Bathurst 500: Shane van Gisbergen claims victories in both Bathurst 500 races

The Bathurst 1000 champion from won pole in the weekend's second event to go back-to-back in the two 250 kilometre races, beating Cameron Waters and Chaz Mostert in Sunday's race to start the Supercars Championship in perfect fashion.

Van Gisbergen gave up first place on the opening lap to Cameron Waters but got back in front after the first round of pit stops and grew his margin with every loop of the Bathurst track.

Just like October's Bathurst 1000, Sunday's result was a van Gisbergen, Waters and Mostert 1-2-3 finish.

"It was an awesome weekend. The team's been really good and working with [David] Cauchi [team engineer] has been awesome, and the atmosphere in the team is really good," van Gisbergen said.

"I was frustrated with myself on Friday after making a few mistakes but yesterday we rectified that and then today the car was awesome - much better in qualifying and the balance of the car during the race was much better."

While not a fan of the current aero setup in the Supercars series, van Gisbergen said it's great to see the field relatively level in potential.

"I think the way the cars are next year is going to be awesome and the racing's going to be great but we have what we have this year," he said.

"The qualifying has been really close between the two brands and I feel like it's been pretty even. It's been an awesome battle between three to four of us in qualifying - I love it - but not being able to follow someone makes you feel powerless."

Waters had his Saturday race ruined by a power steering issue but his second dig at the Mount got off to a more promising start when he flew past van Gisbergen off the front row.

Mostert, starting in fifth, gained a place on lap two when he passed Will Davison and then went up to third on lap 14 when Anton de Pasquale locked up at The Chase.

Waters went into pit lane one lap after van Gisbergen and the pair swapped spots when the Tickford Racing driver came back out from his stop.

Van Gisbergen punched out fast lap times in the following laps, and his pace stayed high after his second visit to the pits.

In his speedy middle stint van Gisbergen recorded the fastest lap of the race, a 2:06.3708.

The winning margin was six seconds, with 2.5 seconds separating Waters and Mostert.

The only serious crash of the day occurred on lap nine when James Courtney struck the wall at The Cutting, though he was able to point his car back in the right direction and keep the race under green flag conditions.

Van Gisbergen claimed the full compliment of 300 points out of the weekend's two races to gain the early edge in the Supercars championship battle.

Chaz Mostert's second and third placings over the weekend have him sitting second overall on 267 points.

Mark Winterbottom was rewarded for his consistency over the weekend.

The Team 18 driver's fourth and fifth placings have him placed third on 231 points.

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