Dual Gold Coast crowns for Shane van Gisbergen

Fraser Barton
Oct 30, 2022, updated Oct 30, 2022

It was the first time in more almost Shane van Gisbergen has failed to finish. Photo: AAP

Shane van Gisbergen extended his record of wins in the 2022 Supercars season and powered Triple Eight Racing to the Supercars teams title with a double crown on the Gold Coast.

Qualifying fastest then winning the Top 10 Shootout on Sunday, van Gisbergen navigated duels with Will Davison and Chaz Mostert along with an early red flag to cruise to a record-extending win No.21 of the season.

A late safety car briefly interrupted his romp to the checkered flag with 12 laps remaining but the dominant Kiwi ultimately made easy work of the field to prevail by 2.1 seconds.

His Sunday triumph added to a milestone weekend for the 33-year-old after sealing consecutive championship titles with his race win on Saturday.

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Starting Sunday on pole, the New Zealander was edged off the start by Davison after the Shell V-Power driver passed him by skipping the first chicane.

The manoeuvre wasn’t scrutinised by race officials, much to van Gisbergen’s surprise.

“I was flipping angry at that red flag, like how they let him lead at the first chicane,” he said.

“Whatever it is, I was angry and after that restart I was going through them … and then just drove away.

“My car was magic, and it’s just relief to do it like that and do it properly.”

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Red Bull Ampol’s lead man would eventually regain first place on lap 11 but only after a significant delay due to a fiery, 11-car pile-up six laps earlier.

James Goulding lost control down the back straight heading into the second of two chicanes on the Surfers Paradise circuit and fired into the wall, spinning around.

A flying pack behind had nowhere to go and Macauley Jones veered into Golding before Nick Percat’s vehicle also joined the pile-up.

Broc Feeney and James Courtney attempted in vain to dodge the trouble, ultimately also crashing and needing their cars to be towed.

The front of Jones’ vehicle caught fire soon after the incident and was quickly attended to by race officials as the race was stopped.

The carnage resulted in Golding, Thomas Randle, Courtney, Feeney, Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth, Jones, Percat, Jack Le Brocq, Mark Winterbottom and Anton De Pasquale suffering damage or retiring.

All drivers were cleared of any injuries.

When racing resumed, van Gisbergen was nose-to-tail on Davison and fired down his inside on lap 11 to re-take the lead.

Mostert decided to pit early and that resulted in he and van Gisbergen engaging in a tight battle at the midway point of the 85 lap race.

But Triple Eight Racing’s pitstop strategy worked a treat, even with the late safety car, as SVG registered career win number 75 and his sixth on the Surfers Paradise circuit.