SUPERCARS championship leader Shane Van Gisbergen was denied his first Bathurst 1000 crown in the closest non-form finish in the race’s history on Sunday.
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Wile he tried his hardest to get by Will Davison there was no way around for Van Gisbergen, who went down by the narrow record margin of .14 of a second.
Van Gisbergen had the speed to make a move on leader Davison going into The Chase for the final time but wasn’t allowed to attempt an overtake due to local yellow flags being waved for Todd Kelly, who was stuck in the sand trap.
That left him one last opportunity to get by at Murray’s Corner.
The Kiwi driver got right up on the rear of Davison, who was coughing over the line on his last drops of fuel, but could only get within a car length at the finish line.
Van Gisbergen and co-driver Alex Premat had enjoyed a clean race to get themselves into second place, but had to overcome being double stacked in pit lane behind their Red Bull Racing teammate Jamie Whincup on several occasions.
“It was a pretty intense last few laps. I didn’t do a lap flat out until after the last safety car. We were just saving fuel all day and we got double stacked three times or something,” Van Gisbergen said.
“We had really good speed but we just kept getting put behind. Both Alex and I were quite fast and our car started the day pretty average but that’s what we’ve been working towards all week, setting it up for the afternoon of the race.
“It was a pretty cool last 10 laps. We definitely gave it a shot trying to win that race but it’s pretty cool to come second.”
Although he missed a Bathurst win Van Gisbergen’s championship lead over Whincup has grown from seven to 139 points.
However, Van Gisbergen said his focus was always on the top step of the Bathurst podium on Sunday.
“No," was his blunt response to being asked whether he had the championship on the mind during the final stages of the race.
“I’d be killing myself for two weeks if I had settled for second. If you watch the last 10 laps I was giving it everything I had.
“I’ve always said I wouldn’t think about the championship until after the Gold Coast.”
The victory for Davison was also a win for Van Gisbergen’s former team at Tekno Autosport and his then co-driver Jonathon Webb.
“It’s one of the few cars that you’d be happy for them to beat you. Seeing Geoff [Slater, race engineer] up on the podium and Jono and the rest of the boys down below, I’m pretty stoked for them,” Van Gisbergen said.