was the Betr Darwin Triple Crown.
Being in the Northern Territory the weather for this event is always hot and sunny with temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees ambient, which makes the in-car temperatures 40 degrees plus. The Triple Crown is always held in the middle of winter because any other time of the year would be way too hot putting the drivers at risk.
The opening date of the Hidden Valley Raceway was 1986 but Supercars didn’t venture north until 1998.
The track is 2.8km with 14 turns and the event is made up of three races (thus, the name “Triple Crown”) of 35 laps each.
Fox Sports presenter, Riana Crehan was absent from her usual role on this weekend because she and husband Will Davison are expecting the birth of their first child (any minute).
Hidden Valley Raceway always makes me think of this freaky fact; It was here that Craig Lowndes won his 100th race back in 2015 on his team Triple Eight on their 888th race in his car which was numbered 888.
The event kicked off according to schedule and the results of the pre-race sessions follow:
Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 1
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 13 Cameron Waters started on pole position for the first time this year and the 20th time in his career. Alongside him in the number 2 position was Broc Feeney.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 35 laps. Mark Winterbottom who started 3rd on the grid moved up to 2nd place when Broc Feeney ran wide at turn 1.
The opening stages were fairly chaotic because everybody was trying make gains from back in the field.
Jack le Brocq also ran wide on approach to turn 1 and dropped all the way down to 12th place.
Declan Fraser went into the garage on the opening lap after he sustained damage in the mayhem.
James Courtney got turned around by Andre Heimgartner at turn 14 on lap 2, sending him to the back of the pack.
Shortly after David Reynolds had a big lockup at turn 1 and went off the track. He hit the pits on lap 3 to change the front left tyre.
While the drivers behind were battling for places inside the top 10, Cameron Waters was out front leading the race until lap 5. When he was coming down the main straight he came over the radio to his team and said “My car is on fire!”. His race engineer Sam Potter ordered him, “get out mate!” so Waters pulled over and jumped from the driver’s seat. He grabbed the fire extinguisher from the Fire Marshall and put the flames out himself!
The lead was now in the hands of the sport veteran, Mark Winterbottom.
The safety car was deployed to remove Cameron Waters Monster Energy ‘Flaming’ Ford Mustang from the tack.
Meanwhile, the majority of the field chose to take their pit stops while the safety car was out. The pit lane was extremely busy.
Restart was on lap 11 and soon enough the cars back in the pack were jostling for positions again, while the leaders maintained track position.
Jack Smith went off the track at turn 1. Scott Pye made connection with someone or something and had torn the right rear wheel guard. The tyre was now rubbing on the dangling piece of guard. His team instructed him to keep going and they’ll let him know if it gets dangerous.
On Lap 16 the safety car was deployed for the second time due to a grass fire.
It took a few laps under the safety car before the race went back to green.
As the cars returned to their battle Chaz Mostert was able to take advantage and gained 3 spots moving up to 8th place.
The leaders kept in place but Mark Winterbottom was under huge pressure from Broc Feeney only 0.449 seconds behind. Will Davison in 3rd place was over a second behind Feeney.
Broc Feeney pushed hard but in the end, Mark Winterbottom was able to prevail and win the opening race at Darwin.
This has broken a 7 year winless streak for Mark Winterbottom. His last win was Perth 2016.
It was fantastic to see!
Results for Race 13
1st Mark Winterbottom – Team 18 2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Racing 3rd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team
In Race 14 Broc Feeney earned pole position. Alongside him was Andre Heimgartner.
Generated by pixel @ 2023-06-18T23:36:11.103002
Broc Feeney got the jump off the start and led into turn 1 for the first of 35 laps. Meanwhile, Shane Van Gisbergen gained 1 spot and moved into 3rd place.
Matt Payne and Declan Fraser made contact and went off the track at turn 7. It dropped them back to 25th and 26th place.
Both cars headed to the pits for repairs. Not long after Matt Payne was able to rejoin the race but Declan Fraser was not so lucky. It took a while for his car to be repaired losing several laps.
Otherwise, the opening stages were relatively clean.
The first car to take an unforced pit was Jack Smith on lap 5.
Around this stage of the race Brodie Kostecki had lost 2 spots from his starting position of 4th. Jack le Brocq went off the track at turn 7 losing a number of places. At the front end Broc Feeney had carved a 1.225 second lead over Andre Heimgartner with Shane Van Gisbergen in pursuit.
Scott Pye pitted on lap 9 from 12th place.
James Golding was battling with Brodie Kostecki for positions 5th and 6th and they put on a great show.
Will Brown was the first of the front runners to pit along with Macauley Jones.
In the middle of the race Nick Percat pitted from 14th position. When he came back out he was in 20th place.
The leading three drivers stayed locked in and edged away from the rest of the pack.
After David Reynolds took his pit stop he was issued a 5 second time penalty for a pit lane merging breach.
Broc Feeney was the first of the two Red Bull cars to take the mandatory stop on lap 20. He returned to the track in 4th place. There was a strategy in this. Andre Heimgartner had already pitted and was now out of the leading three cars. Shane Van Gisbergen who was in second place now received the lead from teammate Feeney. Also, the leading 3 cars were yet to pit; Shane Van Gisbergen, Bryce Fullwood and Cameron Waters. Once they did Broc Feeney would automatically resume the lead.
On lap 29 Will Davison had gone into the garage with a bent right front steering arm. This took him out of the top 10.
Broc Feeney resumed the lead and soon had a 2 second gap over Shane Van Gisbergen in second place.
With 3 laps to go Broc Feeney would have felt he had the race win in the bag.
Broc Feeney drove faultlessly the remaining laps and crossed the line 1.4 seconds ahead of his illustrious teammate Shane Van Gisbergen. Andre Heimgartner followed another 1.8 seconds later to take 3rd place.
A great one / two finish for the Red Bull Ampol Racing team.
Results for Race 14
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing 2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing 3rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
In Race 15 Jack le Brocq started on pole position and once again alongside him was Andre Heimgartner.
As they took off Jack le Brocq led the field through turn 1 for the first of 35 laps.
Scott Pye was hit from behind and had pretty substantial damage on the right rear corner. Brodie Kostecki also had issues on the first lap, receiving steering damage on the right side.
Todd Hazelwood put in a challenge to Shane Van Gisbergen for 8 place but he couldn’t get the pass executed for a while. It wasn’t long before Shane Van Gisbergen took back 8th.
After repairs to the steering arm Brodie Kostecki re-joined the race but was 3 laps down and running last.
Scott Pye also had to take his pit early to remove flapping rear bumper for the second time that weekend. He returned to the track in 25th place.
David Reynolds came into the pits for his compulsory stop on lap 10.
