A determined drive to seventh place from Stone Brothers Racing's SP Tools-backed Kiwi young gun Shane van Gisbergen helped limit the points damage after a shock qualifying session on the second day of competition at the ninth round of the V8 Supercar championship series in Townsville on Sunday.
It was a case of two very different days at the same venue with the 21-year-old setting the sixth quickest time in the first qualifying session of the weekend on Saturday, then the ninth quickest time in the Top Ten Shootout before finishing eighth in the first race.
Come the much cooler air and track conditions on Sunday however and the talented young Kiwi found himself back in an unaccustomed 17th position in the weekend's second qualifying session.
Quite a difference, but one - fortunately - he soon sorted out in the 72 lap race, making then consolidating position after position until he was back in the top ten.
Heading into the final 10 laps it looked like eighth place was going to be his lot.
But when Jason Bright slowed then stopped with an engine problem with a couple of laps to go van Gisbergen inherited seventh place.
The result was all that could be expected and more, though by winning the race, Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom scored enough points to shuffle van Gisbergen back to fourth in the series points standings.
Shane van Gisbergen – Driver, SP Tools Racing Car #9
“We didn’t qualify well this morning; the car wasn’t the best, we just couldn’t really keep up with the rubber on the track, other cars gripped up and we didn’t. I set the same lap time yesterday and it was good enough for 6th but today it put us 17th.
“In the race I had good speed by myself but then I would catch cars and the brakes and tyres would overheat and I’d drop back so it was very hard to pass today. We did the best with what we had, the boys did some great pit stops and we really just did the best we could.
The Sucrogen Townsville 400 meeting marked the end of the first half of the 2010 V8 Supercar season with a two month break now before the series resumes with the first of the year's endurance events at Phillip Island in early September.
Sucrogen Townsville 400 Townsville Queensland Fri-Sun July 09-11 2010
Qualifying 2
1 1 TeamVodafone/Jamie Whincup 01:12:7275
2 888 TeamVodafone/Craig Lowndes 01:13:0095
3 2 Toll Holden Racing Team/Garth Tander 01:13:1002
4 18 Jim Beam Racing/James Courtney 01:13:1261
5 14 Trading Post Racing/Jason Bright 01:13:1607
6 5 FPR - Orrcon Steel/ Mark Winterbottom 01:13:2774
7 22 Toll Holden Racing Team/Will Davison 01:13:2878
8 Team BOC/Jason Richards 01:13:3214
9 17 Jim Beam Racing/Steven Johnson 01:13:3435
10 6 FPR - Dunlop Super Dealer/Steve Richards 01:13:3440
17 9 SP Tools Racing/Shane Van Gisbergen 1:13.4768
Race 2 (72 laps)
1 5 FPR - Orrcon Steel/Mark Winterbottom
2 18 Jim Beam Racing James Courtney
3 2 Toll Holden Racing Team Garth Tander
4 55 The Bottle-O Racing Team Paul Dumbrell
5 6 FPR - Dunlop Super Dealer/Steve Richards
6 22 Toll Holden Racing Team/Will Davison
7 9 SP Tools Racing/Shane van Gisbergen
8 8 Team BOC/Jason Richards
9 19 Dick Johnson Racing/ Jonathon Webb Falcon
10 11 Rock Racing/Jason Bargwanna
Championship points at end of race 16
1 James Courtney 1947
2 Jamie Whincup 1827
3 Mark Winterbottom 1623
4 Shane Van Gisbergen 1598
5 Garth Tander 1509
6 Craig Lowndes 1479
7 Lee Holdsworth 1398
8 Rick Kelly 1352
9 Michael Caruso 1259
10 Steven Johnson 1151
