Back on form after yesterday’s transaxle fault, Anton De Pasquale visited victory lane in Race 24, while Jamie Whincup won a red flagged night race held in inclement conditions to round out the second Sydney Motorsport Park weekend.
The Repco Supercars Championship drivers dealt with mixed weather conditions all day as qualifying for Races 24 and 25 provided mixed results.
For Race 24 Qualifying, Shell V-Power Racing’s De Pasquale continued his stint at the top of the timesheets by setting a 1m 41.594s to lead Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen by a significant 0.523s.
Behind it was an all-Walkinshaw Andretti United row two as Chaz Mostert lined up alongside Bryce Fullwood.
Rounding out the top 10 were Will Davison, James Courtney, Scott Pye, Andre Heimgartner, Jamie Whincup and Will Brown, while Luke Youlden placed 11th in an impressive super-sub performance.
Van Gisbergen turned the tables in the next damp session, which decided the grid for Race 25 leading Mostert, but he was penalised for a bodywork irregularity and was demoted to the back of the grid.
This elevated De Pasquale to a front row start ahead of Nick Percat, Heimgartner, Davison, Whincup, Cameron Waters, Fullwood, Tim Slade and Brodie Kostecki.
For Race 24, it was van Gisbergen and Fullwood leading away as De Pasquale dropped to third, but passed the Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore at Turn 2, which caused a concertina behind.
Heimgartner moved through on Courtney at Turn 3, then demoted Fullwood at two corners later as Courtney dropped him a further position past Corporate Hill.
At the front, it was a clear battle between van Gisbergen and De Pasquale, but it was the latter making a successful move at Turn 8 to add another victory.
Van Gisbergen continued to extend his championship lead in second ahead of Tickford Racing’s James Courtney completing the podium ahead of Davison, Pye, Brown, Heimgartner, Mostert, Percat and Winterbottom.
Chief title rival Whincup finished 25th after a puncture.
A wet race at night provided plenty of action to conclude the second weekend of four at Sydney Motorsport Park, with Fullwood making a flying start to lead into Turn 1 from eighth, but he was penalised for jumping the start.
It was Whincup with the best legal start to follow Fullwood into Turn 2, but mid-pack it was frantic and after only four corners the race was neutralised by the safety car due to a collision between Courtney and Kostecki.
Conditions worsened during the race as upon the restart van Gisbergen left the road at high speed and avoided the tyres at Turn 1, but was later penalised for overtaking before the control line, though later this was rescinded.
However, a pit lane penalty did occur for the championship leader due to an unsafe pit release. This was due to a team member attempting to tighten the rear-left wheel nut as van Gisbergen left pit lane.
Teammate Whincup led De Pasquale, but the driver on the move was Mostert as he sat third after the pit stops when a safety car was called for the stricken Matt Stone Racing ZB Commodore of Jake Kostecki, which then turned into a red flag.
The race was not continued as Whincup took his third win of the year from De Pasquale and Mostert in a superb wet weather drive.
Following were Percat, Slade, Brown, Davison, Waters, Hazelwood and Heimgartner.
Next week’s event at Sydney Motorsport Park reverts to daytime running for three 125km races featuring compulsory pit stops and five sets of soft tyres.