Tailem Bend Supercars: Van Gisbergen banks valuable win

The two Red Bull Holdens made their intentions clear from the outset, bolting off the line and into a four-second lead over the rest of the pack within three laps.

Initially it was polesitter Jamie Whincup with a narrow lead over van Gisbergen, until the Kiwi eased his way past his teammate on Lap 5.

That proved to be a pivotal move. Just two laps later a stranded Garth Tander led to a Safety Car, effectively forcing both of the leading Triple Eight Commodores into the lane together.

As a result Whincup was forced to stack, which dumped him down to eighth before the Lap 9 restart.

With Whincup effectively out of the running, van Gisbergen's only real challenge was from Rick Kelly. The Nissan driver was promoted from third to second during the caution, having passed teammate Michael Caruso just moments after van Gisbergen past Whincup.

But while Kelly looked sprightly enough at the restart, there was no genuine challenge for the lead. Within a handful of laps the lead was out to 2s, van Gisbergen stretching it to over 6s at the finish.

"Awesome race," said van Gisbergen. "I had a good battle with Jamie at the start, unfortunately he had to get put back. It was about staying on the track, it was so hard. There was one line, very easy to make a mistake. I just tried to behave."

Kelly and Caruso finished a lonely second and third, while Whincup pulled off an impressive recovery to charge his way back past Will Davison, McLaughlin, and Mark Winterbottom to finish fourth.

The most important of those passes was the one on McLaughlin. The points leader could easily have been gifted fifth spot by Whincup being double-stacked, but in the end the best he could manage was sixth.

That means the gap at the top of the standings is now just 41 points.

"We've got plenty of work to do, but at the end of the day we're stepping in the right direction," said McLaughlin. "We just need another big chunk again. We'll move on, we'll work as a team. We'll just get through it."

James Courtney finished up eighth behind Davison, the Walkinshaw Andretti United the big mover making up 16 spots on where he qualified.

Chaz Mostert and Craig Lowndes were the best of the cars to have pitted before the Safety Car, finishing ninth and 10th respectively.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB
2	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	6.260
3	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	8.912
4	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	12.887
5	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	15.823
6	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	16.400
7	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	16.776
8	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	17.239
9	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	18.419
10	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	19.359
11	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	20.600
12	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	22.778
13	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	24.928
14	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	27.351
15	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	28.039
16	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	33.528
17	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	33.763
18	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	34.083
19	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	34.640
20	18	Lee Holdsworth Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB	39.772
21	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	41.897
22	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	43.283
23	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	43.715
24	99	Anton de	Holden Commodore ZB	45.363
25	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	45.578
26	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	57.958
27	42	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.649
28	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	6 Laps