Photo: Triple Eight

Shane van Gisbergen fights his way to a Triple Eight 1-2 in Sydney night race

By

Shane van Gisbergen fought his way to victory, leading a Triple Eight Race Engineering 1-2 with Jamie Whincup in second, beating title rival and pole sitter Scott McLaughlin in the night race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

McLaughlin started on pole and claimed the lead for the first part of the race. But the Ford driver was unable to maintain the lead in the final part of the race after a safety car session that was caused by Todd Hazelwood losing the rear wing of his Ford Falcon on the main straight.

Van Gisbergen put hard pressure on McLaughlin after the restart and claimed the lead after an entertaining battle. The DJR Team Penske driver was then caught by van Gisbergen’s team-mate Whincup who made his way past not long after.

McLaughlin came home in third position with Craig Lowndes fourth and Tickford Racing driver Chaz Mostert a distant fifth.

Rick Kelly finished sixth as the top Nissan Motorsport driver ahead of Erebus Motorsport driver David Reynolds and Nick Percat.

Jack Le Brocq and Tim Slade rounded off the top ten with Slade being involved in an incident with Cameron Waters earlier in the race. Waters turned Slade into a spin at Turn 2 with the stewards handing Waters a 15-second penalty for the incident.

Thanks to the victory, his second straight, van Gisbergen has closed in on championship leader McLaughlin in the standings with 89 points separating the two. Whincup is a distant third, 433 points from the lead. The next race takes place at the Bend on August 25-26.