In the middle of the race Declan Fraser made connection with another competitor and received a 15 second time penalty
Broc Feeney and Will Brown running 3rd and 4th pitted at the same time on lap 17.
The race leaders Jack le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner took their pit stops on the next lap.
Towards the end of the race Matt Payne got turned around by Jack Smith at turn 6 sending him to the back of the pack.
With three laps to go Jack le Brocq had managed to hold the number one spot and carve a 1.8 second lead over Andre Heimgartner in 2nd place. They were both well ahead of the rest of the pack.
Heimgartner pushed hard to close the gap but at no stage seemed a threat to le Brocq.
Jack le Brocq crossed the line 1.3 seconds clear of Andre Heimgartner. It was a further 8.4 seconds before Broc Feeney crossed the line to come in 3rd.
It was a spectacular finish especially for the young Broc Feeney who managed a podium place in all three races of the Darwin Triple Crown; 2nd,1st and then 3rd. It earned him a win for the entire round.
Results for Race 15
1st Jack le Brocq – Matt Stone Racing 2nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing 3rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship but only by 59 points over his teammate Will Brown and 91 points over Broc Feeney.
It still keeps Erebus in the lead of the teams championship by 222 points over the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.
There are 7 events remaining in the 2023 Supercars championship season.
The next event is the NTI Townsville 500 starting on July 7th 2023. I just can’t wait!!!!!
On the weekend of the 21st to 22nd of May 2022 was the Winton Supersprint.
This year marks the 33rd time that the Australian Touring Car Championship – Supercars Championship has visited Winton Motor Raceway. The first round was held here in 1985 and since then the only years the championship didn’t visit the venue were 1987, 1996 and 2005. Covid 19 also impacted this event in 2020 and 2021.
A pair of teams reached significant milestones at Winton. Team 18 and Erebus Motorsport both made their 300th championship starts in race 2. Both debuted at the Adelaide 500 in 2013. Erebus originally entered the series running a 3 car Mercedes AMG team.
The second race will also be Jack Le Broc’s 150th Supercars Championship start.
Matt Cook marked his first event as Team Principal at Premier Hire Racing (ex Team Sydney). He has come directly from 888 Race Engineering and the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team where he was the chief mechanic.
The event got started on the Saturday morning. In the pre-race sessions:
Will Brown was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Shane Van Gisbergen was also fastest in Armour All Qualifying for Race 13.
In Race 13 Shane Van Gisbergen earned his maiden pole position at Winton Motor Raceway. It was his 41st career pole! Alongside him was Cameron Waters.
At the start of the 36 lap race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2. Will Brown got an amazing start from the 2nd row of the grid. I thought he was going to take the lead into turn 1 but he couldn’t make it around Shane Van Gisbergen.
Jake Kostecki ran wide onto the dirt at the exit of turn 3 but he kept his momentum only losing two spots.
Mark Winterbottom was slowing on the exit of turn 4 because of an electrical problem. His car completely stopped. It took valuable time to restart. When he got back up to speed he was in 27th position and 10 seconds behind Garry Jacobson in the next car.
Shane Van Gisbergen was in 2nd place to Cameron Waters. Will Brown just behind Shane Van Gisbergen took a massive slide but somehow managed to stay on track and not let anyone through. He had some of the fastest drivers right behind him, so it was an impressive feat. Right on his tail were Chaz Mostert, Lee Holdsworth, Anton de Pasquale, David Reynolds and Scott pye.
Soon after Anton de Pasquale reported his car was handling loosely in the rear. He started dropping down the order ending up in 9th position. Pretty quickly he realised he would have to pit.
Cameron Waters was still in the lead and had a ¾ second gap over Shane Van Gisbergen. He managed the fastest time of the race in sectors 1 and 3.
On lap 6 Nick Percat and James Courtney in 19th and 20th position were the first 2 cars to pit and were in desperate need of clean air. Both teams did rear tyres only.
Thomas Randle came in to get away from the two Penrite Racing cars right behind him as they battled for positions 5th and 6th.
Garry Jacobson pitted on lap 8 to also get out of the way of their fierce battle.
There was only 3 seconds separating the top 5 cars, so the front of the pack was quite tense. Shane Van Gisbergen was only 0.685 seconds behind Cam Waters in the lead.
Cameron Waters had damage to the back of his car from being shunted.
Shane Van Gisbergen reported to his engineer Andrew Edwards, that there was fuel coming out the back of Cameron Waters’ car. Later, Garth Tander went into the Tickford Racing garage to interview team owner, Tim Edwards. When asked about the fuel leak his response was, ‘I don’t think Shane was telling the truth’. LOL. Very cheeky Mr SVG.
Jayden Ojeda and Chris Pither came in on lap 9 for rears only.
Broc Feeney came in on lap 12 to ensure that Shane Van Gisbergen didn’t have to double stack when he wanted to pit. Feeney re-joined the race in 21st position.
Walkinshaw Andretti United brought Chaz Mostert in on lap 13 to cover off the threat from Grove Racing’s David Reynolds who was hot on his tail. They did a 3.8 second stop and Chaz Mostert re-joined the race in 20th position with plenty of empty track in front and behind. He was 10.145 seconds behind from leader Cameron Waters. Broc Feeney in 21st place was 44+ seconds behind the leader.
By the middle of the race all the drivers had completed their mandatory pit stops and Cameron Waters was back in the lead!
Shane Van Gisbergen spent the rest of the race trying to find a way around Cameron Waters but just couldn’t manage it. Cameron Waters defensive driving had him stumped.
Just before the final corner heading to the finish line the two made contact. Shane Van Gisbergen’s front right took a massive hit and it broke the steering arm. The car was still running and magically he was able to make the last bend and follow Cam Waters to the finish line. (How do you make a turn with a broken steering arm? – Only ‘SVG the Magician’ knows that secret.)
Its standard practice to drive cars (with all their advertising livery) to the podium to accept trophies. On this occasion Shane Van Gisbergen got to the podium in a golf cart. LOL.
All round this was a fantastic race to start the weekend.
Results for Race 13:
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing. 2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing. 3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.
In Race 14 Cameron Waters started on pole position alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters led into turns 1 and 2.
Reynolds in 3rd place tried to get up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen at turn 3. The attempt failed and left him wide on the track. Chaz Mostert took the opportunity and moved up into 3rd. Reynolds teammate Lee Holdworth was right behind and allowed him back into the racing line at position 4.
When Jayden Ojeda went off the track at turn 4 with assistance from Jordan Boys and then re-joined in 27th position.
Brodie Kostecki got tagged by Broc Feeney in between turns 6 and 7 in the opening lap congestion.
