In one of the most dramatic finishes seen in recent years, Shane van Gisbergen has completed an NTI Townsville 500 sweep after a dramatic Race 20.
Van Gisbergen held closest title rival Anton De Pasquale, even after De Pasquale made up huge ground on the Red Bull Commodore in the closing laps – and came within a whisker of stealing a late win.
De Pasquale caught van Gisbergen on the final lap and sent the points leader into a spin at the final corner as he tried to push the Shell Ford Mustang into the lead in the dying moments of the race.
De Pasquale attempted a redress to the chequered flag, but van Gisbergen pushed him over the line. Officials quickly hit De Pasquale with a five-second time penalty, handing victory to van Gisbergen.
“He had a go, you have to respect that,” van Gisbergen said of the incident with De Pasquale on the final corner.
“Car was good, but his was better, he ran me down… we’ll have a chat later, I’m angry at the moment.”
“I could see on the last lap that Shane was starting to struggle,” commented De Pasquale. “So he came off the second last corner very well, but I was still pretty far back though and I was half a door but I was too far back in the end obviously with the result.
“It was the last lap of a big race and I was starting to close in pretty quick so I had a crack and most people in the same position would do the same thing, so no message or anything like that, just trying to have a good race.
“As soon as I turned in and halfway through it, then I just locked the front and then ran into his rear door and as soon as that point happened, obviously you can’t back out of it but I tried not to stick with it and redress across the line back to where we were.”
It helped van Gisbergen to his 11th win of 2022, his 10th in Townsville and 65th of his career.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver extended his lead over De Pasquale to 274 points.
Triple Eight also regained the teams’ championship points lead from Shell V-Power Racing Team.
Cam Waters completed the podium after a battle with former teammate Chaz Mostert.
In a race filled with incidents, Will Davison had one of the drives of the day.
He made a spirited comeback to seventh after falling to last after a first-lap clash with Scott Pye in which Pye sent the two-time Bathurst winner off track at high speed after a collision.
The duo tripped over each other; Pye fired into the wall at driver’s left ending his day early.
At the front, it was neck and neck between the two Championship leaders. Van Gisbergen and De Pasquale both made their final pit stop on lap 61 and reverted to the speedy Super Soft Dunlop tyres.
The margin between the two remained at five seconds, but De Pasquale began to make inroads.
Behind the first two, Chaz Mostert pushed past Cam Waters with 21 laps remaining, but Waters regained the position on lap 84 and held on to claim third position and another podium.
Waters was 6.1s from victory, with James Courtney taking fourth away from Mostert.
The season will resume at the OTR SuperSprint on July 30-31.
Championship Points (Top ten)
1/ Shane van Gisbergen 1881
2/ Anton De Pasquale 1607
3/ Cameron Waters 1551
4/ Will Davison 1521
5/ Chaz Mostert 1302
6/ Broc Feeney 1257
7/ David Reynolds 1234
8/ Andre Heimgartner 1158
9/ Brodie Kostecki 1103
10/ Tim Slade 1083
Race 20 Results
Position, Team/Sponsor, Driver, Car
1/ Red Bull Ampol Racing Shane van Gisbergen Holden Commodore ZB
2/ Shell V-Power Racing Team Anton De Pasquale Ford Mustang GT
3/ Monster Energy Racing Cameron Waters Ford Mustang GT
4/ Snowy River Racing James Courtney Ford Mustang GT
5/ Mobil 1 Optus Racing Chaz Mostert Holden Commodore ZB
6/ Red Bull Ampol Racing Broc Feeney Holden Commodore ZB
7/ Shell V-Power Racing Team Will Davison Ford Mustang GT
8/ CoolDrive Auto Parts Tim Slade Ford Mustang GT
9/ R&J Batteries Racing Andre Heimgartner Holden Commodore ZB
10/ IRWIN Racing Mark Winterbottom Holden Commodore ZB
11/ Penrite Racing David Reynolds Ford Mustang GT
12/ Mobil 1 NTI Racing Nick Percat Holden Commodore ZB
13/ Middy’s Electrical Racing Bryce Fullwood Holden Commodore ZB
14/ Truck Assist Racing Jack Le Brocq Holden Commodore ZB
15/ Truck Assist Racing Todd Hazelwood Holden Commodore ZB
16/ Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus Brodie Kostecki Holden Commodore ZB
17/ Castrol Racing Thomas Randle Ford Mustang GT
18/ PremiAir Coca Cola Racing Chris Pither Holden Commodore ZB
19/ Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus William Brown Holden Commodore ZB
20/ SCT Logistics Racing Jack Smith Holden Commodore ZB
21/ Subway PremiAir Racing James Golding Holden Commodore ZB
22/ Pizza Hut Macauley Jones Holden Commodore ZB
23/ Penrite Racing Lee Holdsworth Ford Mustang GT
24/ Tradie Racing Jake Kostecki Ford Mustang GT
NC/ Nulon Racing Scott Pye Holden Commodore ZB
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