Red Bull’s Shane van Gisbergen completed a crushing weekend at the OTR SuperSprint in South Australia, in a wet finale that was filled with crashes and some of the best driving ever seen in the Repco Supercars Championship. For the third time in as many starts, van Gisbergen took home all 105 points on offer at the The Bend Motorsport Park. The Kiwi’s Race 23 win was his fifth in a row, 14th of the season and 68th of his career.
“It’s obviously a great weekend when you walk away with 315 points, including three fastest lap results,” commented van Gisbergen. “Today’s race (Race 23) in the wet was really, really fun. I was laughing a lot, but I was having to concentrate a lot as well, and also be mindful that Cam (Waters) had his mind set on winning the race, so I was trying to race clean.
Cam Waters came home in second, with Boost Mobile Commodore driver Brodie Kostecki third.
“Every time I passed him (Waters), he passed me back cleanly, so I was having a ball. This track is very hard to read when it’s wet, and I was trying to follow exactly what Cam did and follow his train tracks but do it better; brake later and try to use more grip. When I managed to get in front, I’d lose confidence and he’d manage to get me back. It took a bit to figure out but we had a lot of fun out there.
Critically, van Gisbergen gave Holden an unassailable lead in the Champion Manufacturer standings.
“It was also great to claim the manufacturers title this weekend for Holden and GM. The brand still means a lot to a lot of people so it’s really cool to represent them. We have some big races coming up including Bathurst, Pukekohe and Adelaide where it will be Holden’s last showing, so hopefully we can send the Holden badge out in a good way.”
Two drivers missed the final race of the event, Thomas Randle and Andre Heimgartner, who were transported to hospital for precautionary scans following a major crash in today’s earlier race.
Van Gisbergen now leads Waters atop the Drivers’ Championship standings by 393 points, with De Pasquale third, Will Davison fourth and Chaz Mostert rounding out the top five.
The 2022 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint from 19-21 August at the famous Melbourne circuit.
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