Kiwi’s winning run ends

Shane van Gisbergen saw his winning streak come to an end in the latest round of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.

The Kiwi driver had enjoyed a clean sweep of the five races in the opening two rounds and continued that form when he took out the first race of the Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint.

His sixth straight victory to open a season equals the records of Allan Moffat in 1977 and Mark Skaife in 1994.

However, his perfect start to the campaign came to an end in race two of the April 17-18 event when he finished runner-up to his Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate Jamie Whincup.

The final clash of the weekend was won by Chaz Mostert and ended in relative disappointment for Whincup and van Gisbergen, pictured above, who finished fifth and sixth respectively.

Van Gisbergen says: “We used the remainder of our tyres in the first race [on Sunday], which was pretty good because we managed to get a team one-two finish, although it compromised us for the second race today.

“We had no tyres, and we pit early, which meant the other teams covered us, and after that there is not much you can do.

“At the end of the day, one of our championship challengers has won the race, so we need to perform a bit better there.”

Van Gisbergen now has a 139-point advantage over Whincup in the championship standings, with Mostert 165 points in arrears.

The championship resumes at the OTR SuperSprint in South Australia on May 8-9. 

Championship standings

Shane van Gisbergen, Red Bull Ampol Racing, 865pts
Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Ampol Racing, 726pts
Chaz Mostert, Appliances Online Racing, 700pts
Cameron Waters, Monster Energy Racing, 663pts
Will Davison, Shell V-Power Racing, 623pts