At turn 9 Will Davison was pushed wide onto the dirt by Le Brocq on the inside. He had Courtney right on his tail so he could break suddenly. With both left wheels out on the dirt he managed to keep a straight line and get back on track.
Davison paid back Jack Le Brocq giving him a nudge at turn 10 forcing his right wheels off track onto the dirt. Will Davison and James Courtney both passed Jack Le Brocq and seconds later he was passed again by Thomas Randle.
Thomas Randle ran wide between turns 11 and 12 and he caught a little bit of dirt as well.
At the front of the race Cameron Waters was still the leader with a .6 of a second gap ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen.
The drivers behind Shane Van Gisbergen were Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds, Lee Holdsworth, Andre Heimgartner, Will Brown, Mark Winterbottom, Anton de Pasquale, Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney.
By lap 3 David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth were still in 4th and 5th with Andre Heimgartner close behind in 6th position.
By lap 5 the gap between Cameron Waters and Shane Van Gisbergen in 1st and 2nd hadn’t changed much, ¾ of a second.
Engineer, Adam de Borre asked Chaz Mostert to find some fresh air for the engine. Things were obviously heating up. He couldn’t take it easy with David Reynolds on his tail putting the pressure on.
Will Brown was the first car to pit in this race, followed by James Courtney and Thomas Randle. Thomas Randle’s stop was exceptional, timed at 4 seconds.
On exiting the pits Will Brown made contact with Thomas Randle. They couldn’t hold everyone so pressed on.
The next 2 cars to pit were Scott Pye and Jack Le Brocq. Soon after it was Maculey Jones.
Mark Winterbottom pitted on lap 14 in 5.02 seconds. Surprisingly, at this stage there were 17 cars yet to pit.
Scott Pye slowed on the track between turns 5 and 6. Once again his engineer Richard Hollway declared another power steering problem. A problem that has plagued the team since round 1, race 1.
Chaz Mostert pitted on lap 15 and re-joined in 18th position with 16 cars yet to pit.
Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 16. Cameron Waters also pitted on the same lap.
On lap 17 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Cameron Waters to take the affective lead of the race (taking into consideration there were still 13 cars yet to pit).
Shane Van Gisbergen’s driving was faultless and Cameron Waters couldn’t keep up. Gisbergen kept inching away. He crossed the finish line 5+ seconds ahead of Cameron Waters, followed by David Reynolds a further 3+ seconds later.
The defending Supercars Champion, Shane Van Gisbergen now leads the championship by 281 points.
Results for Race 14:
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing. 2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing. 3rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.
In race 15 it was the two stars of the weekend at the front of the grid. Cameron Waters was on pole with Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters once again got the jump off the line and led into turn 1 and 2. Andre Heimgartner moved up to 2nd dropping Shane Van Gisbergen back to 3rd.
David Reynolds got the best start from the front group of cars moving up 2 spots almost immediately. Shane Van Gisbergen was lucky to not to lose another spot to David Reynolds as he almost got up the inside at turn 3.
Lee Holdsworth got up the inside of Broc Feeney for position 10 between turns 5 and 6.
Meanwhile the cars back in the field were settling down into their race pace.
The front and the back of Jack Smith’s car had been damaged. He was struggling to see the apex of the corners because of the smashed up bonnet. He managed to get around the track but had to pit at the end of lap 1.
Tim Slade had smoke coming of the back of the Cool Drive Ford Mustang. Even after pitting the car was still giving off smoke for the next few laps.
Macauley Jones got down the inside of Todd Hazelwood and Scott Pye followed him. Jack le Brocq was sliding on the way out of the final corner, turn 12.
In the opening lap Cameron Waters drove the best lap time of the race. It clocked in at 1min 25.8s and gave him the 0.609 second lead over Andre Heimgartner.
After lap 1 there was a lot movement in the top 10 cars.
Jack Smith re-joined in 27th position after pitting on lap 1. He was getting out of the way of the cars following because he was already a lap down.
Andre Heimgartner kept up the pressure on leader, Cameron Waters. David Reynolds was doing the same thing to Shane Van Gisbergen in 3rd place. The gap between the top 3 cars was 2 seconds.
The leaders were pulling away from the cars back in the pack. From David Reynolds back to Broc Feeney there was a lot of congestion, so the pack were starting to think about pitting to get clear track.
David Reynolds kept right up with Shane Van Gisbergen through a number of laps without losing any ground whatsoever. It was the tiniest gap of only 0.254 seconds.
By the middle of the race all the pitstops were complete and Cameron Waters was back in the lead. He was looking good to win 2 out of the 3 races for the weekend.
Towards the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen found the space to finally take back 2nd position from Andre Heimgartner. His speed and defensive driving made it impossible for Heimgartner to challenge him. They held their places to the finish line; Cameron Waters followed by Shane Van Gisbergen then Andre Heimgartner.
So once again it was Waters and Gisbergen who swapped 1st and 2nd places in all 3 races on the weekend.
Results for Race 15:
1st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing. 2nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing. 3rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing.
The next event is the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown on the 17th to 19th of June 2022. Super, I cant wait!
On the weekend of 26th and 27th of March 2022 was the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint.
This year marks the 49th time this event has been at Symmons Plains Raceway. This year’s event comprised of 3 races of 44 laps each. It’s a short track of 2.4 km with 7 turns. For these Supercars a lap is just under 50 seconds.
Chaz Mostert came to this event as the current championship leader for the first time in his Supercars career.
Garry Jacobson reached a milestone starting his 100th Supercars championship race on Saturday.
The weekend also provided the opportunity for the defending series champion, Shane Van Gisbergen to move passed the total race win tally of two former Supercars champions, Garth Tander and Scott McLaughlin.
Mark Winterbottom was poised to take over the mantle as the most experienced Supercars driver at Symmons Plains Raceway by the end of the weekend. It was also Mark Winterbottom’s 46th start at this track. He has finished every race at Symmons Plains Raceway. OMG! What an amazing achievement!
For this year’s newcomer to Supercars Brocq Feeney, it will be his first time at this track.
So, as you can see it was promising to be a great event.
In the pre-race sessions:
Will Davison was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying.
In race 3 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Will Davison alongside him. The 19 year old rookie, Brocq Feeney earned himself 3rd and Shane Van Gisbergen started 5th.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 while the cars behind battled for positions.
Will Davison tried to go around the outside of Cameron Waters on the opening lap, but he couldn’t find the right space to make the move. Brodie Kostecki took advantage and moved up to 2nd behind race leader Cameron Waters, pushing Will Davison into 3rd place.
Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge passing cars left right and centre. Anton de Pasquale was amazed by the driving from Shane Van Gisbergen.
Walkinshaw Andretti united pitted Nick Percat in car 2 early because of damage.
