Gisbergen gets revenge in Newcastle thriller

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: March 12, 2023

Shane van Gisbergen has denied Walkinshaw Andretti United a maiden Ford win after prevailing in a tense duel at Newcastle.

After being stripped of a dominant victory in Saturday’s season opener due to a technical infringement, van Gisbergen was a man on a mission and got sweet revenge by winning from fifth on the grid.

The success was not resolved until the closing stages as Mostert and van Gisbergen had a fascinating strategy battle where longer stints allowed car #97 to have a 12-lap tyre advantage at the death.

With 19 laps to go Mostert held an eight second lead as van Gisbergen commenced his final stint, but on fresher rubber car #97 closed in to setup a nail-biter.

The reigning champion made his move on Lap 85 at Turn 9, but it was far from clean, with front to rear contact sending car #25 wide and opening the door for the Camaro to slide through.

Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert were locked in a tight chase to the Chequered flag in race 2 of the Newcastle 500.

A desperate Mostert did his best to fight back, giving van Gisbergen a whack at the hairpin, but had no more rubber left to fight with as car #97 drove off to a 4.992s win.

Poleman David Reynolds joined the pair on the podium 23 seconds adrift. He finished ahead of James Golding, who delivered PremiAir Racing its best ever result of fourth.

Broc Feeney completed the top five ahead of Brodie Kostecki, Andre Heimgartner, Jack Le Brocq, Tim Slade and Mark Winterbottom.

Cameron Waters was an early contender, but contact with the wall at the Turn 9 hot spot meant he had to settle for 12th.

Only 24 cars lined up on the grid as James Courtney was forced to watch from the sidelines after Tickford could not repair his #5 Mustang in time following the shootout crash.

Chaz Mostert leads the field at the start where Declan Fraser found the fence. Image: Peter Norton

When lights went out Mostert enjoyed a clean start and surged ahead of poleman Reynolds, but he was denied the chance to build a lead due to a first-lap crash.

Declan Fraser did not even reach the start line, crashing out metres from his grid spot after getting tangled up with Macauley Jones.

As Fraser veered left to avoid the slow-starting Cameron Hill, he got interlocked with Jones and the contact fired the #56 Mustang front-on into the wall.

The first safety car of the season eventually turned into the maiden red flag in Newcastle 500 history with the pit-straight concrete fence requiring attention.

Racing resumed after an 18 minute interruption with Mostert in control. Heimgartner was one of the big movers on both sides of the incident, progressing from 12th to eighth.

The top four of Mostert, Reynolds, Waters and Golding instantly gapped van Gisbergen, who bottled up an tight train of 15 cars in a similar car management strategy to Saturday.

By lap 16 van Gisbergen had shifted gears and drove clear of Slade to start reeling in the sister PremiAir car of Golding.

Car #25 set a blazing pace at the front, being the only car to set a 1:12s lap time across the first 17 laps and established a two-second lead over Reynolds at the top.

Tim Slade and David Reynolds go side by side in the run up the final corner. Image: EDGE Photography

Nine laps after the earliest set of stoppers, Mostert was the first of the lead group to dive into the pits after a strong opening 23-lap stint.

He retained his track position advantage over Waters and Reynolds, who pitted seven laps later and were split by the under-cutting Feeney.

After working his way past Golding, van Gisbergen found himself in the lead and in clear air.

His extra long stint came to an end on Lap 38 when car #97 was finally serviced and emerged in fifth with Mostert, Waters, Feeney and Reynolds ahead spread across 23 seconds.

On much older rubber Feeney quickly lost third to Reynolds and eventually dropped behind van Gisbergen, who once again had impressive pace in the middle part of the race.

Another car surging up the leaderboard was Todd Hazelwood as the CoolDrive Mustang enjoyed the cooler conditions, rising from 14th to seventh.

Hazelwood eventually climbed to as high as third, but his solid run was undone after a tangle with the lapped Thomas Randle sent him into the Turn 9 tyres.

Mostert could not replicate his pace in the second phase of the race and by Lap 48 Waters was all over the back of car #25.

But just when the #6 Mustang looked on the verge of launching an attack, a swipe with the inside wall at Turn 9 bent his steering arm.

Cameron Waters was on the verge of taking the lead from Chaz Mostert before coming unstuck at Turn 9. Image: Peter Norton

The damage forced Waters to make an unscheduled stop on Lap 49 from second, releasing the pressure from Mostert, who led Reynolds and van Gisbergen by 12 seconds.

The Monster Mustang rejoined down in 19th after a long stop which effectively ruined all hopes of defending his championship lead.

