Opinion
Sun, surf and Supercars has been the mantra of racing on the Gold Coast and after a two-year absence due to the pandemic, it was great to have the Surfers Paradise street event back on the calendar.
Whilst it isn’t the enduro that many will be used to from the past, the two 250-kilometre single-driver races still provided many thrills and many talking points – from the crowning of a three-time champion to the possible birth of a new team.
Here are the talking points from the Supercars Gold Coast 500.
SVG is the Supercars champion
With his 20th win of the season in the opening leg of the Gold Coast 500, the 33-year-old has put icing on the cake that has been a stellar 2022 campaign and won his third Supercars title and second consecutive.
A dominant 16.8-second win cemented the imperious season van Gisbergen has had, winning under any circumstance or from wherever he qualifies on the grid. On this occasion he joined pole sitter David Reynolds on the front-row and had to set about overhauling the 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner.
Reynolds led the early stages of the race before the Red Bull Commodore threatened his position. There was a look on Lap 15 at the hairpin from the Kiwi, but it wasn’t until the next lap that van Gisbergen made the race-defining overtake.
From there, Red Bull Ampol Racing nailed their pit-stops through what was remarkably a fully green flag 250km race.
(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
There were dramas for Reynolds with steering issues reported from the Penrite Mustang, allowing van Gisbergen to drive off and Chaz Mostert, who’d cleared Cameron Waters, to come into the hunt for second.
Unable to pass Reynolds, Mostert soon had Will Davison for company who had started down in ninth – as the trio all squabbled on the street circuit for a spot on the podium. In the end the Penrite Mustang held second ahead of the Mobil 1 Optus Commodore, with that result putting Mostert back into the top three in the standings.
Red Bull the team’s champions
Not only did van Gisbergen lap up the glory of sealing his third driver’s title in Supercars, but his Race 32 win on Sunday also clinched Red Bull Ampol Racing their 11th team’s championship in the Australian touring car series.
The dominant Kiwi claimed pole via the Top-Ten Shootout on Sunday and despite losing the lead on the opening lap to Davison due to a chicane cut – which left the Kiwi angered – and surviving a late Safety Car that compressed the field, was able to work his way back to the front to a two-second win over Mostert in the Mobil 1 Optus Commodore.
Whilst there can be never enough waxing lyrical of van Gisbergen’s illustrious 2022 campaign, the team’s championship effort can also be credited to his rookie teammate in Broc Feeney, who stepped into the seat of seven-time Supercars champion and team boss of Red Bull in Jamie Whincup.
Two podiums and a pair of front-row starts don’t tell the tale of consistency that the 20-year-old has weaved, in conjunction with van Gisbergen who with the Race 32 win takes his victory tally to 21 for the season.
Apart from Race 32 where he failed to be classified, Feeney has not finished below 14th in his rookie season and still sits a mighty sixth in the standings – behind only the drivers considered to have been in championship contention with his teammate.
The union between van Gisbergen and engineer Andrew Edwards, previously a stalwart of Brad Jones Racing as well, has bolstered the reputation of the latter, with minimal engineering or strategic errors being made from the Red Bull garage.
A fitting farewell on the streets of the Gold Coast too for the Commodore nameplate, from the currently factory Holden squad who took that privilege from the former Holden Racing Team run by Walkinshaw in 2017.
The Shell V-Power Racing squad meanwhile will consolidate second, despite having been a mathematical chance to still vie for the team’s title. Though ultimately the efforts of Davison and Anton De Pasquale haven’t been enough to halt the Red Bull juggernaut.
The track is jammed!
Race 32 was marred by an early multi-car incident on Lap 3 that was triggered by James Golding tripping over Beach Chicane and losing his Subway Racing Commodore, crashing into the wall and having multiple cars find the wreck.
Golding, who impressed by featuring in his first ever Top-Ten Shootout as well as giving PremiAir Racing their first shootout berth, was unfortunate to collect too much kerb and head sideways right into the concrete barrier.
