Reigning Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen crashed out at the Tasmania SuperSprint in his first DNF since 2020, but teammate Broc Feeney softened the blow with victory on Sunday.
Feeney fought off Erebus Motorsport duo Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown to claim his third win of the season, after jumping the field with a fast pit stop.
But it was disaster for van Gisbergen on the opening lap when the Red Bull star collided with David Reynolds on the final corner and slammed into the tyre wall.
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“Yeah, it was a decent hit,” van Gisbergen said as he walked back to the garage.
“I just went around the outside, and someone just ran us off the track. It happens.
On the repair efforts, he said: “I don’t know, they’re not very good at being repaired, these cars.
“It was a pretty decent hit, but we have the best team here. Hopefully they can fix it.”
The collision also robbed Reynolds of a decent finish as he was forced to replace a damaged tyre and was classified 23rd.
Earlier, Feeney was off to a horror start when he dropped from the front row to sixth at the opening turn.
But he was able to work his way back through the field before his late pit stop ploy paid off.
“I got run pretty wide at Turn 1, so both [Erebus] teammates got through,” Feeney said of the start.
“We came charging through, we had ripper pace. I’m getting a reputation for Mr Sunday at the moment.
“Dropped back a few places, made some passes… great strategy, but we had a fast car today.”
On the start, he said: “I expected it, I knew if I couldn‘t get to the inside, it was going to be pretty tough.
Will Davison, who finished in fifth to equal the Shell V-Power Racing Team’s best result of the season, took fastest lap bonus points with the quickest lap of the race, set on lap 3 of 42.
With the pit cycle complete, Feeney led Kostecki by 0.6s, with Brown requesting to pass Kostecki – a request that was denied by his team.
Tickford Racing star Cam Waters caught Brown, but for the second day running, the #6 Monster Ford came home one position shy of the podium.
Feeney took the chequered flag 1.7244s to the good to record his fourth career win, with Kostecki and Brown rounding out the podium.
Nulon Racing teammates Tim Slade and James Golding sandwiched Jack Le Brocq, with Nick Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI Mustang) scoring a second top 10 in as many days.
Kostecki will carry an extended 101-point lead over Brown into Sunday’s finale, with Mostert 148 points down in third.
Van Gisbergen drops to fourth, 166 points behind Kostecki, and is only 31 points ahead of Feeney.
