Bathurst 1000: Van Gisbergen/Tander take thrilling win

Van Gisbergen took control of the race shortly before the mid-way point, using a short burst of rain to wrangle a lead that the #97 would effectively hold for the rest of the afternoon.

Not that it was easy, two restarts in the last nine laps keeping Cam Waters in the game right until the finish.

However thanks to a brilliant driver after the final restart, van Gisbergen setting the fastest lap of the race on the second last tour, there was one last Bathurst win for the Holden Racing Team.

"It's just awesome," said van Gisbergen. 

"The last few laps were really rough with the safety cars. But the team did a faultless job, the car got better all weekend. Thanks to Garth, he did an awesome job. I just wish mum and dad were here.

"I knew as long as I got through Turn 2 [on the restarts] I'd be fine. Each time [Waters] got pretty close, but I got through Turn 2 with good grip and knew I'd be okay. 

"But man, all those last three stints were qualifying laps. Just awesome."

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• Bathurst 1000: Van Gisbergen/Tander lead midway through

The second half of the race started with the co-drivers completing their stints, Tander leading Tim Slade, Will Davison and Tony D'Alberto.

That was until a Lap 97 safety car, triggered by Brad Jones Racing teammates Macauley Jones and Jack Smith getting together at Murray's Corner, which kicked off the next round of stops.

While Tander, Davison and D'Alberto were done for the day and could hand over to their respective primary drivers, Slade hadn't quite hit his minimum target – which meant another stint, against the aces.

That saw the #17 drop to the back of the lead group, Waters passing Slade for second at the restart, before Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard worked their way past.

On Lap 115, with Slade in fifth and 15 seconds off leader van Gisbergen, the #17 pitted for McLaughlin to take over for the run home.

The rest of the front-runners made their penultimate stops on Lap 120, van Gisbergen and Waters coming in together and heading back out together, just over a second between them.

Mostert held on to third, while McLaughlin used an undercut to jump teammate Coulthard for fourth.

Those positions were reversed in the final round of stops, McLaughlin dropping back to fifth after pitting three laps earlier than Coulthard.

The two leaders, meanwhile, made their stops together on Lap 141, van Gisbergen coming in with a 3s gap, but leaving with barely a couple of tenths to his name.

Part of the difference was an aggressive pit entry from Waters, while van Gisbergen was slightly delayed on the way out as Coulthard came across his pit bay.

But while he was able to shadow van Gisbergen, Waters couldn't find a way past during the small window where he seemed to have the edge on pace.

Just as van Gisbergen reclaimed the upper hand in the battle the race was neutralised again, two separate incidents – Bryce Fullwood in the wall on the way into the Elbow and Jack Smith in the sand at The Chase – bringing out the Safety Car.

Van Gisbergen successfully got through the restart with six laps to go, but again it was short-lived. Within a lap the yellow flags were flying again, courtesy of Zane Goddard whacking the wall at McPhillamy Park.

That meant one last safety car with three laps to go, which is where van Gisbergen really shined. He set the fastest final sector on the restart lap, before logging the fastest time of the whole race on the penultimate lap.

That sealed the deal, van Gisbergen crossing the line for his first Bathurst win, and Tander's fourth – on the 20th anniversary of his maiden triumph with Garry Rogers Motorsport back in 2000.

Waters and Davison were second, as Chaz Mostert crossed the line third to seal Warren Luff's sixth time in the last nine years.

The Penske Fords were next, Coulthard/D'Alberto leading McLaughlin/Slade, while Scott Pye and Dean Fiore were sixth.

Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso were seventh, Mark Winterbottom and James Golding eighth, Anton De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki ninth and James Courtney and Broc Feeney 10th.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB
2	6	Cameron Waters Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	0.866
3	25	Chaz Mostert Warren Luff	Holden Commodore ZB	1.609
4	12	Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto	Ford Mustang GT	2.162
5	17	Scott McLaughlin Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	2.711
6	20	Scott Pye Dean Fiore	Holden Commodore ZB	3.969
7	5	Lee Holdsworth Michael Caruso	Ford Mustang GT	4.734
8	18	Mark Winterbottom James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	6.138
9	99	Anton De Pasquale Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	7.645
10	44	James Courtney Broc Feeney	Ford Mustang GT	7.716
11	7	Andre Heimgartner Dylan O'Keeffe	Ford Mustang GT	8.090
12	19	Alex Davison Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore ZB	9.144
13	3	Macauley Jones Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	9.458
14	55	Jack Le Brocq James Moffat	Ford Mustang GT	11.471
15	9	David Reynolds Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB
16	22	Chris Pither Steven Owen	Holden Commodore ZB
17	15	Rick Kelly Dale Wood	Ford Mustang GT
18	8	Nick Percat Thomas Randle	Holden Commodore ZB
19	40	Tyler Everingham Jayden Ojeda	Holden Commodore ZB
	34	Jake Kostecki Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB
	4	Jack Smith Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB
	2	Bryce Fullwood Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB
	35	Garry Jacobson David Russell	Holden Commodore ZB
	14	Todd Hazelwood Jordan Boys	Holden Commodore ZB
	888	Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB
View full results