Van Gisbergen returns to victory lane with Sunday Sydney win
2023-07-30 17:40:00
It was the three-time Supercars Champion's fourth win of the 2023 season. The victory is his first since Race 7 at the Perth SuperSprint, some three months ago.
It is van Gisbergen's ninth win at Sydney Motorsport Park, and marks the 249th win in the history of Triple Eight Race Engineering, extending its Supercars record.
The kiwi has moved up into third in the points standings, and is just 54 points behind current leader and last night's race winner Brodie Kostecki, who finished 8th today.
Rounding out the full kiwi 1-2 was Andre Heimgartner (No. 8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet Camaro) who claimed his fourth runner-up finish of 2023 with another second place.
Shell's Anton De Pasquale (No. 11 Shell V-Power Ford Mustang) rebounded from a miserable Saturday night race to finish third in this afternoon's contest after a last lap overtaking move past van Gisbergen's teammate Broc Feeney (No. 88 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet Camaro) secured the final podium spot for the Mustang.
Heimgartner's teammate Bryce Fullwood (No. 14 Middy's Electrical Chevrolet Camaro), equalled his best finish of 2023 in fifth.
Kostecki now holds a 41-point lead over teammate Will Brown (No. 9 Coca-Cola Chevrolet Camaro) in the Championship race.
Brown's Race 19 got off to a disastrous start, as the Toowoomba native was spun on the opening lap and dropped to last, before executing an impressive recovery to 14th a the chequered flag.
The Sunday win for Red Bull Ampol Racing means the top four in the championship are separated by just 67 points through 19 races.
"I have to thank the team so much," said van Gisbergen.
"They haven't given up on me. I've been struggling a bit but they've rebuilt this car [and] changed the chassis, they've done so much work.
"It's so cool to be back here [in victory lane]. Back on the right track.
"I've never driven so slowly to win a race. At the end [the gap] was three seconds and I thought I better get to five seconds in case they penalise us again."
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This year's Sydney Motorsport event, and first ever race under lights of the Gen3 era was attended by a mammoth crowd across three-days of 47,706.
The Repco Supercars Championship is back on track in three weeks as the championship heads to Tailem Bend for the OTR SuperSprint, the eighth event of the 2023 season.
The event will mark the first time the new-for-2023 Gen3 Supercars have raced in South Australia, and will feature Races 20, 21, and 22 of the current campaign.
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