Garth Tander was speechless watching Shane van Gisbergen do what nobody else will ever do again.
The New Zealander now has more Supercars wins in one season than anybody else, after van Gisbergen and Tander surged to their second Bathurst 1000 title in three years after dominating a chaotic race at Mount Panorama on Sunday.
It was a fitting farewell for the Holden Commodore, Triple Eight’s Red Bull Ampol racing duo sending the lion badge out on top in its last roar around the mountain in what was one of the all-time great finishes.
Van Gisbergen held off a late challenge from Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert, the gap on each lap barely changing by a tenth of a second through every sector during an extraordinary stint.
“I don’t really know what to say to be honest. No words right now, I can’t really believe it. Shane at the end of the race, how he can do that, his focus and his ability to punch out laps like that is seriously impressive to watch,” Tander said.
“The last ever Commodore here at Bathurst, that’ll sink in a little bit later. I can’t believe it. The car was great. It’s a real credit to [engineer Andrew Edwards]. We didn’t quite have the tool we needed to do the job last year and he gave us the car we needed to get the job done. All you’ve got to do is give Shane the right tool to do the job and he’ll get the job done.”
Shane van Gisbergen sent the Holden out from Bathurst a winner.Credit:Getty
Tander’s 100th career podium sees him become the seventh man to have won at least five times in Australia’s great race, levelling the mark set by Steven Richards. Only Peter Brock, Jim Richards, Craig Lowndes, Larry Perkins and Mark Skaife have won more.
For van Gisbergen, his second Bathurst triumph edges him closer to another Supercars championship. It makes the near misses of 2016, when he finished just 0.1 second behind the Will Davison and Jonathan Webb Commodore, and 2019, when he was runner-up by 0.7 seconds, feel like a distant memory.
Second home was Mostert and Fabian Coulthard. There was room for one Ford Mustang on the podium, the third step filled by Cameron Waters and James Moffat of Tickford Racing.
“It’s a team effort and a fan effort, all the support for Holden, it’s special. I’m rapt. Garth was just on it this year, and Andrew this year has been epic, now he has won the most ever races in a season as an engineer,” van Gisbergen said.
Van Gisbergen again rubber-stamped his status as the best driver in Supercars.Credit:Getty
“When Chaz got into second, I got a bit worried because we know how fast he is here. In the last couple of laps, I just got Andrew to talk a bit more and stayed concentrated. I’m rapt.”
Fourth place was taken by Brodie Kostecki and David Russell of Erebus Motorsport, while Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup rounded out the top five.
The latter offers the ultimate tale of the master and the apprentice. Even the most casual observer will have heard of Whincup, the four-time Bathurst 1000 champion with more Supercars championships than any other driver. Before long they will be introduced to the new kid on the Broc.
Whincup made his return after retiring from full-time driving last year, the 39-year-old veteran shifting into the co-driver role with 19-year-old rookie Feeney taking the reins alongside his childhood hero for Triple Eight. Feeney grinned he had “a lot more people coming to ask for my signature” this year.
The fact a Holden reigns in the Commodore’s last stand was an ending fit for the occasion.
The storied rivalry between the red of Holden and blue of Ford at Bathurst has reached the end of the road, with the Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to battle the Mustang from 2023. A brand which once carried the tag of “Australia’s driving future” is without one of its own.
There is an expectation among Supercars officials that Holden fans will adopt Chevrolet next year. While it may look a little different from here on out, drivers anticipate the feeling will remain the same.
“Every time you roll out at Bathurst for the first time, all those emotions about what you’re racing for go through you. It doesn’t change. It’s crazy, this place. It doesn’t matter how many years you do it, that same feeling kicks in again,” Mark Winterbottom said.
“It’s the only track that does it. Other tracks don’t give you that feeling Bathurst does.”
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