ZAK’S BEST RESULT ASTOUND ALL AT THE BEND

Shane van Gisbergen won again at the Bend in Race 21 of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship, but all eyes were on the stealth black Tickford Racing Mustang.

Earlier in the day Zak Best defied even his wildest of dreams in taking out pole position for the opening race of the OTR Bend Supersprint. Making into the Top 10 was impressive enough, then the 20 yo Benalla resident went out early, set his time and then sat back and watched as the top guns fell short. There were more purple than an Oompa Lumpa in a chocolate factory, though none could put a full lap together and Best bested the rest by 1/100th of a second.

“I wasn’t expecting this”, Best told Garth Tander as he received the Armor All Pole Award. “I don’t really know what to say, we just did the best we could.”

There were then some anxious moments when it was noted that Best’s qualifying tyres, whilst of the same specification, came from a different batch to the rest of the regular runners (the Boys entry had the same tyres as Best). While there was no-wrongdoing by Tickford Racing, there were some muffled discussions and Supercars then promised to “Sort things out.”

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That meant Zak Best maintained pole position with van Gisbergen alongside and Cameron Waters immediately behind.

As the race began the attack came from all quarters, while Best somehow maintained his composure. An audacious move on the extreme left from Chaz Mostert, van Gibergen and Best in the middle and Waters shadowing the wildcard driver ahead had the field almost five wide going into Turn 1. They all managed to scrape through and Best took off as Waters hustled into second.

For 10 glorious laps we had a ‘Rocky’ moment. The young unsponsored wildcard leading the regulars on a merry chase, though the writing was on the wall from a few laps before.

First van Gisbergen stealthed past Waters with a late move into Turn 1. The #97 Red Bull Ampol machine then moved towards the race leader. A slight show of nerves had Best lock a brake around the back of the track, though he was quick to cover the move.

As lap 11 commenced van Gisbergen showed no interest in a rags to riches victory and worked on the rear corner of the #78 family sponsored Mustang. He dived right on the approach to Turn 3, rubber panels and was through.

Van Gisbergen then pretty much had things to himself. He ran long, so long in fact that there were only 3 racing laps left when he stopped to lap 21 of 24. He returned to the track with a 3.3 second margin, which left him with plenty of time to bring his tyres up to temperature.

Waters and Best slipped back as the race progress. Best dropped to 5th at the chequered flag, while Waters’ hopes of a podium were damaged contact with De Pasquale as he tried to heat up the tyres in the Monster Energy Mustang, then an off track excursion had him fall into the clutches of Mostert.

An early stop for Davison worked well for the Shell V-Power Mustang driver as he managed to conserve his rubber over the longer second stint to take 2nd place, with Mostert just behind. Waters eventually finished 4th.

“It was a great day today. Pole, I did not expect that. Really awesome, I’m still speechless, just a great, great day,” Best said to Tickford Racing Media. “We exceeded all expectations; I got it off the line in the race, had a really good race at the start and held Shane off for 10 laps. We had a little bit of a battle then we made our stop, then just pressed on and had some good strong pace on old tyres. Fifth is awesome, we had good pace all day and surprised a lot of people, and we’ll have a go at it tomorrow and try to do more of the same.”

Another win for Shane van Gisbergen has him clearly ahead in the championship. So far ahead in fact, that he could miss an entire round and still hold on to first place.

“Our car was magic today,” van Gisbergen said to Red Bull Ampol Racing media. “I have to thank the team for their efforts. I’ve been struggling with my driving but the car’s been really good. I had a great battle with Cam (Waters) at the start of the race which was awesome, and Zak (Best) drove great as well. Those battles cost us a bit of time which meant we had to run a bit longer in the race to get clear air, but overall, we had a really awesome day and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. After a long stint, the tyres were still fine, but Will (Davison) had past us with his strategy, so we had to make that time up somewhere to get back in front of him. I would have loved to battle him on the track, but our great strategy and pit stop meant we didn’t have to. I’m really stoked.”

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