Thomas Randle in the Castrol Edge Mustang was lucky to carry on, despite swiping that wall and having front-end damage, but the likes of Feeney, James Courtney, Nick Percat, Macauley Jones and Lee Holdsworth all were collected and ended up creating a jam on the track.
Jones was rather unfortunate to have his Commodore’s front-end engulfed in flames, but thankfully all the drivers involved were all unharmed in the innocent incident. The grievances more so lie with the damage bill that awaits the teams involved.
Some of which, including the likes of Brad Jones Racing and Tickford who’d had major reconstructions from the chaos caused in the earlystages of the Bathurst 1000 earlier in the month.
The pile-up did trigger a red flag, given that one of the tyre bundles at the Beach Chicane that Golding initially hit needed repair, as well as recovery of all the wrecks stricken across the Gold Coast street circuit as a result.
Disappointment in the rest
Whilst nothing can be taken away from van Gisbergen, who has proven he may be a once-in-a-generation type talent, general disappointment can be expressed at the rest of the bustling field not being able to put up more of a fight.
The massive 16.8-second margin at the end of Race 31 only served as a reminder of the sort of form the Kiwi has been in this season, but also the gap between he and the chief rivals considered to be championship contenders.
There’ve been moments where the likes of Waters, Davison and De Pasquale have on face value, jumped aside on track when van Gisbergen loomed. Mostert at Bathurst, while lacking ultimate pace, still appeared reticent at going for the jugular.
Davison on Lap 11 of Race 32 whilst from second ahead of pole sitter van Gisbergen, was caught napping at Turn 11 and allowed the Red Bull Commodore to just barge down the inside and take the lead. Those sort of tactics aren’t going to do anything to dethroning the Kiwi whatsoever.
At least at single moments in time throughout the season, we’ve seen these drivers get up on the three-time Supercars champion, but the true test is to achieve that over the course of the season and they’ve been unable to do that for a second time of asking.
Will this be the case again in 2023 with the arrival of Gen3? Given van Gisbergen’s driving style and adaptability, he’d be shoo-in for a hat-trick of titles. He’s the best driver out there and the Gen3 cars will put the focus on drivers driving the car instead of being hampered by aerowash.
Boost Mobile a step closer to its own team
Peter Adderton has been in the headlines a lot since he was part of another consortium that failed in their bid to buy out the Supercars category in 2021, however the passionate and outspoken founder of Boost Mobile is now in the process of starting his own race team.
It was announced ahead of the Boost Mobile-sponsored Gold Coast 500 that Adderton has purchased a Triple Eight-built Chevrolet Camaro for the 2023 season, when the Gen3 cars make their long-awaited debut.
Until now, Boost Mobile have sponsored teams in the past such as Walkinshaw, Garry Rogers Motorsport and currently their livery adorns both of the Erebus Commodores.
The intention is as well to hand the keys to Kiwi gun Richie Stanaway, whose last full-time drive in Supercars was in 2019 for Garry Rogers Motorsport. The 30-year-old impressed on his return at the Bathurst 1000 in the Boost Mobile wildcard, qualifying fourth and running strongly in the race before his co-driver Greg Murphy was spun around by Jake Kostecki.
Supercars, though, is yet to officially grant Adderton a TRC (Teams Racing Charter). But the ambitiousness cannot be faulted for his desire to start a team from scratch, albeit with a technical partnership with the best team on the grid.
Looking for great odds on racing and sport? Get into the action with PlayUp today. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Team Penske is under the same umbrella of ownership as the IndyCar Series itself, so it was imperative for to drop the hammer and protect their integrity—which, thankfully, they did.
Red Bull can’t rest on its laurels and if Perez can’t provide them with cover on the rare days that Verstappen is having trouble, it's time to look elsewhere.
The absolute vitriol against the Canadian that has come from the incident is beyond reprehensible.
The Long Beach Grand Prix is the Monaco of American motorsport, and this past weekend, the IndyCar Series reminded everyone exactly why. We witnessed…
New Zealand made a triumphant return to the Supercars championship calendar since the demise of the much-loved Pukekohe Park Raceway – as Taupō delivered…
It’s time that serious questions are asked of his Lance Stroll and his future in the team.
