Twenty-year-old New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen showed he will be the big local hope when the V8 Supercars head to New Zealand for the next round of the championship at the ITM400 in Hamilton.
Van Gisbergen pushed to the back of the field after clipping a tyre barrier and damaging his suspension on Saturday, roared back to finish a close fourth in the second race at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide today.
It sees the young fulltime driver in the series in fourth place in the championship after six races with defending champion Jamie Whincup seeing his lead cut during the weekend.
Toll Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander managed a clean sweep of both races, especially a superb drive in today’s second race when he, Whincup, Mark Winterbottom, James Courtney and Van Gisbergen battled over the final 15 laps of the 250km race around the streets of Adelaide.
The door-banging action proved exciting for the four-day crowd of 277,000 fans with the leaders promising similar action in Hamilton next month.
Van Gisbergen led the New Zealanders today with Jason Richards finishing a solid ninth, Steven Richards 13th, Daniel Gaunt 25th, Fabian Coulthard 27th while Greg Murphy did not finish in a tough weekend.
Whincup’s lead is not 57 points to Winterbottom with Courtney in third ahead of Van Gisbergen, the leading kiwi. Jason Richards is 17th, Steven Ricahrds 19th and Coulthard 20th.
“The strategy we ran, we needed a safety car in order to make it with fuel so when the track began to break up at turn 8 that definitely helped us and allowed us to race to end,” Van Gisbergen said.
“Under safety car I was told to conserve as much fuel as possible which is what I did. When the race restarted I was trying to go fast but use less fuel so I was backing off a bit earlier than I normally would.
“Fourth is a great comeback from yesterday, I wanted to get a podium for the guys but we didn’t quite get there, we are really happy with the points haul.
“Now I can’t wait to get to New Zealand. We have a car with great speed and I would dearly love to get on the podium in my home race at Hamilton. We need all the kiwi fans out in force to help us.”
Tander survived safety car chaos, fuel issues, black flags, race incidents and in the end rain to beat Jim Beam Racing’s Courtney and Orccon Steel Racing’s Winterbottom in his FPR Falcon.
A late black flag for a loose rear end panel took TeamVodafone’s Whincup out of the race with just seven laps to go when he could well have been challenging for the win.
That aside, Tander was saved by a safety car for a damaged kerb after 58 laps which bought him valuable fuel savings to assure he could finish the race when only re-fuelling twice - a line ball strategy in the 250km race.
“I wasn’t sure we were ever going to have a safety car there for a while,” Tander said.
“We were out there a long time and the pace was very strong. We committed to two stops quite early and stretched the fuel window as far as we could go. When we didn’t stop at the third stop we were certainly rolling the dice.
“We hope that safety car would go a couple of laps and it went a few more than we needed. It was always going to be tight, there’s not a lot of fuel left in the tank right now. It was an amazing race and I’m sure it looked pretty good on TV.”
With rain threatening a safety car was called on lap 58 for a damaged kerb at turn eight. A section of the kerb broke apart leaving a small hole and spread chunks of concrete across the road.
It gave Whincup a chance for a ‘splash and dash’ pit stop for fuel and no tyres while then race leader Courtney, on a different strategy, was left out on the circuit. The race then became a race of best strategy and fuel economy.
On the second outlap Whincup pulled a great pass on Winterbottom for second behind Tander as light rain began to fall just to throw yet another variable into the melting pot.
The rain cost Tander the lead on the next lap when he slipped through a corner to let Whincup snatch first spot. With his fuel getting dramatically low, Tander seized back the lead again on lap 68.
Behind them Courtney and Van Gisbergen were on a huge runs to reel in the leaders. He was all over Whincup following the Tander pass. Whincup’s black flag then gave Courtney second spot while Winterbottom held off the charging Van Gisbergen from his third straight podium of the season.
“But it was a great race. That was exciting. The rain at the end, people diving up the inside, bits falling off cars everywhere … it was an awesome race to watch and pretty scary to be involved in it.
The Championship now moves to the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne for three non-points races and then resumes at the ITM400 in Hamilton, New Zealand, on April 16-18.
Race 2 Results
1. Garth Tander
2. James Courtney
3. Mark Winterbottom
4. Shane Van Gisbergen
5. Paul Dumbrell
6. Rick Kelly
7. Tony D'Alberto
8. Steven Johnson
9. Jason Richards
10. Michael Caruso
11. Lee Holdsworth
12. Todd Kelly
13. Steven Richards
14. Will Davison
15. Jonathon Webb
16. Craig Lowndes
17. Tim Slade
18. Jamie Whincup
19. Russell Ingall
20. Karl Reindler
21. Tony Ricciardello
22. Dean Fiore
23. Alex Davison
24. Jason Bargwanna
25. Daniel Gaunt
26. Jason Bright
27. Fabian Coulthard
DNF Greg Murphy
