Shane van Gisbergen won a dramatic opening first race of the Brother 350 event – the third round of the 2013 BNT V8 SuperTourer series – to take his maiden win in the series.
It was chaos from warm-up lap with front row starter Scott McLaughlin losing it on green tyres on the warm up lap and somehow finding his way back for a pit-lane start with running repairs. The drama continued at the green light as a tightly bunched lead pack let rip – but over a damp part of the track – on the front straight. Ant Pedersen and Angus Fogg made contact, pitching the Property Tutors Holden hard left and into Ash Walsh. Walsh was pitched hard into the barriers and both cars spun up the track, with Walsh out on the spot and Fogg limping around to the pits to retire.
The incident also left Andy Booth with terminal damage. When Dom Storey – who had jumped to third in the mayhem of the start – went into the barriers the red came out and the cars came round to the grid awaiting a full restart, which was good news for McLaughlin as he was able to resume his original position on the front row. “It makes a change for the luck to go our way,”
Even before the restart, Simon Evans pulled over with mechanical problems. Then just one lap into the restart Mitch Cunningham was hugely lucky to drive away from an almighty after Ford Mountain only to lose it at turn three and hit the barriers, bringing out the Safety Car again.
Through it all emerged pole sitter Shane van Gisbergen, who drove faultlessly in very tricky conditions to take his first win in BNT V8 SuperTourers and continue his stellar season of V8 racing on both sides of the Tasman. Greg Murphy finished second after passing McLaughlin during the race. The champion was satisfied with his best finish of the season so far in third – thanking his lucky stars the restart gave him a second chance after his warm up lap spin.
“It was all about keeping temperature in my tyres there were so many wet patches. It was the first real running any of us done this weekend on dry tyres and our car was really good. Murph was really pushing hard and I could see lots of movement in his car. Yes it was pretty cool to win but there are still two races to go.”
Johnny McIntyre looked odds on for fourth but spun it all away with two laps to go – blaming the error solely on himself. “I was lucky to get back on track and recover to be honest,” he concluded, having salvaged the points for thirteenth place.
Brother 350 – Pukekohe Park – BNT V8 SuperTourers Round 3 – RACE 1
1. Shane van Gisbergen – Ford Falcon V8ST
2. Greg Murphy – Holden Commodore V8ST
3. Scott McLaughlin – Holden Commodore V8ST
4. Ant Pedersen – Ford Falcon V8ST
5. Ant Pedersen – Ford Falcon V8ST
6. Andre Heimgartner – Holden Commodore V8ST
7. Richard Moore – Holden Commodore V8ST
8. Eddie Bell – Ford Falcon V8ST
9. Daniel Gaunt – Ford Falcon V8ST
10. Paul Manuell – Holden Commodore V8ST
11. Kayne Scott – Ford Falcon V8ST
12. Simon McLennan – Holden Commodore V8ST
13. John McIntyre – Ford Falcon V8ST
DNF Mitchell Cunningham – Ford Falcon V8ST
DNF Simon Evans – Holden Commodore V8ST
DNF Dominic Storey – Ford Falcon V8ST
DNF Angus Fogg – Holden Commodore V8ST
DNF Ashley Walsh – Holden Commodore V8ST
DNF Andy Booth – Holden Commodore V8ST
