Persistence was the key for Shane Van Gisbergen and Alex Davison as they wrestled their uncooperative car to overall victory in the Waikato 400 endurance round of the BNT V8 SuperTourers championship at Hampton Downs today.The Kiwi-Australian pairing, both full-time V8 Supercar drivers, could not get their Ford on the podium for any of the three sections of the Aegis Oils event but they plugged away to earn the biggest points tally at the end of the weekend, while some other top teams suffered mechanical failures or crashes.

Race one

Tim Slade led out from pole in the Holden he shared with Richard Moore. Ant Pedersen had his Ford in second while Holden’s Scott McLaughlin ran third – till he got a nudge from Greg Murphy’s Holden on the exit from the Dipper corner. McLaughlin went wide onto the grass and dropped a few places before he could regain the track.

Murphy was apologetic: “I tried to give him room but when I got on the gas it stepped out,” he said.

That incident put Murphy into third and he then closed on Mostert, wresting second place with an inside move through turns one and two. McLaughlin was down in ninth but beginning a recovery. Alex Davison started Shane Van Gisbergen’s Ford down in 14th after a difficult qualifying but was pushing forward.

Disaster struck the Pedersen Ford as it had to pit with a broken axle. Oil dropped by this car caused a few drivers, including Tim Edgell, to skate wide but all were able to recover. Daniel Gaunt took over third in the Tasman Ford with Craig Baird next in his Ford.

Murphy seized the lead with a classic turn-one inside move on Slade, who offered little resistance. “He had better speed plus he’s my team-mate so I didn’t want to put up too much of a fight,” the Aussie said.

Slade then dropped two more places after a moment on the oil spill, allowing Gaunt through to second and Baird to third. McLaughlin was now up to fifth, ahead of Aussie Gary Jacobson (Holden), Andre Heimgartner (Holden), John McIntyre (Ford) and Davison.

The compulsory pit stops to change drivers saw Andrew Waite emerge in the lead driving the Tasman Ford, but Jack Perkins was soon able to put Murphy’s car back in the lead as he came through at turn one.

Richard Moore took over from Slade to run third, ahead of Jono Webb in the McLaughlin car, Van Gisbergen and Matt Lockwood in the Baird car. Lee Holdsworth, co-driving with Edgell, was seventh.

Moore closed in on Waite and grabbed second at the last turn.

Race one: 1 Greg Murphy (NZ/Australia)-Jack Perkins (Australia) Holden Commodore; 2 Richard Moore (Christchurch)-Tim Slade (Australia) Holden; 3 Daniel Gaunt (NZ/Australia)-Andrew Waite (Auckland) Ford Falcon; 4 Scott McLaughlin (NZ/Australia)-Jono Webb (Australia) Holden; 5 Shane Van Gisbergen (NZ/Australia)-Alex Davison (Australia) Ford; 6 Tim Edgell (Auckland)-Lee Holdsworth (Australia) Holden; 7 Andre Heimgartner (Auckland)-Paul Morris (Australia) Holden; 8 Paul Manuell-John Penny (both Auckland) Holden; 9 Gary Jacobson-Geoff Emery (both Australia) Holden; 10 Dominic Storey (Auckland)-Mark Gibson (Taupo) Ford.

Race two

Chaz Mostert started from pole in Pedersen’s Ford, with van Gisbergen alongside him on the front row. Holdsworth and Perkins shared row two. Paul Manuell’s car stayed in the pits, afflicted by a broken gearbox.

Van Gisbergen immediately hounded Mostert and seized the lead with a forceful move on lap one. Perkins held third ahead of Holdsworth, Andy Booth (Holden), Moore and Jonny Reid driving Simon Evans’ Holden. But Perkins’ race ended very quickly as he crawled his smoking Holden into the pits with a broken gearbox.

Holdsworth got past Mostert on lap 14 and closed on Van Gisbergen, taking the lead three laps later as he blasted past on the main straight. Mostert was still a close third and then there was a gap to Booth, Reid, Moore and Webb.

