Shane van Gisbergen has placed one hand on the Supercars Championship trophy after taking out back-to-back wins at the NTI Townsville 500.
Van Gisbergen beat out teammate Jamie Whincup in a two-horse race at the end of each race as the Red Bull Ampol Racing team proved their dominance of the Reid Park surface.
Whincup will have to wait for next weekend’s WD-40 Townsville Supersprint to score his fairytale final win at the circuit he has made his own over the past decade of racing.
Whincup refused to give up without a fight against van Gisbergen in Sunday’s finale, but a late pit strategy proved crucial by the Red Bull team as the Kiwi shot under his teammate with 12 laps to go.
He quickly pulled away and despite running into traffic in the final lap, managed to keep out of trouble to join an elite group of drivers to have claimed 10 wins in a season.
No driver has lost the championship after winning 10 races in the season.
It was the top two garages on pit lane who finished in the top four, as Anton De Pasquale made it back-to-back podium finishes behind van Gisbergen and Whincup, while Shell V-Power Racing teammate Will Davison finished fourth.
Whincup said his team had thrown everything they had at the race, including running four green tyres in the final stretch, but he admitted there was always a feeling that van Gisbergen was coming for him.
“I knew at the end of the first stint we were in trouble, the 97 car was just better than us in race pace,” he said. “We were either going to get undercut or we were going to be a sitting duck at the end there.
“We gave it everything we had just not quite good enough. I am rapt for the team, it couldn’t be a better weekend, but there is a part of me that is gut wrenched. I led for 140 laps this weekend and didn’t get any of the chocolates.
“I wanted it bad, I gave it everything we had.”
Van Gisbergen has been in incredible form this season and his ability to get longer distance out of his car than most of the field proved crucial in the early stages.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver was one of the last to pit and dumped more than 90 litres of fuel into his car in the first stop to give him a chance to cut the distance between himself and Whincup to allow the clutch pass on the final turn with 12 laps to go.
“I can’t credit our engineering team enough, even though we are up front (of the championship) they are constantly developing and trying things with the car,” van Gisbergen said.
“(Whincup) fought hard today. I knew I was going to come at him again. It was awesome, I love racing against Jamie. You are always conscious not to hurt him, but I had to block pass him at the end there.”
- News.com.au