Van Gisbergen breaks WA Supercars duck
Ed Jackson |
Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has broken his Perth duck, winning Saturday’s night race at Wanneroo Raceway to continue his dominant start to the 2022 campaign.
The Red Bull Holden Racing star, who had never won in Western Australia, crossed the line ahead of Ford’s Anton De Pasquale in the 46-lap race — the first Supercars event in the state since 2019.
It’s van Gisbergen’s seventh race win from 10 starts this year and Holden’s 600th race win as a manufacturer.
“Good to finally win at this place and stop those articles I read all week,” van Gisbergen said.
“It was awesome. My car has been really good today.”
Shell V-Power Racing driver De Pasquale came home second, his fifth podium of the year but is still waiting for a first win of the season.
Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters was third for just his second podium of 2022.
De Pasquale, who had earlier in the day claimed his third pole position of the season, led off the line from Waters.
The Tickford Racing star was the first driver at the front of the pack to pit, with De Pasquale coming in a lap after him midway through the race.
Van Gisbergen, however, held on and established a healthy lead before pitting on lap 31.
Armed with fresher tyres, the New Zealander quickly gobbled up Waters to move into second before beginning an 11-lap pursuit of De Pasquale.
He only needed seven of those before a clever pass on lap 42 put him in front and he then streaked away to victory.
De Pasquale said after the race the decision to pit earlier than van Gisbergen would have to be looked at by his team.
“Maybe Cam pitted too early? We’ll put that on him because we obviously had to defend him, he was quite quick and went for the undercut, so you want to keep track position,” De Pasquale said.
“We were sort of in that tricky situation but, yeah, possibly (too early). We’ll discuss that.”
In stark contrast it was a miserable day for championship contender Chaz Mostert and his Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate Nick Percat.
After a horror qualifying left them at the back of the field, Percat finished 21st with Mostert 22nd as the Bathurst-winning outfit were left with plenty of questions to answer before Sunday’s races.
The Perth SuperNight event wraps up with two more 46-lap races.
AAP
