Supercars Perth: Van Gisbergen wins tense finale

Davison jumped van Gisbergen from the outside of the front row at the start, sweeping into the lead at the first corner.

Initially it was David Reynolds who slotted into second place having also found a way around van Gisbergen at the first corner.

Reynolds' stint in second was short-lived, though, the Grove Racing driver locking a brake into the bowl on the first lap and that allowed van Gisbergen to get a run down the back straight and move into second place.

Further back in the field there was first lap action when Mark Winterbottom spun Thomas Randle, putting the Tickford driver into a full rotation in the middle of the road before continuing without serious damage, while Winterbottom was handed a 15-second penalty for his efforts.

Out front it was a see-sawing battle, Davison initially holding a comfortable lead before van Gisbergen turned up the pressure around the 15-lap mark.

But when the Kiwi couldn't find a way through he backed off and let the gap grow to just under a second.

On lap 25 van Gisbergen tried to undercut Davison by taking his mandatory service. However the ploy didn't quite work, Davison pitting a lap later and retaining the lead.

Will Davison, Dick Johnson Racing

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

He didn't have the lead for long, though, van Gisbergen lining Davison up down the back straight on the next lap.

Davison did his best to wrangle back the lead at Turn 1 on the following lap, however van Gisbergen was able to quickly turn attack into defence and hold off the Shell Ford driver.

The next challenge was running down James Courtney, who ended up in the lead thanks to a huge undercut from a lap 12 stop.

The Tickford veteran proved stubborn as the race leader, particularly as van Gisbergen didn't seem to realise he wasn't already leading the race. Once told over the radio that he was racing Courtney, not lapping him, van Gisbergen quickly found a way through with six laps to go.

It was just in the nick of time, too, the safety car coming out just moments after van Gisbergen took the lead from Courtney to retrieve Garry Jacobson.

The race went green with two laps to go, van Gisbergen nailing the restart as he cruised to a 2s victory.

"What an awesome weekend. The car has been brilliant," said van Gisbergen. "That race was funny, I didn't realise James was the leader. I thought it was just Will and I battling, and then I took off to get James. Sorry for stealing that one off him.

"It was awesome. Good battle with Will and then James. [DJR] got one this morning, but we got them back then. I'm stoked."

Courtney hung on for second despite having to hold off the two Dick Johnson Racing cars, on significantly better rubber, for the two-lap sprint to the flag.

His cause was helped somewhat by a yellow flag at the last corner on the final lap, prompted by Brodie Kostecki thumping into his cousin Jake Kostecki on the penultimate lap as they scrapped for a top-10 position.

Davison finished third ahead of team-mate Anton De Pasquale, while Will Brown triumphed in a race-long battle with Reynolds for fifth place. Cam Waters finished seventh ahead of Todd Hazelwood, Andre Heimgartner and Tim Slade.

Van Gisbergen leaves Perth with a 164-point series lead over De Pasquale, with the season continuing at Winton later this month.

Supercars Perth - Race 3 results

Cla	Driver		Laps	Gap	Interval
1	Shane van Gisbergen		46
2	James Courtney		46	1.913	1.913
3	Will Davison		46	2.213	0.300
4	Anton De Pasquale		46	2.476	0.263
5	Will Brown		46	4.257	1.781
6	David Reynolds		46	5.237	0.980
7	Cameron Waters		46	5.510	0.272
8	Todd Hazelwood		46	5.972	0.462
9	Andre Heimgartner		46	6.401	0.429
10	Tim Slade		46	6.834	0.433
11	Broc Feeney		46	7.590	0.756
12	Lee Holdsworth		46	7.632	0.042
13	Jack Le Brocq		46	8.041	0.409
14	Bryce Fullwood		46	8.409	0.369
15	Nick Percat		46	9.258	0.849
16	Macauley Jones		46	9.497	0.239
17	Chris Pither		46	9.921	0.424
18	Jack Smith		46	10.391	0.470
19	Chaz Mostert		46	10.401	0.010
20	Mark Winterbottom		46	10.762	0.362
21	Brodie Kostecki		46	45.829	35.067
22	Thomas Randle		45
	Jake Kostecki		44
	Garry Jacobson		39
	Scott Pye		0
View full results