Bathurst 1000: Van Gisbergen/Stanaway take dominant victory

The #97 Red Bull Camaro benefitted from the timing of a lap 27 safety car, having pitted shortly before the caution to jump the sister #88 entry, which had led the race to that point. 

Once in front the double stack proved problematic for the #88, helping the #97 into a commanding position as the race wore on.

A gearshift tower issue would later extinguish the threat from the #88 entirely, while steering concerns for Brodie Kostecki in the closing stages helped van Gisbergen to a 20 second victory.

It marked a third for the NASCAR-bound Kiwi, and a first Great Race crown for Stanaway, who will return to Supercars as a full-timer with Grove Racing next season.

Kostecki cruised to second place alongside David Russell, leaving the Erebus driver well-placed for the title with just two rounds to go. 

His lead is 131 points over van Gisbergen, while Brown, who finished eighth alongside Jack Perkins, is now third thanks to Feeney's mechanical misfortune, albeit 390 points behind.

Feeney, meanwhile, faces an uphill battle for the title, the gap to Kostecki 408 points with just 600 left on the table. 

Anton De Pasquale and Tony D'Alberto rounded out the podium for Dick Johnson Racing, leading a quartet of Fords on a weekend when parity was firmly in the spotlight. 

The second half of the race started with Stanaway stalking race leader David Russell.

The gap got down to well within a second when Russell took to the lane for a fourth stop on lap 90, handing over the car to Kostecki for the run to the flag.

Two laps later two of the lead group peeled into the pits, one being Jamie Whincup, who had worked his way up to third, and the other being D'Alberto in fourth. They both handed over to their respective co-drivers Feeney and De Pasquale, who resumed in that order.

On lap 96 Triple Eight decided to pit the race leader, Stanaway handing over to van Gisbergen for the run home. The Kiwi emerged with around 6s in hand over Kostecki, who was in effective second ahead of Will Brown and Feeney – at least until Brown called an early end to the stint and hit the lane.

That gap between van Gisbergen and Kostecki steadily grew to over 10 seconds across the stint with another eight seconds back to Feeney in third place.

That's how things stood when Kostecki stopped on lap 115, with Feeney following suit a lap later and managing to get back out ahead of the #99 entry. 

Van Gisbergen waited another three laps before stopping for fuel, tyres and brakes, a clean stop helping him back out nine seconds ahead of Feeney and 11 seconds clear of Kostecki. 

Initially there were concerns over the #97 with van Gisbergen reporting a soft brake pedal back to the Triple Eight garage. 

At the same time Feeney reduced the deficit to van Gisbergen from that nine seconds down to five seconds. After a handful of laps, however, van Gisbergen returned to a rhythm and stabilised the gap back to his teammate.

On lap 137 there was heartbreak for Feeney as a solid second place, and ongoing hopes of a win, were both dashed by a gearbox failure down Conrod Straight. Feeney rolled back to the pits where he cut a distraught figure in the car as the crew attempted running repairs.

He would eventually return to the race but 20 laps down. 

By lap 145 the gap between van Gisbergen and Kostecki was 16 seconds, the latter then peeling into the lane for this final stop.

Van Gisbergen waited another three laps to do likewise, returning with his comfortable lead well and truly in tact.

Both drivers complained of steering issues during that last stint, however both made it to the finish, van Gisbergen 20 seconds clear of Kostecki and 33 seconds clear of De Pasquale.

Chaz Mostert/Lee Holdsworth were the second best of the Fords in fourth, the pair having fought back from a tough first stint in admirable fashion.

David Reynolds and Garth Tander fought back from their early drive-through to finish fifth ahead of James Courtney/Zak Best, who survived a gnarly moment at Skyline midway through the race. 

Bryce Fullwood/Dean Fiore ended up seventh for Brad Jones Racing, with Brown/Perkins eighth after starting from 17th and copping multiple double stacks.

Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda finished ninth for Matt Stone Racing with James Golding/Dylan O'Keeffe rounding out the top 10.

The 2023 Repco Supercars season continues with its penultimate round on the Gold Coast on the last weekend in October.

Race results:

Cla	Nº	Driver	Entrant / Car / Engine	Laps	Gap
1	97	S.van Gisbergen Richie Stanaway	Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet	161
2	99	Brodie Kostecki David Russell	Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus Chevrolet	161	19.9326
3	11	A.De Pasquale Tony D'Alberto	Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford	161	33.0567
4	25	Chaz Mostert Lee Holdsworth	Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford	161	42.8327
5	26	David Reynolds Garth Tander	Penrite Racing Ford	161	49.0605
6	5	James Courtney Zak Best	Tickford Racing Ford	161	56.9839
7	14	Bryce Fullwood Dean Fiore	Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet	161	58.0307
8	9	William Brown Jack Perkins	Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus Chevrolet	161	1'02.9565
9	34	Jack Le Brocq Jayden Ojeda	Truck Assist Racing Chevrolet	161	1'13.8983
10	31	James Golding Dylan O'Keeffe	Nulon Racing Chevrolet	161	1'15.8046
11	19	Matthew Payne Kévin Estre	Penrite Racing Ford	161	1'19.4882
12	55	Tom Randle Garry Jacobson	Castrol Racing Ford	161	1'22.9787
13	23	Tim Slade Jonathon Webb	Nulon Racing Chevrolet	161	1'44.0830
14	2	Nick Percat Fabian Coulthard	Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford	161	1'48.1040
15	35	Cameron Hill Jaylyn Robotham	Truck Assist Racing Chevrolet	161	2'03.7188
16	17	Will Davison Alex Davison	Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford	161	2'04.9219
17	20	Scott Pye Warren Luff	Team 18 Chevrolet	160	1 lap /18.3012
18	56	Declan Fraser Tyler Everingham	Tradie Racing Ford	160	1 lap /52.8003
19	7	Aaron Love Jake Kostecki	Blanchard Racing Team Ford	160	1 lap /55.9409
20	98	Kai Allen S.de Silvestro	Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford	160	1 lap /1'28.9407
21	4	Jack Smith Jaxon Evans	SCT Logistics Chevrolet	157	4 laps /17.6769
22	96	Macauley Jones Jordan Boys	Pizza Hut Racing Chevrolet	149	12 laps /45.3029
23	88	Broc Feeney Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet	142	19 laps /1'48.4694
24	888	Craig Lowndes Zane Goddard	Supercheap Auto Racing Chevrolet	141	20 laps /6.1495
	18	M.Winterbottom Michael Caruso	Team 18 Chevrolet	160	Retirement
	3	Todd Hazelwood Tim Blanchard	CoolDrive Racing Ford	156	Retirement
	6	Cameron Waters James Moffat	Tickford Racing Ford	70	Retirement
	8	A.Heimgartner Dale Wood	Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet	68	Retirement