After a first round of pit stops and a crazy opening hour, Tony D’Alberto took control of the Bathurst 1000 field ahead of Matt Payne and Fabian Coulthard, with Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters the first of the main drivers on the dry track restart.
Things didn’t go to plan at Triple Eight Race Engineering when Jaime Whincup stopped coming out of the pit box and the #97 car received a five-second penalty for an unsafe exit.
The race finally settled down as Waters moved into the top three, quickly passing Kostecki and Coulthard.
The Nos. 100, 10 and 6 Mustangs led the pack, but Waters was the only man to complete a lap in 2:08, and on lap 29 he galloped into the lead, passing D’Alberto at Hell Corner.
Erebus teammates Richie Stanaway and Will Brown led a door-to-door battle from Conrod Straight to Hell Corner that dominated the wildcard to finish 19th.
After 12 laps of running under the green flag, the hopes of the division brothers were dashed when Alex stopped during the chase, slid in the mud and hit the tires hard.
The elder Davison managed to steer the car away from the barrier and made a valiant attempt to get back onto the track, only to miss the track in the slippery mud by a few inches which knocked out the safety car.
The amazing moment opened the door for a second pit stop window with only Declan Fraser and Stanaway remaining.
Waters stayed in the car and regained the lead over Kostecki, while Chaz Mostert and Shane van Gisbergen jumped into their cars as Payne fell behind the three Holdens.
A fourth safety car in the first 90 minutes dropped Davison from 7th to 23rd, and when the race resumed van Gisbergen had to deal with a loose helmet hose.
Waters’ pass to Stanaway for second set up a big battle for third between Boost Mobile Wildcard, Kostecki, Mostert and van Gisbergen.
On lap 36, the Monster Mustang gave the lead back to Fraser, dropping to 2:07 first and starting to fade up the road.
After winning the fourth car for third place, van Gisbergen began to set the pace of the #97 car after being released into the open air following Fraser’s stop on lap 41, the only man to set a similar time to Waters.
Tim Slade and Tim Blanchard did a great job moving up 15 places, but their work was undone when Nick Percutt forced the team owner into the wall, bringing out the safety car on lap 42.
Van Gisbergen stayed with six others as the other leaders, including Waters, pitted and completed the driver change.
Leaderboard 44 laps
1 S. Van Gisbergen/G. Thunder
2 S. Pai/T. Everingham
3 B. Fulwood/D. Fiore
4 N. Perkat/V. Luff
5 M. Jones/J. boys
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https://autoaction.com.au/2022/10/09/bathurst-1000-running-review-lap-18-44
