MOTORSPORT: Kiwi takes flight at night

The return of Australian Supercars championship night racing has been declared a success following Saturday 300km outing at Sydney Motorsport Park, and no-one would agree with that more than Shane van Gisbergen.

The Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore driver used fresher tyres to catch pole qualifier and race leader Scott McLaughlin, rattled his bootlid a few times to let him know he was there, made the pass, took the win and collected the 300 championship points that went with it.

Rubbing salt into the wound for McLaughlin, van Gisbergen’s teammate and defending champion Jamie Whincup also got past for second, leaving the Shell V-Power DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X driver to take the final spot on the podium.

Craig Lowndes, in the third Triple Eight Holden, finished fourth after looking a real chance for victory, 22 years after he made his championship debut at this track in a night race in 1996.

All that means McLaughlin’s championship lead has been reduced to just 89 points over his fellow New Zealander, while Whincup has also closed the gap, albeit to a still distant 433 points.

Mind you, Whincup was lucky to be there at the start let alone finish after his car suffered a flat battery on the out-lap, prompting a hurried replacement on the grid

McLaughlin led much of the race, but when rookie Todd Hazelwood’s Falcon lost its rear wing in turn one and he spin off at 270km/h, a safety car was called with just 20 laps to go.

The two factory Commodores were able to whip into the pits and grab fresh tyres and still emerge in third and fourth place behind McLaughlin and Lowndes’ Autobarn Commodore.

Van Gisbergen got Lowndes at the restart and McLaughlin with 10 laps to go. Whincup was into second with only four laps still to run.

“I think in the end it turned out to be a great race, when the safety came out the race really came alive and hopefully we put on a good show for the fans,” said van Gisbergen.

“The battle with Scotty was epic. He got a bit of pick up and ran a little wide so we got a free pass there.”

Added McLaughlin: “I’m gutted. I’m proud of the team and the way we raced, and the strategy we put together, but we just ran out of luck with that safety car.

“I tried my hardest to keep them behind me, and hopefully it was a good show for the fans. It was pretty full-on from my perspective. All fair, hard racing and really enjoyed it. I wanted to win that race, though.”

Chaz Mostert was fifth in the Supercheap Tickford Falcon, ahead of Rick Kelly’s Castrol Nissan Altima and the Holdens of David Reynolds (Erebus Penrite), Nick Percat (BJR Mrs Mac's/Dare), Jack Le Brocq (Tekno) and Tim Slade (BJR Freightliner).

Disappointments included McLaughlin’s teammate Fabian Coulthard, who dropped from a front row start to 11th as he struggled for pace early and with a buckled rim late.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodores were both running in the top 10 when they had identical left-front suspension failure within laps of each other deep in the race.

Post-race Supercars CEO Sean Seamer made the expected positive comments about the first category night race on Australian soil since 1997 at Calder Park, hailing better crowd attendance and TV ratings than experienced at SMP’s 2017 championship round.

“It would be remiss of us to not look at applying the model to other races,” Seamer told Supercars.com.

“The television and events teams have done a really good job with the mobile lighting, so there’s nothing to suggest the lighting can’t go to other race tracks in Australia.

“What those races are yet, we haven’t had the discussion, but there are certainly a lot of learnings we can take from the weekend.”

RBHRT and DJRTP’s rivals hopefully took some learnings as well, as no other team has managed to get to the top of the podium since Reynolds’ Darwin victory six races ago.

Across the 21 races held so far in 2018, Triple Eight via RBHRT and Autobarn Racing has won nine races, DJRTP have won eight and the rest of the field have claimed four between them.

Next up, the championship heads to the new Tailem Bend circuit in South Australia August 24-26.

Virgin Australia Supercars Championship pointscore:
1. Scott McLaughlin Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 2579
2. Shane van Gisbergen Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore ZB 2490
3. Jamie Whincup Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore ZB 2146
4. Craig Lowndes Autobarn Lowndes Racing Holden Commodore ZB 2061
5. David Reynolds Erebus Penrite Racing Holden Commodore ZB 2030
6. Fabian Coulthard Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 1796
7. Chaz Mostert Supercheap Auto Racing Ford Falcon FG X 1739
8. Rick Kelly Castrol Racing Nissan Altima 1726
9. Tim Slade Freightliner Racing Holden Commodore ZB 1553
10. Scott Pye Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing Holden Commodore ZB 1549