Shane van Gisbergen secures Tasmanian opener
Defending champion Shane van Gisbergen became the first two-time winner of the 2022 Supercars season after coming from the third row of the grid to take top honours in the opening race at Symmons Plains.
Qualifying had seen Cam Waters grab pole in the Monster Energy Mustang and he was able to hold onto the lead when the lights went out despite the best efforts of Will Davison into turn two – who then came under pressure from Brodie Kostecki.
Kostecki managed to get ahead and briefly made a bid for the lead going into the hairpin only for Davison to fight back to reclaim second spot, whilst behind, van Gisbergen had cleared team-mate Broc Feeney to move into fourth.
Early skirmishes further down the field saw Thomas Randle, Nick Percat and Jack Le Brocq all run into trouble, with the latter sustaining suspension damage that would force him back into the pits.
As the pack was shuffled around the short 2.4km circuit, van Gisbergen managed to get ahead of Kostecki into third spot and then made a move on Davison to grab second spot at the hairpin; the pair making contact on the exit of the corner as the Holden moved ahead.
Points leader Chaz Mostert meanwhile was edging his way forward into the top ten, although Anton de Pasquale – who also suffered a poor qualifying session – found himself losing ground, which forced him into an early stop as the DJR team rolled the dice on strategy.
Will Brown and David Reynolds also stopped early with the latter immediately setting the fastest lap of the race in clear air before the main players took their turns to come in.
Kostecki was the first of the leading pack to pit when he came in from fourth spot at the end of the 15th lap and moments later, the lead of the race changed as van Gisbergen slid down the inside of Waters into the hairpin. As with Davison, slight contact on the exit unsettled the car ahead, with van Gisbergen completing the move on the long run through turn five.
Waters elected to pit for fresh tyres almost immediately with Davison having already gone in, and a quicker stop from DJR saw Davison jump ahead, with van Gisbergen then diving in as Triple Eight responded.
Despite Davison’s stop being quicker, van Gisbergen was able to rejoin just ahead of the Falcon to retain the lead, with Waters dropping to third and Kosetecki holding fourth. Scott Pye and Feeney rounded out the top six.
De Pasquale’s early stop had seem him vault up to seventh spot with Mostert also running inside the top ten, but the points leader then hit trouble with eight laps remaining when he was left with nowhere to go when Mark Winterbottom tagged Reynolds at the hairpin.
Damage to the front right of Mostert’s car saw him forced to pit, dropping him off the lead lap and costing him valuable points in the championship race.
Out front however, van Gisbergen was able to edge away from Davison to grab the win by nearly three seconds, with Waters having to settle for thrid having been unable to convert his pole. Kostecki, Feeney and a recovering de Pasquale rounded out top six
Mostert would end up classified down in 23rd, ahead only of Percat and Le Broq, and drops to fifth in the points as a result. Van Gisbergen now holds stop spot instead, 17 clear of de Pasquale ahead of the remaining two races of the weekend on Sunday.
