Shane Van Gisbergen makes it two from two in Sydney

Tekno Autosports’ Shane Van Gisbergen took his second win in a row at Sydney Motorsport Park, as rain fell again at the track, though the Holden driver had to defend hard at the end to keep back Ford Performance Racing’s Chaz Mostert.

Volvo had fought hard to get Scott McLaughlin’s car ready for the start of race two after changing the engine following the first race. The New Zealander was able to get out of the pits to take up his pole position spot on the grid with just under a minute to go, while the rain continued to fall guaranteeing another wet race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

At the start, Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jamie Whincup had a better start than McLaughlin from second on the grid, though Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian Coulthard briefly led the way after diving around the left side of McLaughlin’s Volvo into Turn 1. Whincup and Tekno Autosports’ Shane Van Gisbergen were up to first and second though exiting Turn 1 on the preferred line, with Van Gisbergen then taking over the lead into Turn 2.

McLaughlin’s race lasted less than a lap when the right-rear wheel came loose on his S60, with the rush to repair the car for the start considered a factor in the Kiwi’s retirement.

The safety car was out on lap three after the second Volvo of Robert Dahlgren spun out in the treacherous conditions at Turn 5 and hit the barrier, sealing the end of a terrible two races for Volvo.

At the restart, Whincup lost two spots in short order, with BJR’s Fabian Coulthard and the Nissan of James Moffat both moving ahead, with slight contact between Coulthard and Whincup on the way.

The tricky conditions caught out Moffat before the end of the lap, with the #360 Nissan Altima running wide at the final corner and dropping down the order..

Coulthard began to lose pace, and was then repassed by Whincup who moved back up to second, with Coulthard then losing third to the Ford Performance Racing Falcon of Chaz Mostert, with team-mate Jason Bright then grabbing fourth position from him on lap 13, with Bright recovering after severely bogging down at the start.

With the rain continuing to fall, many drivers were caught out, with race leader Van Gisbergen losing a chunk of his lead after running off wide, but Whincup made a similar mistake just a few laps later and fell into the clutches of Mostert’s Ford.

The Whincup/Mostert battle for second was interrupted when Dick Johnson Racing’s Scott Pye was spun out by Nissan’s Michael Caruso as the two drivers battled for 17th position. Pye’s car was stuck in the gravel, which brought out the second safety car, with Van Gisbergen’s lead again wiped out, with Caruso given a drive-through penalty for his efforts.

At the restart on lap 20, Whincup tried to get ahead of Van Gisbergen, but lost out in Turn 2 with FPR’s Chaz Mostert able to move ahead and also briefly challenged Van Gisbergen for the lead.

Van Gisbergen soon started to pull away again, with Mostert now up to second position, after having started 11th. Mostert closed on Van Gisbergen again on the final lap, but ultimately couldn’t stop the Kiwi from taking another win in the rain in Sydney.

Jamie Whincup finished third, and with FPR’s Mark Winterbottom finishing 12th in another tough race for the Ford driver, with Whincup therefore extending his points lead, and is now up to 78 points ahead.

Jason Bright finished fourth ahead of the Erebus Mercedes of Will Davison, with James Moffat recovering from his earlier spin which had seen him drop all the way down to 17th, to finish in sixth ahead of Fabian Coulthard.

James Courtney finished eighth for HRT, benefitting as team-mate Garth Tander and the Nissan of Todd Kelly came together at Turn 2 on lap 22 and took themselves out of a top ten finish.

Nissan’s Rick Kelly and LD Motorsport’s Russell Ingall completed the top ten, but just as in race one, Nick Percat was taken out in the final stages, this time by Ingall, with Ingall under investigation by the stewards and could well lose his tenth spot just as Scott Pye had in race one. This would promote Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes to tenth, who had a generally anonymous race, slowly working his way forward after having qualified down in 21st position.

The 200km race takes place tomorrow at 15:45 AEST, with qualifying at 12:40 AEST.