Opinion
Supercars roared back into life for the 2022 season and while the scene was a familiar one in Sydney Motorsport Park, the racing as always continued to invent new ways of pleasing the crowd.
The Sydney SuperNight saw the reigning champion open his account with a win, as well as his championship rivals flourishing in the wet conditions across the weekend. Here are the talking points from the weekend.
Van Gisbergen outwits De Pasquale in season opener
The defending Supercars champion opened his account in 2022 with a brilliant victory over pole sitter Anton De Pasquale, via a three-stop strategy during the 77-lap night race.
Starting evenly off the front-row of the grid, Shane van Gisbergen was beaten to the first corner by the Shell V-Power Mustang, which then asserted itself into the lead in the opening sequence of laps.
A fast starting Will Brown in the Erebus Commodore gave early headaches to van Gisbergen, with the fourth-placed starter Andre Heimgartner also among the squabble on the super-soft tyre.
The newly signed Brad Jones Racing driver Heimgartner led the race from Lap 8, passing De Pasquale to build a solid lead in the opening stint before the pair pitted at the end of Lap 24.
Van Gisbergen took his first stop on Lap 19, with a short fill of fuel, which by the end of the first phase of stops saw the Kiwi slink his way to the head of the field with rookie teammate Broc Feeney joining him.
(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
As the two-time champion extended his lead, the likes of De Pasquale and Heimgartner were negotiating their way through the field to catch the Red Bull Commodore. De Pasquale dispatched Heimgartner, but then squabbling with Brown for second, van Gisbergen continued to assert his lead.
Lap 42 saw the Kiwi make his second stop, while De Pasquale went deeper into the race for his second change of tyres. The fresher rubber only yielded enough for De Pasquale to dispatch Brown for the lead, but after van Gisbergen’s third stop on Lap 63 there was no stopping the Kiwi for retaking the top spot.
Twenty seconds was the difference between van Gisbergen and De Pasquale at the chequered flag, as Red Bull celebrated the Kiwi’s 450th Supercars race in style, as well as his first race with new engineer Andrew Edwards.
Chaz Mostert drove an excellent race from eighth as well, to complete the podium albeit ten seconds adrift of De Pasquale in the Shell V-Power Mustang. The reigning Bathurst 1000 winner usurped Brown, who was relegated to seventh ultimately.
Changeable conditions catches out big guns in qualifying
Wet weather has been at the fore of the Sydney SuperNight once again, as much of south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales battle horrific flooding and record rainfall.
Changeable conditions reared their head during qualifying for Race 2, with key contenders such as van Gisbergen and new Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Nick Percat being victims during the initial qualifying ahead of the top ten shootout.
It was only in the final five minutes of the session that drivers switched to slick tyres, with Mostert punching in the benchmark. Van Gisbergen’s final fast lap was spoilt by a kerb strike and that was unfortunately after the chequered flag fell.
This left the Race 1 winner well down in 21st position, while rookie teammate Feeney secured his second top ten shootout berth along with Bryce Fullwood now in a Brad Jones Commodore and Todd Hazelwood back at Matt Stone Racing.
On his final run, Percat slid off at the final corner, ending his dismal qualifying session in the barriers. Thankfully it was without significant damage, however he was starting at the rear of the field for Race 2.
Brown, Heimgartner and Tim Slade were other key names to miss the top ten shootout, with the latter having been forced to start Race 2 from the pit lane along with Garry Jacobson as the pair ventured onto track with wet tyres without race control declaring the track wet.
(Stephen Blackberry/Action Plus via Getty Images)
Mostert leads championship for the first time
The long-standing streak of a Shell V-Power Racing or Red Bull driven car leading the championship at last came to an end at the conclusion of a wet and wild Race 2, with Mostert claiming the lead in the standings for the first time in his career.
It is a run that dated back to midway through the 2016 season when the then-reigning champion Mark Winterbottom briefly sat atop the standings. His former teammate Mostert claimed a sensational win in the changeable conditions to end that streak.