Thomas Randle went out in the weeds on lap 1 and so did Macauley Jones on lap 2.
For the opening few laps Cameron Waters was enjoying the clear air.
The cars back in the pack pitted early on to get clear track.
The first driver to pit was Jake Kostecki in car 56, because he was getting held up by other cars.
Cameron Waters stayed out because he had track position.
Will Davison pitted first so his teammate Anton de Pasquale didn’t have to double stack if the safety car was deployed.
At the end of the first quarter of the race Jack Le Brocq went off the track at turn 2. As he hit the sand trap, he broke the right front suspension. The car was still driveable, but he still headed straight for the pits.
The cars further back in the pack were battling for positions.
Chaz Mostert got up the inside of James Courtney to move up to 10th position.
Shane Van Gisbergen got up the inside of Will Davison who had worked his way back into 2nd place. Moments later Shane Van Gisbergen then took the race lead off Cameron Waters. The Dick Johnson Racing Team reacted, it was now the best time to get Will Davison to bring in car 17 for his compulsory pitstop.
The cars now following Shane Van Gisbergen were battling for 2nd 3rd and 4th.
By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still in the lead and looking in shape for his 2nd win of 2022.
Mark Winterbottom turned David Reynolds around at turn 4 and copped a drive through penalty. Chaz Mostert was tailing the two drivers and had nowhere to go. He had a head-on with Reynold’s spun car. Chaz Mostert suffered a lot of damage to the right front and was forced to head into the pits. Reynolds got off lightly and continued driving.
Shane Van Gisbergen held his lead through the second half of the race.
As the defending champion he appeared confident and drove flawlessly. As he came across the line he had just under a 3 second lead over Will Davison and a further spread of almost 3.5 seconds over Cameron Waters.
Chaz Mostert finished 23rd and Broc Feeney held up well finishing 5th.
Results for Race 3
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing Team.
In race 4 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with his teammate Brocq Feeney alongside him.
Brocq Feeney got the jump of the start and led into turns 1 and 2, then pulled away from the pack with his teammate Shane Van Gisbergen playing rear gunner.
In between turns 6 and 7 there was contact between Jack Le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner. It was a brutal run in before the first lap was complete the red flagged was out so they could clean up the mess.
The race resumed with a rolling start and Brocq Feeney got the jump again with his teammate Shane Van Gisbergen right behind him.
While Brocq Feeney was in control of the race, he had full backup from Shane Van Gisbergen.
Further back Mark Winterbottom was moving up through the field really quickly.
Also back in the pack Garry Jacobson was putting in a fierce challenge to Chris Pither.
The other cars came in early because they were getting held up.
Scott Pye was behind his teammate Mark Winterbottom acting as rear gunner.
In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen took the lead off his younger teammate. Brocq Feeney knew he couldn’t pass Shane Van Gisbergen so worked hard at keeping in 2nd place.
Cam Waters and Tim Slade were pushing hard against each other. Tim Slade lost control sliding sideways onto the grass and getting air under all four tyres. On landing it seemed the car should surely roll but it didn’t! A miracle! He kept sliding and crossed the track further ahead. Amazingly didn’t get collected by any other drivers. That’s 2 miracles in about 2 seconds.
Up the front the drivers were holding their positions. Chaz Mostert was chasing down David Reynolds for third place but there wasn’t much opportunity to move up.
Broc Feeney crossed the line only 2.4 seconds behind Shane Van Gisbergen. They were followed by David Reynolds with Chaz Mostert hot on his tail.
It was a brutal race with four drivers served NC’s (Not Complete); Jack Le Brocq leaving before the end of the first lap, Jake Kostecki on lap 7, Andre Heimgartner on lap 11 and Thomas Randall so close to the end on lap 39.
Shane Van Gisbergen had now earned 2 wins from 2 starts for the weekend. The defending champ was showing what he is truly made of.
Results for Race 4
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Brocq Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3rd David Reynolds– Penrite Racing.
In Race 5 Will Davison started on pole position with Jack le Brocq alongside him.
At the start of race Jack le Brocq took the lead into the first turn with Will Davison dropping in behind at 2nd.
I was amazed that Jack le Brocq was leading during the opening stages after the damage to his car 34 on the first lap of Race 4.
On lap 2 he locked up of the front wheels at turn 4 and slid out onto the grass. He dropped down the order big time.
Will Davison now had the lead with the unenviable issue of having Shane Van Gisbergen right behind him in 2nd place.
While the leaders were pulling away, the drivers back in the pack pitted early because they were getting held up by other cars.
Mark Winterbottom was battling with Jack le Brocq for positions 6 and 7.
By the middle of the race all the pitstops were complete and Shane van Gisbergen took the lead of the race.
Although the leading pack was tight it seemed Shane Van Gisbergen could not be passed. He had total control.
He was followed across the finish line by pole sitter, Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale with a desperate David Reynolds less than half a second behind him.
Shane Van Gisbergen had a great weekend earning 3 wins from the 3 starts. What a way to start the year!
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Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of 26th and 27th of March 2022 was the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint.
This year marks the 49th time this event has been at Symmons Plains Raceway. This year’s event comprised of 3 races of 44 laps each. It’s a short track of 2.4 km with 7 turns. For these Supercars a lap is just under 50 seconds.
Chaz Mostert came to this event as the current championship leader for the first time in his Supercars career.
Garry Jacobson reached a milestone starting his 100th Supercars championship race on Saturday.
The weekend also provided the opportunity for the defending series champion, Shane Van Gisbergen to move passed the total race win tally of two former Supercars champions, Garth Tander and Scott McLaughlin.
Mark Winterbottom was poised to take over the mantle as the most experienced Supercars driver at Symmons Plains Raceway by the end of the weekend. It was also Mark Winterbottom’s 46th start at this track. He has finished every race at Symmons Plains Raceway. OMG! What an amazing achievement!
For this year’s newcomer to Supercars Brocq Feeney, it will be his first time at this track.
So, as you can see it was promising to be a great event.
In the pre-race sessions:
Will Davison was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying.
In race 3 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Will Davison alongside him. The 19 year old rookie, Brocq Feeney earned himself 3rd and Shane Van Gisbergen started 5th.
At the start of the race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 while the cars behind battled for positions.
Will Davison tried to go around the outside of Cameron Waters on the opening lap, but he couldn’t find the right space to make the move. Brodie Kostecki took advantage and moved up to 2nd behind race leader Cameron Waters, pushing Will Davison into 3rd place.
Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge passing cars left right and centre. Anton de Pasquale was amazed by the driving from Shane Van Gisbergen.
Walkinshaw Andretti united pitted Nick Percat in car 2 early because of damage.
Thomas Randle went out in the weeds on lap 1 and so did Macauley Jones on lap 2.
