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VAN GISBERGEN TAKES TWO IN TOWNSVILLE
Shane van Gisbergen made it two from two with his victory in Race 20 of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship at the NTI Townsville 500, though he wasn’t the first driver across the line.
Shell V-Power’s Anton De Pasquale was first to greet the chequered flag when a last corner lunge by the #17 Mustang tagged the rear of van Gisbergen’s Red Bull Racing Ampol Commodore. The #97 pirouetted at the exit of the final turn and then followed the #11 Mustang across the line even after De Pasquale has slowed to a crawl in order to re-dress his error.
Race control were quick to issue a 5 second time penalty to De Pasquale, which effectively restored the status quo. Shane van Gisbergen was declared the winner from Anton De Pasquale with Cameron Waters 3rd.
The race was largely devoid of incident after an opening lap incident, while the crossover between the super soft and the hard compound tyres were less pronounced than the day before. Thomas Randle being the only driver to start the race on the Super Soft tyres.
As the race began it was De Pasquale who launched off the line ahead of Waters. Fellow Shell V-Power driver Will Davison had an even better start from Row 2 and harried Waters for second place at Turn 2, with van Gisbergen immediately behind.
Scott Pye had taken a narrow line out of the corner and looked to triple jump the trio for second place at Turn 3. Contact with Davison at the exit pushed the Nulon Commodore into the outside wall, while Davison ran into the tyre wall at Turn 5 with a puncture. Davison managed to continue after a visit to the pitlane for a new right front tyre, while Pye’s car was loaded onto a recovery truck under Safety Car conditions.
The race resumed on lap 4 and it as De Pasquale who led from Waters, van Gisbergen, Courtney and Mostert. The difference between tyre compounds was once again on show as Randle continued to move forward and took the race lead by lap 8.
Waters was the first of the lead group to pit on lap 27 as Randle continued to enjoy his time at the front, leading De Pasquale by 5 seconds. Shane van Gisbergen was next to stop on lap 29, while De Pasquale followed suit a lap later. The move saw the #97 gain a place using the undercut. Randle’s time in the lead came to an end with his stop on lap 31. A short bump and grind with De Pasquale on his out lap eventually saw Randle drop back to an effective 3rd place.
Mostert and Waters switched to the Super Soft tyres on lap 60, with De Pasquale tailing van Gisbergen into the pits for their final stop and a move to the faster tyres for the sprint to the finish. A faster pitstop saw De Pasquale lose almost 2 seconds to van Gisbergen, which proved crucial during the latter stages of the race.
Van Gisbergen extended his lead to over 3 seconds before De Pasquale responded. By lap 84 the gap was back to 1.5 seconds, with Waters back into 3rd place after finally catching Mostert’s WAU Commodore.
The order remained the same until the final corner of the race, though a post race time penalty restored van Gisbergen to the number 1 position. De Pasquale retained 2nd and Waters finished in 3rd. Courtney, Mostert, Feeney, Davison, Slade, Heimgartner and Winterbottom rounded out the Top 10.
De Pasquale went to offer an apology to van Gisbergen in parc ferme, but the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver was having none of it and promptly walked away and towards his mechanics.
“Yeah he had a go and you have to respect that, said Shane van Gisbergen to Fox Sports. “Two in a row is awesome, thanks so much to the team.
Car was good, but his was better and he ran me down. I tried to go slow (on the Super Soft tyres) and was managing the gap, but I noticed he had better grip in the first and second but I had better front grip and that kind of wore my tyres out. But it’s all good and I got there in the end. It was good to have some action at the end and it was cool to see some racing.
We’ll have a chat later but I’m angry at the moment. Anyway, it is what it is.”
“I was catching him, had a dip, locked the front and spun him,” Anton De Pasquale explained to Fox Sports. “I tried to give the position back to him, but he was trying to be a bit smarter than that. So play on and all good, we finished where we deserved to finish on the day, but we had a crack.”
All images supplied.
MEDIA RELEASE/Red Bull Ampol Racing – Townsville Sunday Driver Quotes
Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 20 – Seventh (1:13.6830)
Race 20 – Sixth
Championship standings – Sixth (1257 points)
Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying, Race 20 – Fourth (1:14.3393)
Race 20 – First
Broc Feeney – Car #88
“It sucked to miss today’s shootout. We showed yesterday that we had a strong car, but to miss out by such a small margin today was really disappointing. I think our qualifying result definitely hampered our race result, but I think we made up for it in the race. I had a cracking start to the race, which shows that the practice at our previous test days has really paid off, and that definitely got me out of a lot of trouble especially in that lap one carnage. In general, we had pretty good car pace today which was much better then the pace we had yesterday and that meant we could look after the tyres. It was a pretty lonely race from the middle part onwards, but we tracked along and ended up P6. We were getting pretty close to the guys in fourth and fifth but overall, I’m really happy to have gained five spots in that race, and gained an extra spot in the championship.”
Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“Two in a row up here in Townsville is awesome, and I have to thank the entire team at Red Bull Ampol Racing. The car was good, but Anton (De Pasquale’s) was better, in he ran me down and had a lunge at the last corner which you have to respect. I’m really stoked with that win and thanks to all of the fans for turning up to this cool event. I tried to go slow in the closing stages in that race to conserve my tyres but also managing the gap, but I noticed in the second stint that Anton had more drive than me, although I had better front grip. My car was really good on the hard tyres, but I burnt up the rears and that hurt more. It was cool to have some action in the closing stages of the race, and good to see some racing.”
MEDIA RELEASE/Shell V-Power Racing Team Sunday Driver Quotes
Anton De Pasquale – No. 11 Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang GT
Qualifying – 2nd (Fastest Time: 1m13.439s)
Top 10 Shootout – 3rd (Fastest Time: 1m14.275s)
Race 20 – 2nd (Fastest Time: 1m14.622s)
Will Davison – No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang GT
Qualifying – 1st (Fastest Time: 1m13.265s)
Top 10 Shootout – 2nd (Fastest Time: 1m14.170s)
Race 20 – 7th (Fastest Time: 1m13.766s)
DE PASQUALE QUOTE
“I could see on the last lap that Shane was starting to struggle, so he came off the second last corner very well, but I was still pretty far back though and I was half a door but I was too far back in the end obviously with the result.
“It was the last lap of a big race and I was starting to close in pretty quick so I had a crack and most people in the same position would do the same thing, so no message or anything like that, just trying to have a good race.
“As soon as I turned in and halfway through it, then I just locked the front and then ran into his rear door and as soon as that point happened, obviously you can’t back out of it but I tried not to stick with it and redress across the line back to where we were.”
DAVISON QUOTE
“We definitely had a good recovery, first things first after the first lap being dead last, in the fence with quite a lot of damage. Obviously relieved to be 7th, but on the other hand, quite disappointed because we had exceptional car speed. We had quite a lot of damage to one of the steering arms, but I was still able to have such great car speed at the end so, it was about damage limitation, which is good, but it was a missed opportunity.
“Despite it all, we had quite a lot of positives to take out of it at the end of the day.”
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