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2022 BATHURST 1000 – LAP 138-FINISH: SVG AND TANDER SALUTE THE LION

By Auto Action

Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander have driven Holden to a famous win in the brand’s final ever lap of The Mountain, holding off Chaz Mostert in a nail-biting conclusion to the 2022 Bathurst 1000.

Fittingly it was the current factory Holden team duking it out with the former factory Holden team, after a chaotic day which was interrupted by rain and eight safety car periods.

The race was decided by a 16-lap dash to the flag after Will Davison brought out a late-race safety car.

The winners of the last two Great Races, Van Gisbergen and Mostert traded fastest sectors in a high-speed boxing match for the win.

Both were fully committed and the defending victor cracked under pressure when he ran wide at Hell Corner on lap 153.

It was a big enough moment to give car #97 a more than a second of breathing space, and van Gisbergen is too good of a driver not to seize on such opportunities.

The Kiwi held on to the flag to win by just over a second after six hours and 41 minutes of racing, while Cam Waters could not keep up, finishing third, almost six seconds back.

Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney ensured four Holdens completed the top five.

Van Gisbergen was in the box seat before the final set of stops when there was a feeling #97 needed a slightly longer fuel stop than its competitors, but the eventual winner did everything he could, pulling out to more than a 5s lead on Brodie Kostecki.

Kostecki had to dig deep to fend off Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters, who had now backed off after an earlier attack.

Hopes for a safety car surfaced on lap 138 when Jack Smith hit the wall across the top and started smoking, but the green flag stayed out as the first set if cars hit the pits two laps later.

Lee Holdsworth ran wide at the Chase losing some ground, while Broc Feeney and Anton De Pasquale were the first of the contenders to pit.

A lap later Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters dived in from third and fourth respectively and spent around 25 seconds getting topped up.

Car #17 finished DJR’s 1000th race in the wall at Griffin’s Bend, bringing out the eighth safety car and giving a free kick for van Gisbergen to top up and remain in the lead.

But Kostecki was not so lucky, rejoining just behind Mostert, losing second after having to avoid the slow-moving recovery vehicle in a key moment.

During the chaos the retro Coca-Cola car driven by Chris Pither had to go into the garage due to a power steering failure 

With a 16-lap sprint to the flag, van Gisbergen led last year’s winner Mostert, Kostecki, Waters and Feeney at the restart.

Waters made the first big move, moving Kostecki out the way instantly to fly the Ford flag in third as van Gisbergen led the train.

Despite Mostert and Waters pushing hard, it was the championship leader, who delivered purple sector after purple sector to pull more than a second away with 11 laps left.

But just when van Gisbergen looked to drive into the distance, Mostert found some extra pace and brought deficit back to within a second with nine laps to go.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United leader was pushing hard, but went too far, making a mistake at Hell Corner on lap 153.

Mostert kept pushing to the flag, but his mistake proved to be the moment where the race slipped away.

Van Gisbergen and Tander won their second Bathurst 1000 as a combination, with the latter scoring his fifth to draw level with Steven Richards in the record books.

It was Holden’s 36th and final Great Race win, and van Gisbergen’s donuts were the perfect way to complete the brand’s final chapter at The Mountain.

2022 Bathurst 1000 provisional results

1 S. Van Gisbergen/G. Tander 

2 C. Mostert/F. Coulthard

3 C. Waters/J. Moffat

4 B. Kostecki/D. Russell

5 B. Feeney/J. Whincup

6 L. Holdsworth/M. Payne

7 A. De Pasquale/T. D’Alberto

8 C. Lowndes/D. Fraser

9 B. Fullwood/D. Fiore

10 W. Brown/J. Perkins

AUTO ACTION, Reporting live from The Mountain

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