For the opening few laps Cameron Waters was enjoying the clear air.
The cars back in the pack pitted early on to get clear track.
The first driver to pit was Jake Kostecki in car 56, because he was getting held up by other cars.
Cameron Waters stayed out because he had track position.
Will Davison pitted first so his teammate Anton de Pasquale didn’t have to double stack if the safety car was deployed.
At the end of the first quarter of the race Jack Le Brocq went off the track at turn 2. As he hit the sand trap, he broke the right front suspension. The car was still driveable, but he still headed straight for the pits.
The cars further back in the pack were battling for positions.
Chaz Mostert got up the inside of James Courtney to move up to 10th position.
Shane Van Gisbergen got up the inside of Will Davison who had worked his way back into 2nd place. Moments later Shane Van Gisbergen then took the race lead off Cameron Waters. The Dick Johnson Racing Team reacted, it was now the best time to get Will Davison to bring in car 17 for his compulsory pitstop.
The cars now following Shane Van Gisbergen were battling for 2nd 3rd and 4th.
By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still in the lead and looking in shape for his 2nd win of 2022.
Mark Winterbottom turned David Reynolds around at turn 4 and copped a drive through penalty. Chaz Mostert was tailing the two drivers and had nowhere to go. He had a head-on with Reynold’s spun car. Chaz Mostert suffered a lot of damage to the right front and was forced to head into the pits. Reynolds got off lightly and continued driving.
Shane Van Gisbergen held his lead through the second half of the race.
As the defending champion he appeared confident and drove flawlessly. As he came across the line he had just under a 3 second lead over Will Davison and a further spread of almost 3.5 seconds over Cameron Waters.
Chaz Mostert finished 23rd and Broc Feeney held up well finishing 5th.
Results for Race 3
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing Team.
In race 4 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with his teammate Brocq Feeney alongside him.
Brocq Feeney got the jump of the start and led into turns 1 and 2, then pulled away from the pack with his teammate Shane Van Gisbergen playing rear gunner.
In between turns 6 and 7 there was contact between Jack Le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner. It was a brutal run in before the first lap was complete the red flagged was out so they could clean up the mess.
The race resumed with a rolling start and Brocq Feeney got the jump again with his teammate Shane Van Gisbergen right behind him.
While Brocq Feeney was in control of the race, he had full backup from Shane Van Gisbergen.
Further back Mark Winterbottom was moving up through the field really quickly.
Also back in the pack Garry Jacobson was putting in a fierce challenge to Chris Pither.
The other cars came in early because they were getting held up.
Scott Pye was behind his teammate Mark Winterbottom acting as rear gunner.
In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen took the lead off his younger teammate. Brocq Feeney knew he couldn’t pass Shane Van Gisbergen so worked hard at keeping in 2nd place.
Cam Waters and Tim Slade were pushing hard against each other. Tim Slade lost control sliding sideways onto the grass and getting air under all four tyres. On landing it seemed the car should surely roll but it didn’t! A miracle! He kept sliding and crossed the track further ahead. Amazingly didn’t get collected by any other drivers. That’s 2 miracles in about 2 seconds.
Up the front the drivers were holding their positions. Chaz Mostert was chasing down David Reynolds for third place but there wasn’t much opportunity to move up.
Broc Feeney crossed the line only 2.4 seconds behind Shane Van Gisbergen. They were followed by David Reynolds with Chaz Mostert hot on his tail.
It was a brutal race with four drivers served NC’s (Not Complete); Jack Le Brocq leaving before the end of the first lap, Jake Kostecki on lap 7, Andre Heimgartner on lap 11 and Thomas Randall so close to the end on lap 39.
Shane Van Gisbergen had now earned 2 wins from 2 starts for the weekend. The defending champ was showing what he is truly made of.
Results for Race 4
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Brocq Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3rd David Reynolds– Penrite Racing.
In Race 5 Will Davison started on pole position with Jack le Brocq alongside him.
At the start of race Jack le Brocq took the lead into the first turn with Will Davison dropping in behind at 2nd.
I was amazed that Jack le Brocq was leading during the opening stages after the damage to his car 34 on the first lap of Race 4.
On lap 2 he locked up of the front wheels at turn 4 and slid out onto the grass. He dropped down the order big time.
Will Davison now had the lead with the unenviable issue of having Shane Van Gisbergen right behind him in 2nd place.
While the leaders were pulling away, the drivers back in the pack pitted early because they were getting held up by other cars.
Mark Winterbottom was battling with Jack le Brocq for positions 6 and 7.
By the middle of the race all the pitstops were complete and Shane van Gisbergen took the lead of the race.
Although the leading pack was tight it seemed Shane Van Gisbergen could not be passed. He had total control.
He was followed across the finish line by pole sitter, Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale with a desperate David Reynolds less than half a second behind him.
Shane Van Gisbergen had a great weekend earning 3 wins from the 3 starts. What a way to start the year!
Results for race 5
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
3rd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.
The next event is the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix from the 7th to the 10th of April.
At the end of the 2021 Supercars season Jamie Whincup retired from full time racing. This is a tribute to his amazing 20-year driving career in Supercars marked by many records and achievements.
He will continue driving in the Enduro races (which includes The Bathurst 1000) so I imagine his win tally is not complete just yet. He is also going on to be Team Principal for his team, 888 Race Engineering (taking over from founder, Roland Dane).
Jamie Whincup was born on the 6th of February 1983 in Melbourne Victoria, Australia. At the time of publishing this article that makes him 38 years old.
In 1991 when Jamie Whincup was just 7 years old he started racing in go karts. By the age of 14 he had claimed countless rookie junior titles and celebrated his 15th birthday by winning the Senior Formula A Karting title.
Jamie Whincup: Early karting days.
In 2001 Whincup embarked on the Formula Ford Championship with the Mygale Racing Team that was run by his father David and his uncle Graeme, a former sports sedan star. He also had mechanical support from former Supercars driver Greg Ritter. For his first season he had excellent results and finished 3rd in the championship.
Then he moved to Sonic Motorsport owned by Michael Ritter, brother of Greg Ritter for the 2002 season. It was only his second season, but he went on to win the Formula Ford Championship convincingly.
Also, in 2002 he made his Supercars debut with Garry Rogers Motorsport at the Queensland 500 and The Bathurst 1000. His co-drivers for those 2 races were Max Dumesny and Mark Noske. Although Jamie Whincup hit a wall and was unable to complete The Bathurst 1000 (DNF) it did not deter Garry Rogers from seeing his potential.
For the following season, 2003 Garry Rogers offered him a fulltime drive. Jamie was only turning 20 that year.
He crashed and was unable to finish at Hidden Valley but it did not put the rookie off his game.