Mostert climbed back to second as he dived inside Van Gisbergen at the Dipper and around lap 24 Reid got past Booth at turn two.
Moore was closely following this pair and he tagged Booth, spinning him off the track. Booth’s Holden then shot back onto the track – and collected Eddie Bell’s Ford, wrecking the front of his own car, although Bell’s injured car was able to continue. Moore was given a drive-through penalty for this incident.

Holdsworth had built up a solid lead and after a good driver change Edgell found himself with a seven-second buffer – though he was not sure about that and pressed on. “When I got in the radio wasn’t working and I didn’t know whether we were first or second,” he said.” I was looking round to see if anyone was close.”

Edgell more than matched the pace of the aces behind him and stretched his lead to 10.6 seconds to claim an emotional first victory in this class. He paid tribute to Holdsworth’s input. “Lee has absolutely changed the whole team atmosphere,” he said. “These cars are so sensitive, and so different to the cars I’m used to, the NZV8s.”

McLaughlin passed Davison and then nailed Pedersen with a neat dive-bomb at the Dipper, coming from a little way back but executing a perfectly clean pass to gain second place. Van Gisbergen finished one place off the podium, ahead of Gaunt, Baird, Evans and Heimgartner. Moore and Slade had got back up to seventh after the drive-through but a mechanical problem right at the end dropped them to 10th.

Race two: 1 Edgell-Holdsworth; 2 McLaughlin-Webb; 3 Ant Pedersen (Hamilton)-Chaz Mostert (Australia) Ford; 4 Van Gisbergen-Davison; 5 Gaunt-Waite; 6 Craig Baird (NZ/Australia)-Matt Lockwood (Auckland) Ford; 7 Simon Evans (Auckland)-Jonny Reid (NZ/Australia) Holden; 8 Heimgartner-Morris; 9 Angus Fogg (Auckland)-Dale Wood (Australia) Holden;10 Moore-Slade.

Race three

Edgell led out from pole, chased hard by Webb who started going round the outside at the Dipper. But on the exit Edgell followed the racing line to the edge of the track and Webb went on the grass – then turned sharply and shot across the track. Unfortunately he then hit Waite and damage to both cars put them out of the race.

At the end of lap one Edgell led Davison, Pedersen, Murphy, Moore, Heimgartner and Baird. The safety car came out and then the race was red-flagged while crews recovered the Webb-McLaughlin car –another chapter in McLaughlin’s story of many misfortunes in this SuperTourer season.
On the restart Davison attacked Edgell but soon found himself under threat from behind as he got passed by Mostert and Perkins. Mostert then overtook Edgell on the front straight to hit the lead. As Davison faded Moore also came past and Lockwood closed in.
On lap 10 the order was Mostert, Perkins, Edgell, Moore, Davison, Lockwood and Morris. Edgell started dropping back and on lap 23 he came into the pits to retire, another victim of mechanical woes.

After the pit stops Pedersen led by five seconds and built on Mostert’s good work as he kept up a fast pace at the front. Murphy, Slade and Van Gisbergen were arguing over the next few places. Van Gisbergen moved up to third with a move on Slade but it was only temporary as Slade fought back and after battling for a couple of laps regained third.

Slade now had the pace, setting the fastest lap of the race as he closed on Murphy and passed him in spectacular fashion, the pair going side-by-side through a whole series of corners before the Australian prevailed. Right at the end Van Gisbergen put a lot of pressure on Murphy but could not quite get through. Baird took fifth ahead of the Jacobson-Emery car and Heimgartner was seventh.

So – three races, three different winners and then a fourth winner as Van Gisbergen and Davison were named overall round winners.

Race three: 1 Pedersen/Mostert; 2 Moore/Slade; 3 Murphy-Perkins; 4 Van Gisbergen-Davison; 5 Baird-Lockwood; 6 Jacobson-Emery; 7 Heimgartner-Morris; 8 Andy Booth-Shae Davies (Australia) Holden; 9 Eddie Bell (Christchurch)-Nick McBride (Australia) Ford; 10 Paul Manuell (Auckland)-John Penny (Auckland) Holden.