Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway have received the Bathurst 1000, turning into the primary all-Kiwi pairing in additional than 20 years to say victory.
The final time that occurred was in 1999 when Greg Murphy and Steven Richards received in a Holden Commodore. In doing so, they change into solely the second all-Kiwi pairing to win.
For van Gisbergen, it is his third Bathurst 1000 win and the primary for Stanaway in what is the first Nice Race of the Gen3 period.
AS IT HAPPENED: 2023 Bathurst 1000 highlights
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Van Gisbergen and Stanaway survived a number of mechanical scares in remaining stanza to return dwelling 19.9s away from their nearest rivals.
After ranging from pole place, Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki and David Russell completed second whereas Dick Johnson Racing duo Anton De Pasquale and Tony D’Alberto have been third.
The win comes within the wake of van Gisbergen confirming he’ll go away Supercars for NASCAR in North America.
“We weren’t the quickest automobile all week, however we labored on the race automobile. What a sense! Richie did a stellar job all day,” mentioned van Gisbergen.
“It has been robust. Thanks, all these followers. I am gonna miss it. I really like this place. I will be again.”
“I will be again sooner or later, most likely. For now, that is the right method to say goodbye. It has been tough with this automobile. She was falling aside on the finish, however we made it.”
Seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup obtained the bounce on David Russell off the beginning and led the sector into flip one.
Russell hounded Whincup’s rear bumper over the opening laps, however the Pink Bull Triple Eight entry had higher efficiency off the corners which was permitting him to construct a slight margin.
Craig Lowndes was the primary high-profile driver to be taken out of competition when he suffered a gear lever failure on lap 18.
He pulled straight into the storage, and the automobile returned to the monitor a couple of minutes later with Zane Goddard on the wheel, albeit two laps down.
The primary security automobile of the race was triggered on lap 27 with Frenchman Kevin Estre outbraked himself into flip one and obtained caught within the sand.
It triggered a flurry of pitstops, and many of the lead automobiles did driver adjustments.
Because the drivers have been exiting the pits although, David Reynolds breezed previous Broc Feeney up Mountain Straight, however was about half a carlength behind Feeney – who was exiting the pits – on the security automobile line at pit exit.
The stewards whacked Reynolds with a pit lane penalty, regardless of Reynolds giving the spot again after the restart.
Mark Skaife mentioned in commentary the penalty was “huge”, and Reynolds’ teammate Garth Tander was left fuming within the pits.
The second security automobile was triggered not lengthy after to fetch the No.eight BJR Camaro of Dale Wooden from the sand entice on the exit of the ultimate nook – nudged there by the No.20 Camaro of Scott Pye.
Following the restart, a messy conflict between Macauley Jones and Jack Smith on the Chase took them each out of the race to cap off a tough couple of minutes for the BJR automobiles.
The fourth automobile was earlier concerned in a separate incident with Simona de Silvestro on the similar spot.
The tempo settled by way of the center a part of the race as grip ranges remained low because the monitor temperature remained excessive.
However after a interval of relative calm, two incidents in a matter of minutes scrambled the sector once more.
First, Brad Jones Racing’s horror day continued when the No.eight Camaro blew an engine in spectacular vogue on the chase.
As he coasted to a halt in pit lane, leaving a path of oil behind him.
On the similar time, James Moffat within the main Tickford Mustang crashed on the Dipper.
Replays confirmed Moffat clipped the within wall and ricocheted into the skin wall. He limped it again to the pit entry the place he obtained caught, forcing a number of rivals to take to the grass to get round him.
He later took full accountability for the crash, earlier than conceding the workforce was preventing with one, if not each hands tied behind its again.
A lap 119 pitstop for Van Gisbergen gave some trigger for concern. The Triple Eight workforce modified brakes, and the defending champion instantly started complaining of a protracted brake pedal.
The hole again to Broc Feeney in second was minimize from about eight seconds when he emerged from the pits, to underneath 4.
However as SVG’s lap instances improved and the hole stabilised, the commentary workforce theorised it might need been a small air bubble within the brake line that cleared.
As laps started to wind down, Broc Feeney was taken out of competition when he suffered what’s believed to be an identical failure to Craig Lowndes earlier within the day.
Having pushed fantastically all day, the younger star was in tears within the storage.
”He’s completely devastated. Simply torture,” Greg Murphy quipped within the broadcast.
The failure meant van Gisbergen loved a cushty lead.
When Kostecki made his remaining cease on lap 146, the Erebus workforce additionally tried to make some operating repairs on his gear lever tower, maybe suggesting the difficulty was extra of a design flaw of the Camaros moderately than a failure from Triple Eight.
The dying levels of the race weren’t with out extra drama for Triple Eight. Van Gisbergen reported a useless spot in his steering, solely heightening the nerves within the No.97 storage.
Regardless of the scare, van Gisbergen cruised dwelling to victory to win by a fraction underneath 20 seconds.