In the same year he also had bad luck at The Bathurst 1000 as co-driver to Garth Tander. He hit the wall at Forest Elbow. The damage was bad and he had to head back to the pits. It cost them any chance of a decent result after starting in 4th position.
In 2004 Jamie Whincup wasn’t fulltime but he did Sandown and Bathurst with Larry Perkins (Castrol Perkins Racing).
In 2005 he returned to fulltime Supercars racing with Tasman Motorsport as teammate to the late Jason Richards. They finished on the podium 3rd place in the Sandown 500 and 2nd in The Bathurst 1000. Not a bad result for someone in the game for just a couple of years.
2013 Tasmania: Me (William Hill-Smith) & Jamie Whincup behind the wheel. 2013 Jamie won his 3rd title in a row to give him his 5th championship.
When Jamie Whincup joined 888 Race Engineering back in 2006 he was teammate to the already legendary Craig Lowndes. Founder, Roland Dane desperately wanted some big wins for his team and brought Jamie in as part of a super plan.
Pairing Jamie with Craig Lowndes paid off for Roland. They didn’t fair that well at The Sandown 500 due to a mechanical problem, but struck gold at the big one, The Bathurst 1000. This was only Jamie’s 3rd year as a fulltime driver.
One of the big legends of the track, Peter Brock had passed away just a couple of months earlier. The Bathurst 1000 trophy was renamed in his honour, The Peter Brock Trophy. Lowndes and Whincup were the first to have their names inscribed on it. Brock was also mentor to Craig Lowndes so it must have meant quite a lot to Lowndes to win this race (The video embedded shows how emotional it was for both Craig and Jamie).
The other big win for Jamie that year was the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
Roland Dane’s hunch about this new young driver was right and they kept Jamie on for the following season of 2007.
Jamie was not about to let anyone down. In 2007 he earned his first career pole at Queensland Raceway and then won the round at Winton Motor Raceway.
The golden pair, Lowndes and Whincup then went on to win The Sandown 500 and The Bathurst 1000. This was the second Bathurst 1000 in a row.
Jamie followed up by then winning in Tasmania.
In the end he fell just 2 points short of Garth Tander for the 2007 Supercars Championship.
Jamie was kept on at 888 Race Engineering and had a great start to the 2008 year. He cleaned up at the first round winning both races at The Clipsal 500.
After the second round at Eastern Creek, NSW he was points leader on the championship ladder. But in the third round at Hamilton New Zealand, he missed the entire round after crashing in Qualifying.
It didn’t put his form off.
After winning races at Melbourne and Winton he was again paired with Lowndes for The Bathurst 1000. The Golden Duo performed magic once again. For the third time in a row they won the biggest race of the year, The Bathurst 1000.
That year Supercars also travelled to Bahrain for one of the rounds. No one had experience at this track. After winning at Bathurst and following up with 3 straight wins at Queensland’s Gold Coast he was in the best form ever. Once again the magic shone and he cleaned up in all three races.
Since Bahrain in 2008 Jamie Whincup has not been beaten at any Supercars event outside of Australia.
Except for Phillip Island, Jamie won at least 1 race in the 7 remaining rounds of the year.
By the end of the season his tally was 14 race wins out of 34 starts (this excludes Hamilton where he missed the entire round of 3 races). That is a 44.1% average win. He took the driver’s championship.
With stats like that people could see this was more than just beginner rookie enthusiasm. It was the coming of age of a race legend!
In 2009 Jamie Whincup ran the number 1 on his Team Vodafone Ford Falcon. The number 1 is honoured to the driver who wins the previous season.
He took the first 4 races in ’09 and managed to lead the championship from start to finish. This was his second championship win, earning them both in a row.
The 2010 season marked a change in cars for 888 from Ford to Holden. They started with two rounds overseas in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. Jamie Whincup won the 4 out of 4 races to start the season.
He went on to do exceedingly well earning 10 pole positions and 14 podiums for the season, 9 of which were first place.
Even with such amazing results he unfortunately lost the championship to James Courtney. Incidentally, Courtney’s tally for the year was 1 pole position and 9 podiums, 5 of which were wins. Compared to Jamie’s 9 wins for the season it was the big point races where Courtney got ahead.
Jamie wasn’t going to let that happen again. In 2011 he earned 19 podiums of 28 races(67.9%), 10 of them were wins (35.7%). Of the 1824 laps he completed he was in the lead for 659 (36.1%). I’m sorry if this sounds over the top but to be in the lead of ALL THE RACES for the year more than 1/3 of the time, THAT IS AMAZING!
He won the 2011 championship 35 points ahead of teammate, Craig Lowndes. More noticeably he was 449 points ahead of Mark Winterbottom in 3rd place. It was Jamie’s 3rd championship title.
Jamie Whincup lost his dad David to Lymphoma cancer on the eve of the 2012 Supercars championship. He won the opening race for the season The Clipsal 500, as a tribute to his father.
Jamie cleaned up that year claiming his 4th championship title. It was another back-to-back title win. He took 24 podiums of 30 races (80%), 12 of which were 1st place (40%), 339 points ahead of his nearest rival Craig Lowndes.
So dear readers, are you getting the picture of why Jamie Whincup is my favourite driver of all time?
2012 Homebush: The first time I got to meet Jamie Whincup.
Jamie went on to win the 2013 championship making it his 3rd in a row and his 5th in total.
In 2014 Jamie catapulted to legendary status by winning his 6th championship title. That was his 4th in a straight row.
In 2016 another star-to-be joined the 888 Race Engineering team, Shane Van Gisbergen. The two worked well together. Van Gisbergen took the title that year, Jamie running second and Lowndes fourth. The trio at triple 8 were an amazing team.
2016 Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek) : The weekend of Jamie’s 100th career win.
2017 Jamie took back the title for his 7th time. This was won over a new upcoming star Scott McLaughlin.
2018 saw Scott McLaughlin take the title, but it was the 888 trio that filled the remaining top spots. Van Gisbergen was 2nd, Whincup 3rd and Lowndes 4th. Unfortunately, it was the final year of the trio as Lowndes retired at the end of the season.
2019, 2020 and 2021 ran much the same way where Van Gisbergen finally took his second title in 2021.
2021 was Jamie’s last fulltime season of racing in Supercars. He was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal (for being the best and fairest) for the 3rd time.
His career is highlighted by working with some of the best drivers to ever get behind the wheel, including his co-drivers:
Paul Dumbrell 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
Jamie Whincup has competed in 552 races, earning 92 poles, 124 first place wins of 267 podiums.
Of the 30,057 laps completed he was in the lead for 6962 (that is close to being in the lead ¼ of his professional career). That ain’t bad at all!