With his last victory at Sydney Motorsport Park coming in 2015, Mostert’s prowess in the wet conditions saw him climb up the field from seventh. With interruptions from the safety car, including for an incident between Walkinshaw teammates Percat and Scott Pye at Turn 7, Mostert capitalised on the Lap 51 restart with super-soft tyres.
Race leader De Pasquale was dispatched by the speedy Mobil 1 Optus Commodore, with Mostert pushing a lead of over five seconds out by the time rain hit with 14 laps remaining in the 77 lapper.
Much of the field switched to wet tyres on Laps 65 and 66, as Matt Stone Racing gambled on leaving former Sydney winner Jack Le Brocq out on slicks. But the 29-year-old didn’t last long, going off at Turn 3 and triggering another safety car, allowing Mostert to also retake the lead.
Winning by 2.7 seconds, Mostert cruised to the chequered flag ahead of first-time pole sitter Brodie Kostecki and De Pasquale, who fended off a late charge by Cameron Waters.
And while Mostert admitted post race that van Gisbergen is still the title favourite after his Race 1 performance, leaving the first round with a podium and a victory is a statement of intent from a team that has been building towards something special following their drought-breaking Bathurst 1000 win in 2021.
(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Van Gisbergen is a cat with nine lives
As if qualifying down in 21st wasn’t enough of a faux pas for the defending Supercars champion, van Gisbergen’s Sunday race began in similar fashion and at one point it looked as if he was going to go two laps down.
Van Gisbergen fired off at the final corner on Lap 8 after making up nine positions from the start. After touring through the wet grass, the Kiwi did pit to take wet tyres – however the conditions immediately improved for slick tyres.
Losing more time with an additional stop, the ever-efficient Red Bull crew then didn’t attach the left-rear tyre properly, leading to extra time being spent during that pit stop.
Though with three safety cars having graced the 77-lap changeable race, van Gisbergen found himself back onto the lead lap and was able to scythe his way to sixth at the end of proceedings.
It was a mammoth recovery considering where the 32-year-old was and potentially could’ve been if the car was forced into retirement. Being 27 points off new championship leader Mostert in third is much better than being further adrift early in the season.
Not so fortunate was 2015 Supercars champion Winterbottom, who was left furious following a post-race clash with Hazelwood at Turn 1. The Irwin Racing Commodore crossed the line in 12th, only for the Matt Stone racer to escort Winterbottom at speed into the gravel on the outside of the corner.
“When you’re flat out after the chequered flag, it’s as bad as a dangerous re-entry or passing under yellows,” lamented Winterbottom, whose Team 18 mechanics have been given extra repairs to undertake.
Meanwhile, Hazelwood bettered his Saturday race finish with 13th on his first races upon return to Matt Stone Racing.
The ad nauseam nature of Sydney Motorsport Park
It would be remiss not to comment on the ad nauseam nature of seeing Sydney Motorsport Park this soon in the 2022 season, given the four consecutive weekends of racing at the western Sydney circuit at the end of the last year.
Given the circumstances were unprecedented thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is worth noting that since 2020 Supercars has had 19 races around the 3.93-kilometre Gardner Circuit.
Originally SMP was scheduled to be the finale to the 2022 season, with the Newcastle 500 street event penned to raise the curtains. However, the wave of the omicron variant earlier in the year laid waste to that, as Supercars were forced to delay the dense outdoor event to later on.
It is no slight on the racing seen this weekend, with the longer races and wet conditions creating greater intrigue across both 300-kilometre affairs.
However, it does make me look forward the year to come, which hopefully will not see any interruption to the schedule as was the case in the prior two seasons.
Events such as the Melbourne 400 as the Australian Grand Prix support round, the Gold Coast 500 and even trekking across the ditch to Pukekohe for the Auckland SuperSprint have been sorely missed.
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