V8 Supercar: Van Gisbergen dominates wet opener

Shane van Gisbergen won in a dominant display of wet-weather driving in the first V8 Supercars race at a soaked Eastern Creek on Saturday.

Tekno Holden driver van Gisbergen made a charging start from sixth to third at the lights to put him on the gearboxes of poleman Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin.

Poor visibility from the first-lap spray resulted in contact between Tim Slade and James Moffat in the middle of the pack, which turned Slade around and left him a sitting duck for David Reynolds to plough into at Turn 3. The shunt ended the race for both drivers, and brought the safety car out for the first time in the race.

On the restart van Gisbergen immediately made it one up on the podium to second, passing McLaughlin with ease before careering past Whincup for the lead at Turn 6 – seemingly having the grip that others were desperately searching for when the championship leader ran wide.

Van Gisbergen then consistently set fastest laps to the end to take his second win of the season.

Whincup could only fall back down the field, first seeing McLaughlin sail past, although the Volvo would subsequently retire,then being hounded by Triple Eight Holden teammate Craig Lowndes for a number of laps before losing out to both Lowndes and Garth Tander. Indeed, Tander made superb progress to move up from his 14th place starting position to pass Lowndes and finish second.

Lowndes held off Whincup for third, with Michael Caruso in fifth ahead of Rick Kelly.

Will Davison had to work hard to claim seventh after a race long duel first with Nick Percat, and then James Courtney who finished eighth. Jason Bright and Scott Pye rounded out the top 10.

Championship challenger Mark Winterbottom had a race to forget, running three seconds off the pace of the charging van Gisbergen. He was the first to dive into the pits for another set of wet tires to help him perform more competitive lap times, which eventually saw his recovery drive finish in 12th.