At just 38 years of age with 7 championships, his achievements include back-to-back titles for Ford and 4 straight titles for Holden, 4 Bathurst 1000 wins and countless other record holding achievements.
Jamie Whincup, congratulations on everything you have achieved during your supercars career. Best of luck for the future. You will be missed on the grid in 2022.
2021 Mid Year VLOG from my YouTube Channel. Watch to the end .. had a bit of fun 😉
On the week from November 30th to December 5th, 2021 was the 61st running of The Bathurst 1000. It was the final race for the year and the biggest race of the year. The Bathurst 1000 is not only known in Australia but considered internationally as one of the toughest races in the category.
The new sponsor for the great race was Repco who have claimed the naming rights over previous year’s sponsors, Supercheap Auto.
Usually the race includes international drivers but due to COVID-19 restrictions no overseas contestants were able or willing to come to Australia. Some notable drivers absent included, Greg Murphy and Richard Stanaway who were supposed to team up in a Boost Mobile Commodore and run with Murphy’s old number, car 51.
I’m also assuming it was to the relief of some local drivers that Scott McLaughlin wasn’t able to make it from the U.S., due to commitments in his Indy Cars maiden year.
It was also an emotionally filled last event for Roland Dane, Triple Eight Race Engineering founding member and team principal since 2003. His retirement from the position is opening the door to team driver and 7 time champion, Jamie Whincup. Jamie Whincup has now retired from full time racing after 20 years to take on this new role.
In honour of his achievements, Jamie Whincup was inducted into the Supercars Hall of Fame.
The Bathurst 1000 event is so huge that the preliminary sessions start taking place 5 days before the main event!
The results for the pre-race sessions were a mixed bag of this season’s fastest drivers. The only surprise were the following drivers weren’t in the mix; Season Champion Shane Van Gisbergen, highly accomplished long term driver Jamie Whincup and Anton de Pasquale (who has shown amazing speed and form in the last 4 events).
The pre-session results were as follows:
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 1
Lee Holdsworth was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 3
Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 4
Will Brown was fastest in Armour All Qualifying
Lee Holdsworth was fastest in Practice 5
Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 6
Brocq Feeney and Russell Ingall was fastest in the Warm Up
Finally the Sunday came and the 25 cars took their places on the grid just before 12:15pm.
Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth (car 25) started on pole position. Anton de Pasquale and Tony Dalberto (car 11) were in P2 alongside them.
It was the co-drivers behind the wheel of both cars, Lee Holdsworth and Tony Dalberto.
In fact most of the co-drivers started the race except for Tim Slade and Mark Winterbottom.
I thought given that it was Jamie Whincup’s last race, he would have started behind the wheel but it was his co-driver & 7 times Bathurst winner, Craig Lowndes.
As they took off from the start line, Tony Dalberto to my surprise led into turn 1 from his position 2 on the grid. He held the lead until ‘The Chase’ then Lee Holdsworth assumed the lead. He had .8 second lead and quickly had 1.1 second lead. Car 25 was a jet.
In that first lap the usual leap-frog of positions occurred. Garth Tander gained 3 spots and Craig Lowndes lost 2 after starting 5th and 11th on the grid respectively.
As they entered lap 2 the drivers settled down and had their first flying lap. Lee Holdsworth in car 25 was going so fast Garth Tander now in second place, had no chance in catching him.
By lap 3 car 20 driven by Scott Pye and co-driver James Golding came in early because of a mechanical drama. Scott Pye didn’t know what the problem was and the stop took up valuable time. When car 20 came back on track they were 1 lap down.
On lap 16 Craig Lowndes was a little bit sideways but recovered easily. In the next lap he took the opportunity to hand over to Jamie Whincup. The timing was perfect, as Whincup left the pitlane he had clear track in front of him.
It wasn’t until lap 17 that the first safety car was deployed because Thomas Randle in car 44 was buried in the sand at turn 1.
While all the pit-stops were happening car 25 was still the pace setter. The cars behind seemed to still have no chance to catch the pole sitting car.
On lap 29 car 9 driven by Jack Perkins had a power steering failure going across the top of the mountain. Smoke was pouring out the back of the car and cars behind had to slow down to keep out of the hazardous haze. Car 9 headed straight for the pits.
On lap 49 Chaz Mostert was still leading the race but suddenly started slowing on Conrod Straight. Commentator, Mark Skaife thought it was a mechanical drama but after the unscheduled pit stop it was revealed to simply be a flat tyre. It was a cruel blow that dropped him down from 1st to 12th.
It was now Cam Waters (#6), Brodi Kostecki (#99) and Shane Van Gisbergen (#888) in the top 3 positions with a 16+ seconds lead over Anton de Pasquale (#11) in 4th place.
After a few laps Brodi Kostecki went into the pits leaving the top 3 positions to Waters, Gisbergen and Whincup.
Further back in the pack Dean Fiore (co-driver to Tod Hazelwood, #14) returned to the pits with warped rear brakes plus an existing muffler problem that they decided not to fix. So they had issues on the throttle issue and on the brakes.
On lap 57 Cam Waters also headed to the pits. It was now Champion Elect Shane Van Gisbergen at the front with teammate Jamie Whincup right behind him in position 2. Whincup had gained 9 places.
Meanwhile Mostert was making way through the mayhem and was at 6th position fighting for his comeback.
By lap 61 Whincup headed in to the pits to hand over to Craig Lowndes. Mostert had amazingly worked his way through the pack and now in 2nd place to Gisbergen albeit roughly 35 seconds behind.
On lap 64 it was time for Shane Van Gisbergen to head to the pits. Mostert in car 25 was back in the lead!
On lap 105 Holdsworth who had a 39+ second lead headed to the pits. It was then that the 2nd safety car was deployed. It wasn’t due to any great pile up or accident but because an Echidna was on the track! I can only assume that it could sense the ground vibrations from the rumbling V8s and thought it was ants burrowing and there was a big feast to be had. If it were truly ants, all I can say is they would be damned BIG ants! (What was the echidna thinking?)
Once the Australian Native left the track the safety car peeled off and the race went back to green with 52 laps to go.
Holdsworth had handed over #25 to Chaz Mostert just as the race went yellow. So on the return to green it was Gisbergen, Mostert and Whincup in the the top 3 places but the leading gaps had closed up.
Gisbergen (#888) was racing for the team and slowed down enough to make Mostert (#25) attempt a pass but that would leave him wide and Whincup could gain a spot. A very clever tactic.
Soon enough Mostert lost his patience and tried his luck. It was bad timing considering the upcoming turns. Whincup managed to slip in while Mostert was wide. Then Mosterts poor positioning allowed Anton de Pasquale to pass him.
Mostert fought back and passed Anton de Pasquale at turn 1 on the next lap.
