Shane van Gisbergen has broken his 2020 win drought in style with two victories during the Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint.
It’s been a tough season for the 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship runner-up, however the New Zealander was back to his best on Sunday, gaining multiple positions to pick up two wins from two races.
Having started Sunday’s first race on the second row, a good strategy from Triple Eight helped van Gisbergen move up some places early before he replaced polesitter Nick Percat on lap seven.
After taking his mandatory pitstop 10 laps later, it didn’t take him long to get back the lead where he remained unchallenged for the rest of the race and crossed the line eight seconds clear of championship leader Scott McLaughlin and teammate Jamie Whincup.
After more than nine months between race wins for van Gisbergen, it turned out to be a much shorter wait for his next one after he claimed a superb victory in Sunday’s second race, despite receiving some assistance from the safety car.
Starting the race from 12th, van Gisbergen picked off cars one-by-one and was showing a lot of aggression and passing moves before setting himself up nicely and being the last car to head to the pitstop to change tyres.
During his pitstop, Anton De Pasquale went off the track and into the wall requiring the safety car to be sent out, which put van Gisbergen in a strong position for a charge up the field over the final 10 laps.
That’s exactly what he did on the restart and with race leader McLaughlin on older tyres, it wasn’t long before both Whincup and van Gisbergen both overtook him, handing the latter the lead and allowing him to march onto his second win of the season.
“What an awesome race and what a great car,” van Gisbergen said post-race
“We got stuck in the first stint and we always felt it was going to be interesting trying to get back onto the podium.
“But the safety car worked out perfectly and it was a great battle in the end. I tried to do the team thing to help out Jamie but awesome to win.
While McLaughlin didn’t win either race on Sunday, he still bagged a good haul of points with two podiums, including an impressive charge of the field in the second race after starting in 10th, thanks to the team's undercut strategy that saw him finish behind only the two Triple Eight cars.
Just 24 hours earlier, McLaughlin was on the top step of the podium as he enjoyed a hassle free run from start to finish and secured his 10th win of the season.
Finishing behind him in the round’s opening race was Cameron Waters and Chaz Mostert – both of whom made it three podiums in four starts while McLaughlin made two-wins in a row.
“We had a great qualifying car which we worked on all this morning, but we didn’t touch the race car at all from last week,” McLaughlin said post-race.
As a result of the weekend’s results, McLaughlin remains on top of the standings with three rounds to go, with Whincup now 135 points behind.
Thanks to his two wins on Sunday, van Gisbergen leapfrogged Mostert and Waters to finish the weekend in third outright and within 400 points of McLaughlin.
The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship now enjoy a one-week rest before heading to South Australia for the Repco SuperSprint at The Bend on 19-20 September.