Daniel Kalisz / Getty Images
Shane van Gisbergen took his 12th win of the season in Saturday’s OTR SuperSprint at The Bend.
Kiwi ace Shane van Gisbergen is one step closer to a third Supercars title after taking his 12th win of the season on Saturday.
Van Gisbergen’s win in race 21 – the first of three for the weekend at the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend in South Australia – was aimed at a long run, while all the other participants chose to enter the pit lane early.
With what was the 66th win of his career, the Red Bull supremo now holds a 323-point lead over Anton de Pasquale heading into Sunday’s two races.
Daniel Kalisz / Getty Images
Shane van Gisbergen takes the checkered flag for what was his 66th career win.
Will Davison finished second behind Van Gisbergen, with Chaz Mostert third, while wildcard entry Zak Best, who shocked everyone by taking pole position for the race, finished fifth after leading his coveted rivals through the early stages.
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Van Gisbergen started from second, dropped back to third early on and then forced his way back into the lead, driving up front when he overtook 20-year-old Best on lap 11.
From there, the championship leader set his own pace as his rivals blasted onto the track. He was finally brought in at the end of lap 20 and then emerged in front of Davison to cruise home.
“The car was magical, thank you very much to the team,” Van Gisbergen told the presenter afterwards.
“I struggled with my driving style, but the car was really good.
“Had a great battle with Cam in the beginning [Waters, who finished fourth], and Zak, he rode really well too. But it took us some time, so then we had to run for a long time to get clear sky.
“Shall [Davison] had passed us so we had to get that speed to get back in front of him and came out in front. I would have loved to fight on the track but the guys did a great job and the pit stop was great too so yeah really stoked. ”
Adding to his excellent day was that, thanks to a flying final lap, Van Gisbergen also managed to rack up the fastest lap bonus points, the eighth time in 17 attempts this year.