It was lap 114 of 161 and the competition was so fierce. The Triple Eight drivers in the lead, Gisbergen and Whincup both did their fastest lap of the race with Chaz Mostert hot on their tail.
It was then that car 35 driven by Jayden Ojeda (Zane Goddard) hit the wall and the 3rd safety car for the race was deployed. All drivers headed to the pits.
On exit it was busier than a Woolworths parking lot on Saturday morning. Brodi Kostecki squeezed in ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen. Will Davison tried the same thing but coming in from the left wasn’t seen by Jamie Whincup and they made contact. As a result Davison received a 5 second pit lane penalty that he had to serve in his next and last pit stop.
When the race went back to green the fierce driving returned lead by Reynolds (#26), Mostert(#25) and Gisbergen (#888).
On lap 121 the second Matt Stone Racing car #34, Jake & Kurt Kostecki hit the tyre barrier at Forest Elbow (didnt hit a funny bone) bringing out the 4th safety car of the day. The car looked pretty messed up. Somehow Jake Kostecki managed to reverse the car out of the barrier and make it back to the pits unassisted.
With 22 laps remaining Anton de Pasquale came to a halt midway through ‘The Cutting’. He couldn’t get the gears to engage and the race returned to Yellow for the 5th time.
The lead was now in the hands of Mostert, Gisbergen and Waters. Whincup had dropped to 5th place.
On lap 144 (19 laps remaining) newcomer Brocq Feeney left the track at turn 10 and ended up in the sand pit with a right front wheel bent at an unholy angle. The 6th safety car was sent out. With such little time left ‘The Enforcer and the Kid’ would not be returning to the track. (Russel Ingall’s nickname is The Enforcer).
The race went back to green with 16 laps to go. It was now on to the finish line for young and old with all the gaps closed up due to the safety car.
Between the last 16 laps and 10 laps remaining Mostert had worked up a 2.654 second lead over the defending Bathurst Champion Shane Van Gisbergen.
Mostert was only managing to gain a few 10ths of a second on each lap.
With 7 laps to go Mostert had a 4.599 second lead over SVG. It was then that Mostert got his lucky break. Shane Van Gisbergen started slow. It was the worst possible timing to get a flat tyre on the front right. By the time he reached the pits he had dropped from 2nd place to 18th while the others managed to clock up another 2 laps. They were at lap 156 of 161. SVG must have been devastated to be taken from a sure podium finish to the back of the pack. Credit to him, they changed the tyre and he headed back out to complete the race.
With SVG out of the way Mostert had a 5+ second lead over Cam Waters #6 and Brodi Kostecki #99 a further 3.4+ seconds back. Mostert in his jet of a car was driving flawlessy.
Whincup in 4th place was fighting for a podium finish in his last race as a full-time driver. The pace was so demonic he just couldn’t make any gain on Kostecki. IN fact in those last laps the split remained almost static the whole time.
On the last lap Mostert’s lead enable him to drive at a slower pace ensuring there were no last second mistakes. He comfortbly crossed the finish line to the cheers of the crowd.
This was Mostert’s second Bathurst win since his last in 2014 and 10 years since the team Walkinshaw Andretti United had their last Bathurst Win. Co-driver Lee Holdsworth looked like he was going to puke as he scored his first Bathurst after 18 attempts in The Big Race.
Results for race 31
1st Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
2nd Cameron Waters and James Moffatt – Tickford Racing.
3rd Brodie Kostecki and David Russell – Erebus Motorsport.
4th Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
Congratulations to Jamie Whincup on everything you have achieved during your amazing Supercars career, you should be so proud of yourself, best of luck for the future.
The next event is the Repco Newcastle 500 March 4th to 6th 2022.
On November 19-21,2021 the Beaurepairs Sydney Supernight was run. It marks 4 of 4 events held back to back at the Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek). It is the penultimate event of the Supercars season for 2021 before they head to the Bathurst 1000.
The event was made up of two races, both 250km (64 laps).
The pre-sessions results for Race 29 were once again dominated by Anton de Pasquale.
Matthew Payne was fastest in the additional co-driver practice session. He was co-driver for David Reynolds.
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Practice 1, Practice 2, the Armor All Qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout.
So in race 29 Anton de Pasquale started on pole position with Jamie Whincup alongside him.
There was the threat of rain but as the race got underway the track was dry. Jamie Whincup got a good start and led into turn 1.
At turn 3 David Reynolds ran wide and lost a lot of pace out on the grass.
IN the first part of the race Jamie Whincup held the lead while the cars further back settled into their race pace.
On lap 7 Macauley Jones triggered the first safety car after going off the track at turn 8. A lot of the drivers chose to pit while the safety car was out. Shane Van Gisbergen had to double stack behind his teammate Jamie Whincup. When Shane Van Gisbergen rejoined the track he had dropped several place to 9th position.
When the safety car finally left the track and the race went ‘back to green’ Cameron Waters had the lead.
In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was in 6th position but soon worked his way up to the top 3.
It took a long while but Shane Van Gisbergen managed to find a gap and take over teammate, Jamie Whincup in second position.
With 5 Laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off Cameron Waters and from there was never headed.
Jamie Whincup also managed to gain a spot giving the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team a 1,2 finish with Cameron Waters coming in third place.
Results for Race 29
1st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2nd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3rd Cameron Waters – Monster Engery Racing.
There was a surprising mix of results in the pre-race sessions for Race 30.
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Armor All Qualifying. The big surprise was the dominator of the last 4 events pre-race sessions, Anton de Pasquale was 17th.
Nick Percat was fastest in the Armor All Top Ten Shootout earning him pole position.
Shane Van Gisbergern was next to pole on the grid.
The rain was really coming down and the race was delayed. It really put an edge on the scene with the rain continuing to come down.
Finally the rain started to ease a bit and the officials wanted to take advantage and get the race going. It was a bit of an anticlimax. The track was extremely wet as the cars rolled off behind the safety car to checkout the track to decide if and when they drivers can start. They did 5 laps under yellow flag before the race was red flagged and all the drivers had to follow the safety car into pit lane in a single line.
Most of drivers had got out of the cars except for the pole sitter Nick Percat, he was hoping the race was going to restart. As time moved on the officials had to make the call and they did’nt restart the race.
With no real laps done there were no results for race 30.
Shane Van Gisbergen won the Beaurepairs Sydney Cup and was declared the champion elect. The Red Bull Ampol Racing Team are also the champion team.
The next event is the grand finale; the Repco Bathurst 1000 on the 30th of November to December 5th.
Shane Van Gisbergen and Garth Tander are the defending champions heading into this year’s race.
The Bathurst Channel 503 begins on Monday the 29th of November, 2021.
