Shane van Gisbergen has enjoyed the perfect start to the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship season after claiming victory in the second race of the opening weekend.
Having begun the final day of the Mount Panorama 500 with pole position, van Gisbergen managed to take out Sunday’s race and end the weekend on top of the Supercars standings.
Despite taking out maximum points, the 2016 Supercars champion was made to work for his second win after losing the lead to Cameron Waters right off the mark.
However some great strategy from Triple Eight Racing and excellent driving from van Gisbergen saw him reclaim the lead on lap 12 after pulling off a successful undercut.
From that moment, van Gisbergen led the field for the rest of the race and eventually pulled away from Waters to cross the line with a six second buffer.
"That's a team win, a strategy win, the car was awesome," van Gisbergen said.
"Unfortunately we can't battle on track, so we had to try and win it in the pit lane and we did.
"That middle stint was insane. It was so cool to get such a good car and push in clean air.
"Thanks to my team, Red Bull Ampol Racing. Great way to start the year.
"[Engineer David] Cauchi just asked me to make the gap, normally you're managing tyres and everything.
"It's awesome, and also to have fans here again as well. To win here with an atmosphere is awesome as well."
While he was unable to hold onto the lead, second place was still a fantastic result for Waters, who got his season off the mark after retiring yesterday, while Chaz Mostert finished third – making it a repeat of October’s Repco Bathurst 1000 podium.
Waters wasn’t the only driver to recover nicely from a disappointing Saturday as Anton De Pasquale took out fourth place ahead of Mark Winterbottom, who like Mostert, enjoyed a good haul of points behind the wheel in Bathurst.
Unlike yesterday, there was only one casualty today with James Courtney the unlucky driver to crash during the race – the 2010 Supercars champion falling victim to the same wall De Pasquale hit yesterday.
As for the outright standings, van Gisbergen now leads the way securing maximum points, Mostert’s two podiums see him 33 points in arrears in second place, while Winterbottom occupies third place a further 36 points behind courtesy of his two top-fives.