Shane van Gisbergen drew inspiration from trips to Pukekohe with his dad to watch Kiwi racing legends Greg Murphy and Jason Richards to give a massive crowd the perfect send-off for the Pukekohe Race Track’s long motorsport heritage, winning two of three V8 Supercar races.
Not only did he log his race wins, he also won the Jason Richards Trophy for best Kiwi racer at the circuit’s V8 finale.

The final race was a nail-biter, with van Gisbergen running second in closing laps and making contact with race leader Cam Waters.

That race began in chaos with James Courtney hitting the wall in a three-car tangle just after the start; Will Davidson leading Waters and Anton De Pasquale after 12 laps under the safety car.
Van Gisbergen was seventh, battling with David Reynolds, then leapfrogged up the race order when pitstops went ‘live’.

On lap 21 Waters took his pit stop which prompted Davison to cover from the lead a lap later. At that point Davison’s race, and his shot at the Jason Richards Trophy, came apart. His car was released with a loose left rear wheel and stopped. Even with the car recovered and the wheel re-attached, he then faced a time penalty for the unsafe release.

That left Waters in the lead. Van Gisbergen, who stopped on Lap 25, emerged as a contender as he got past Broc Feeney and chased down fellow Kiwi Andre Heimgartner.

Van Gisbergen got a clean overtake on Heimgartner at the chicane on lap 31 before hunting down Waters.

The pair then staged a thrilling battle for the lead as van Gisbergen consistently tried to pass Waters at the hairpin, and Waters defended staunchly through the fast complex up over the ‘mountain’ onto the main straight.

The battle turned physical on Lap 35 when van Gisbergen got into the rear right quarter of Waters’ car through turn 11.

Three laps later, the hometown hero slipped up inside Waters’ car at turn 11 to seal victory in the final ever Supercars race at Pukekohe. Waters finished second while Heimgartner made it two Kiwis on the podium with third place. Van Gisbergen said it was motivating to see the crowd ‘going nuts’ in the stands as he took the win.

“Unbelievable. From eighth I didn’t think we could do that. Things were playing out and the car was amazing. I just didn’t give up, I just kept throwing it at Cam. He had me pretty good, I couldn’t get him. Then the next time I wasn’t lifting...”

Van Gisbergen extended his championship lead to 525 points.

Davison was left down in 22nd after making a second stop to have his wheel issue rectified, and copping a 15-second penalty for an unsafe release.