Supercars The Bend: Van Gisbergen cruises to victory

It was the lead Tickford cars that got the best of the start, shock polesitter Zak Best holding onto the lead as Cam Waters snuck under van Gisbergen at Turn 1.

Best then settled into what looked to be a comfortable one-second lead ahead of his teammate.

Initially the greatest threat to his lead came from race control which reviewed a suspected jump start before deciding against any further action.

As Best continued to lead across the first stint there was a change of position behind on lap seven when van Gisbergen dived inside Waters at Turn 1 to claim second.

He then turned the heat onto Best, eventually getting through to the lead at Turn 3 on lap 11.

Waters took his mandatory service right before the lead changed hands, resuming behind an early-stopping Will Davison.

Best followed suit on lap 12 and resumed behind Waters, while van Gisbergen trucked on with an overcut strategy.

Chaz Mostert brought himself into the game with a reasonably long first stint, a lap 15 stop bringing him out between Waters and Best.

A lockup and trip across the gravel for Waters at Turn 1 on lap 17 then helped Mostert close up on Waters before he charged into third place.

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

Van Gisbergen waited until lap 20 to take his service, the Kiwi resuming in a comfortable lead over Davison and Mostert.

From there he could just manage the gap back to the field as he cruised to victory.

"The car was magic," said van Gisbergen. "I've been struggling with my driving but the car has been really good. Just hard to drive, but racing under the limit it was fine.

"I had a great battle at the start with Cam and Zak, he was driving really well as well. But it cost us some time so we had to run long to get some clear air. It was an awesome day."

Van Gisbergen now leads by 323 points which means he has more than a round up his sleeve.

Davison did well in the second stint to nurse tyres that had been on the car since lap 5 to second place.

He was followed home by Mostert and the two Tickford drivers Waters and Best.

Brodie Kostecki finished sixth ahead off Broc Feeney and David Reynolds, while Anton De Pasquale dropped back to ninth.

Andre Heimgartner recovered from his slightly underwhelming qualifying effort by moving up to 10th in the race.

The Bend SuperSprint continued with two more races tomorrow.

The Bend SuperSprint Race 1 results

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB
2	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	2.2227
3	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	4.0888
4	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	10.4553
5	78	Zak Best	Holden Commodore ZB	10.8632
6	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	11.4282
7	88	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore ZB	11.7643
8	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	13.2936
9	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	13.7233
10	8	Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore ZB	14.4812
11	55	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	17.1168
12	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	18.1578
13	2	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	20.1370
14	5	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	20.7408
15	10	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	21.0182
16	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	24.7133
17	14	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	25.0493
18	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	25.1013
19	31	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	25.8861
20	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	31.3037
21	34	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	32.2222
22	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	32.2805
23	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	33.0330
24	22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	35.1432
25	49	Jordan Boys	Holden Commodore ZB	35.4297
26	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	38.7309
27	56	Jake Kostecki	Ford Mustang GT	1'05.3206
View full results