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Tasmania Supercars: Van Gisbergen charges to victory

Shane van Gisbergen muscled his way to victory from fifth on the grid in the opening heat of the Tasmania SuperSprint at Symmons Plains.

Race winner Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden

Race winner Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden

Edge Photographics

It was a race won on a combination of outright car speed and aggressive driving from the Kiwi, who made up all four spots on track.

His first job was to find a way through teammate Broc Feeney, which he did at the first corner complex at the start of the second lap.

Van Gisbergen then pulled the same move on Brodie Kostecki on Lap 6 to move into third place.

It took just two more laps for van Gisbergen to close up on second-placed Will Davison, the Kiwi firing a warning shot into Davison's back door on Lap 8. 

He kept the niggle up until Lap 12 when he was able to get next to Davison in the hairpin and then out-drag him down to Turn 6.

Leader Cam Waters was next, van Gisbergen pulling a similar move a handful of laps later as he fired down the inside at the hairpin. 

The pair made contact on the exit, Waters showing his lack of appreciation by flipping van Gisbergen the bird and then running him to the edge of the road through Turn 5 and into Turn 6.

But Waters' frustration did little to deter van Gisbergen, who held his nerve and completed his charge to the front of the field.

The top three then pitted on consecutive laps, Davison first followed by Waters and van Gisbergen.

Davison did manage to jump Waters in the process, but van Gisbergen had the pace to cover them both as he retained the lead.

From there it was easy going for van Gisbergen who managed to gap back to Davison and recorded a 2.8s victory.

"I didn't know if I was going to be able to pass them," said van Gisbergen. "What a great race. I had to rub them up a bit but that's what we're here to do. Hopefully it was a good show for everyone. 

"We did this last year and then fell back on the Sunday, so we need to be better tomorrow. I'm focussed on that."

Waters finished a lonely third followed by Kostecki and Feeney.

Anton De Pasquale made good progress from 12th on the grid to finish sixth while Scott Pye was forced to hold off a fast-finishing Andre Heimgartner right up until the flag for seventh.

Lee Holdsworth finished ninth as Todd Hazelwood rounded out the best 10.

It was a miserable finish to the day for Chaz Mostert who went into the race as the series leader. 

After a poor qualifying effort, the Walkinshaw Andretti United had worked his way into the Top 10 late in the race – only to arrive at the exit of the hairpin to David Reynolds facing the wrong way after being hit by Mark Winterbottom. 

After tagging a slowed up Winterbottom, Mostert had to pit to fix the damage to his Holden and was ultimately classified 23rd.

That not only cost him the points lead but dropped him to fifth in the standings, 49 points behind new leader van Gisbergen.

Tasmania Supercars - Race 1 results:

Cla Driver Car Gap
1 New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen
Holden Commodore ZB
2 Australia Will Davison
Ford Mustang GT 2.830
3 Australia Cameron Waters
Ford Mustang GT 6.286
4 Brodie Kostecki
Holden Commodore ZB 8.861
5 Broc Feeney
Holden Commodore ZB 11.698
6 Australia Anton De Pasquale
Ford Mustang GT 13.742
7 Australia Scott Pye
Holden Commodore ZB 16.078
8 New Zealand Andre Heimgartner
Holden Commodore ZB 16.101
9 Australia Lee Holdsworth
Ford Mustang GT 19.054
10 Australia Todd Hazelwood
Holden Commodore ZB 19.352
11 Australia Tim Slade
Ford Mustang GT 19.563
12 Australia James Courtney
Ford Mustang GT 22.086
13 Australia Will Brown
Holden Commodore ZB 24.734
14 Australia Jake Kostecki
Ford Mustang GT 29.173
15 Australia Bryce Fullwood
Holden Commodore ZB 35.089
16 Australia Garry Jacobson
Holden Commodore ZB 37.067
17 Australia Jack Smith
Holden Commodore ZB 40.026
18 Australia Mark Winterbottom
Holden Commodore ZB 43.784
19 Australia Macauley Jones
Holden Commodore ZB 47.167
20 New Zealand Chris Pither
Holden Commodore ZB 49.223
21 Australia David Reynolds
Ford Mustang GT 50.747
22 Australia Thomas Randle
Ford Mustang GT
23 Australia Chaz Mostert
Holden Commodore ZB
24 Australia Nick Percat
Holden Commodore ZB
Australia Jack Le Brocq
Holden Commodore ZB

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