MOTORSPORT: The Giz takes thrilling Townsville double

Shane van Gisbergen has extended his 2022 Repco Supercars Championship lead with a double victory in the NTI Townsville 500, but not before a dramatic battle with Anton De Pasquale that went down to the final corner of the event.

Finishing fast, the Shell V-Power Mustang lunged at the Red Bull Ampol Racing Commodore at the final hairpin of the 250km race, with the subsequent contact tipping the reigning champion into a spin.

Looking to readdress the incident, De Pasquale slowed as he crossed the finishing line, with Van Gisbergen shadowing the Ford before it was handed a five-second penalty which dropped it to second in the final rundown.

Van Gisbergen now leads the standings by 274 points after seven of 13 rounds, and he dedicated his success to Triple Eight co-owner Tony Quinn, who was hospitalised following a hefty Carrera Cup crash earlier in the weekend.

“The car was good, but Anton’s was better, in he ran me down and had a lunge at the last corner which you have to respect,” said van Gisbergen.

“I tried to go slow in the closing stages in that race to conserve my tyres but also managing the gap, but I noticed in the second stint that Anton had more drive than me, although I had better front grip.

“It was cool to have some action in the closing stages of the race, and good to see some racing.”

Earlier in the weekend, De Pasquale’s teammate Will Davison made the best start of the opening race, before Tim Slade forged into the lead, with his CoolDrive squad one of three to run an alternate strategy with the super-soft tyres during the opening stanza.

Running largely incident free, that race developed into a chess match between the leading competitors on strategy relating to the use of the twin tyre compounds.

Davison headed to the pits on lap 55 of 88 to take his super-softs, while van Gisbergen held on to lap 64.

Resuming in fourth with a 17sec deficit, the reigning champion charged through the field, claiming the top spot with five laps remaining.

Cameron Waters displaced Andre Heimgartner late to claim the last step on the podium, ahead of Scott Pye, De Pasquale, Broc Feeney, Slade, Chaz Mostert, who faded in the closing laps, with Jack Le Brocq rounding out the top 10.

The second race almost immediately came under the control of the safety car when contact between Pye and Davison sent both cars into different walls, with Davison able to return to the track following repairs.

Thomas Randle in the Castrol Mustang charged into the lead with a gamble on the super-soft tyres, but faded late.

A key battle ensued between old sparring partners Waters and Mostert, with the Monster Mustang ultimately claiming third and the Optus Commodore settling for fifth behind James Courtney.

Feeney was solid in sixth from the rebounding Davison, Slade and Heimgartner, with Mark Winterbottom rounding out the top 10.

The 2022 Repco Supercars Championship returns on July 31 with the OTR SuperSprint at South Australia’s The Bend Motorsport Park.

Race 1 – 88 laps

Race 2 – 88 laps

Championship points:

Join the conversation at 

our Facebook page

Or email us at 

editor@carsales.com.au