As Tickford suffered more pain, van Gisbergen snatched second from Reynolds at the final corner and started to hunt down Mostert to the tune of more than one second per lap.

With his advantage reduced to six seconds, Mostert completed his final stop on Lap 57 where a slow right-front tyre change was completed just in time.

As car #97 started to get frustrated with traffic, car #25 came alive on fresh tyres and made some valuable ground.

Reynolds took his final stop on Lap 69 and lost third to Golding as PremiAir Racing performed the undercut and Grove Racing performed a slow tyre change.

Twelve laps after Mostert, van Gisbergen pitted for fresh tyres and rejoined eight seconds behind Mostert to set up a thrilling fight to the finish.

The fight for third was resolved on Lap 71 when Reynolds dived down the inside of Golding at Turn 2 after breaking the race lap record.

That record stood for three laps as van Gisbergen smashed it by a tenth as he stepped up his pursuit for the lead.

Matt Stone Racing rookie Hill nudged the tyres at Turn 1, but continued to ensure the Safety Car stayed put.

By Lap 81 van Gisbergen had cleared the lapped traffic as just 2.3s separated the leaders.

WAU boss Ryan Walkinshaw expected SVG top catch his main man within the final four laps and his fear became true.

By Lap 84 car #97 was applying the blowtorch and took the lead at Turn 9, but not without contact in the corner entry.

Mostert retaliated with a desperate lunge at the hairpin two corners later, but had no answer on older rubber as van Gisbergen drove clear in a time-certain finish, which meant only 89 laps were possible.

Despite the disappointment, pending Triple Eight’s disqualification appeal, Mostert emerged from Newcastle as the championship leader.

The next chapter of the Gen3 era will be written at the Australian Grand Prix on March 30 to April 3.

2023 Newcastle 500 Race 2 results

1: Shane van Gisbergen 02:13.25

2: Chaz Mostert +4.499

3: David Reynolds +25.140

4: James Golding +27.090

5: Broc Feeney +27.659

6: Brodie Kostecki +28.608

7: Andre Heimgartner +33.324

8: Jack Le Brocq +46.9620

9: Tim Slade +54.4407

10: Mark Winterbottom +58.9770

11: Bryce Fullwood +1:04.1608

12: Cameron Waters +1:15.5632

13: Will Brown +1 Lap

14: Matthew Payne +1 Lap

15: Todd Hazelwood +1 Lap

16: Anton De Pasquale +1 Lap

17: Scott Pye +1 Lap

18: Thomas Randle +1 Lap

19: Will Davison +1 Lap

20: Jack Smith +1 Lap

21: Cameron Hill +1 Lap

22: Macauley Jones +1 Lap

23: Nick Percat +2 Laps

NC: Declan Fraser

NC: James Courtney

2023 Newcastle 500 schedule

Race 2 (95 laps) 15.20-17.20

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Gisbergen gets revenge in Newcastle thriller

The reigning champion made his move on Lap 85 at Turn 9, but it was far from clean, with front to rear contact sending car #25 wide and opening the door for the Camaro to slide through.

Poleman David Reynolds joined the pair on the podium 23 seconds adrift. He finished ahead of James Golding, who delivered PremiAir Racing its best ever result of fourth.

Only 24 cars lined up on the grid as James Courtney was forced to watch from the sidelines after Tickford could not repair his #5 Mustang in time following the shootout crash.

Racing resumed after an 18 minute interruption with Mostert in control. Heimgartner was one of the big movers on both sides of the incident, progressing from 12th to eighth.

Car #25 set a blazing pace at the front, being the only car to set a 1:12s lap time across the first 17 laps and established a two-second lead over Reynolds at the top.

His extra long stint came to an end on Lap 38 when car #97 was finally serviced and emerged in fifth with Mostert, Waters, Feeney and Reynolds ahead spread across 23 seconds.

But just when the #6 Mustang looked on the verge of launching an attack, a swipe with the inside wall at Turn 9 bent his steering arm.

With his advantage reduced to six seconds, Mostert completed his final stop on Lap 57 where a slow right-front tyre change was completed just in time.

Twelve laps after Mostert, van Gisbergen pitted for fresh tyres and rejoined eight seconds behind Mostert to set up a thrilling fight to the finish.

WAU boss Ryan Walkinshaw expected SVG top catch his main man within the final four laps and his fear became true.

2023 Newcastle 500 Race 2 results

1: Shane van Gisbergen 02:13.25

2023 Newcastle 500 schedule

Friday, March 10

Saturday, March 11

Sunday, March 12

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