26 Oct 2015

Van Gisbergen wins again on Gold Coast

12:14 pm on 26 October 2015

New Zealand V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen put on a dominant display in his Holden to win the opening Gold Coast race.

Van Gisbergen was on pole and was never headed across the 300km of racing on the streets of Surfers Paradise.

Shane van Gisbergen on his way to victory on the Gold Coast.

Shane van Gisbergen on his way to victory on the Gold Coast. Photo: Supplied

"The car has just been phenomenal the whole weekend," van Gisbergen said.

"I haven't won all year, so I thought it was good to lock it away and do it in style."

While van Gisbergen scorched ahead, there were mixed fortunes for the other New Zealanders with Fabian Coulthard the next best in seventh.

The biggest disappointment was Scott McLaughlin who had mechanical issues.

Coulthard remains in fourth place in the championship with van Gisbergen edging up to seventh, McLaughlin drops to 11th and Heimgartner 22nd.

In third position on the podium were Bathurst winners Lowndes and Steve Richards, taking over 90 points out of Mark Winterbottom's Championship lead.

Courtney takes out second GC race

Holden star James Courtney made a triumphant return from serious injury with victory in Sunday's V8 Supercars race on the Gold Coast.

Courtney suffered several broken ribs and a punctured lung in the incident and was forced to sit out both the Sandown and Bathurst 1000 endurance races.

In his comeback event, Courtney risked everything by pitting on lap 58 of 102 to top off his fuel.

That splash and dash was enough for his Commodore to race to the end and when the rest of the field had completed their pit stops, it was the Holden man who came out on top.

The victory is the 35-year-old's second of the season and a remarkable result considering he was only cleared to drive last week by his surgeon.

Nissan's Rick Kelly came second, three seconds behind the Holden man while Garth Tander finished third to claim the Pirtek Endurance Cup with co-driver Warren Luff for the best performed pairing over the past three events.

Championship leader Mark Winterbottom came 11th in a disappointing weekend with main title rival Craig Lowndes finishing fourth to reduce the Ford star's lead to 258 points with three rounds to go.

Winterbottom will be getting a worrying sense of deja vu about the 2015 V8 Supercars title race now - he came into the Gold Coast 600 sitting pretty with a dominant 399 point lead.

Even rival Lowndes admitted going into the weekend that toppling the Prodrive Racing Australia driver would be a long shot.

Fast forward two days and the tone has changed.

Winterbottom's 11th and a shocking 23rd place finish in Saturday's event, with Lowndes finished third and fourth in both races, has slashed the margin to just the 258 points heading into the final three events of the season.

For 12 years Winterbottom has coveted the V8s crown - so often missing out in last few rounds as rivals reel him in.

It's a trend that the 34-year-old will hope doesn't continue again in the next stop of the championship, the Auckland 500, in New Zealand from November 6th.

"I can't really sugarcoat it, it was a bad weekend," Winterbottom said. "We need to bounce back. The other team's got momentum and we've faltered.

"Ifs, buts, maybes. We go home. We work hard. We need to get on top of it for the championship."

- AAP