Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Supercars Townsville: Van Gisbergen wins as fire cuts race short

Shane van Gisbergen prevailed in a wild Supercars encounter on a drying track in Townsville that ended under the safety car due to a pitlane fire

The Red Bull Holden driver outlasted Fabian Coulthard and Cam Waters to secure a second win of the season in what was the first ever wet race on the Townsville street circuit.

His victory came behind the safety car due to the late-race fire in the pitlane sparked by a fuel rig failure at Brad Jones Racing.

Points leader Scott McLaughlin was forced to recover to 12th after a first-lap clash with David Reynolds left the two frontrunners at the back of the field.

The race started in the trickiest of conditions, with the falling rain too light to necessitate a switch to wet tyres, but consistent enough to make life hard on slicks.

Surprisingly it was the category's two in-form drivers that fared worst at the start with McLaughlin and Reynolds clashing on the run to Turn 2 as the Penske driver tried to cover a fast-approaching Erebus Holden.

The clash meant both cars were in the pits by the end of the first lap with McLaughlin needing a fresh right-rear tyre and Reynolds requiring a new steering arm.

Out front polesitter Waters bolted in the wet conditions and pulled almost 10s clear of the field. But drying conditions started to suit second-placed Fabian Coulthard, who closed the gap to less than 2s, before jumping Waters when the pair pitted together on lap 18 of 64.

A lap later Jamie Whincup's race came to an abrupt end when he fired his Red Bull Holden into the Turn 6 wall with a rare unforced error.

The resulting safety car forced the first round of stops to shake out with Coulthard leading Waters and the lapped McLaughlin between them.

Waters swiftly cleared McLaughlin on the restart, before passing Coulthard for the lead as conditions started to worsen approaching half-distance.

At the end of that lap most of the field, including the leaders, finally made the switch to wets.

That handed the lead to Anton De Pasquale, who had taken a gamble on grooved rubber during the safety car period.

As De Pasquale needed to stop again for fuel, the real fight was between Waters, van Gisbergen and Coulthard.

Initially Waters was the effective leader, but an excursion down the Turn 2 escape road allowed van Gisbergen and Coulthard through and made it a two-horse race.

As the 200-kilometre fight entered the late stages van Gisbergen started to pull away, giving himself a 2s buffer as they each battled with an out-of-sync Chaz Mostert.

The race's final twist started with nine laps to go when a safety car was called to retrieve Garry Jacobson's stranded Nissan, sparking a late round of stops for those still needing fuel.

That led to a spectacular fire in the pitlane when a BJR fuel rig failed while filling Nick Percat's Holden and the hot car ignited spilled fuel as it came of the jacks.

That meant two spectacular fires in pitlane, one at the bay itself and one out the back of Percat's car, which he stopped at pit exit.

The drama meant the race could not be started before the time certain finish cut-off, giving van Gisbergen a win ahead of Coulthard and Waters.

De Pasquale came home fourth, Mostert was fifth and Rick Kelly was sixth.

Through all the drama Garry Rogers Motorsport ended up with two cars in the top 10, James Golding with a career-best seventh and Michael Caruso in ninth.

Former GRM driver Lee Holdsworth split the pair, while Simona de Silvestro finished 10th.

McLaughlin continues to lead Coulthard in the standings, the gap between the two Penske drivers 292 points.

Race result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Shane van Gisbergen Triple Eight Holden 64 1h37m33.2943s
2 Fabian Coulthard DJR Penske Ford 64 0.7841s
3 Cameron Waters Tickford Ford 64 1.4441s
4 Anton De Pasquale Erebus Holden 64 2.0448s
5 Chaz Mostert Tickford Ford 64 2.8102s
6 Rick Kelly Kelly Nissan 64 4.2680s
7 James Golding GRM Holden 64 4.6820s
8 Lee Holdsworth Tickford Ford 64 5.3412s
9 Michael Caruso GRM Holden 64 7.2338s
10 Simona de Silvestro Kelly Nissan 64 9.4656s
11 Scott McLaughlin DJR Penske Ford 64 10.2416s
12 Tim Slade Brad Jones Holden 64 24.2602s
13 James Courtney Walkinshaw Holden 63 1 Lap
14 Jack Le Brocq Tekno Holden 63 1 Lap
15 Scott Pye Walkinshaw Holden 63 1 Lap
16 Todd Hazelwood Matt Stone Holden 63 1 Lap
17 Macauley Jones Blanchard/BJR Holden 63 1 Lap
18 Andre Heimgartner Kelly Nissan 63 1 Lap
19 Nick Percat Brad Jones Holden 63 1 Lap
20 David Reynolds Erebus Holden 60 4 Laps
21 Will Davison 23Red Racing Ford 51 13 Laps
- Garry Jacobson Kelly Nissan 59 Retirement
- Mark Winterbottom Schwerkolt Holden 47 Retirement
- Jamie Whincup Triple Eight Holden 18 Retirement

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver Points
1 Scott McLaughlin 2168
2 Fabian Coulthard 1876
3 Shane van Gisbergen 1669
4 Chaz Mostert 1640
5 David Reynolds 1634
6 Jamie Whincup 1528
7 Cameron Waters 1396
8 Nick Percat 1321
9 Will Davison 1274
10 Lee Holdsworth 1224
11 Anton De Pasquale 1200
12 Tim Slade 1149
13 James Courtney 1123
14 Mark Winterbottom 1093
15 Andre Heimgartner 1067
16 Scott Pye 976
17 Todd Hazelwood 940
18 Rick Kelly 927
19 James Golding 875
20 Simona de Silvestro 838
21 Macauley Jones 678
22 Jack Le Brocq 667
23 Garry Jacobson 623
24 Richie Stanaway 482
25 Jack Smith 219
26 Chris Pither 159
27 Michael Caruso 123
28 Tim Blanchard 93


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Townsville Supercars: DJR Penske's McLaughlin gets 13th win of 2019
Next article Supercars Townsville: McLaughlin, Reynolds argue over their clash

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe