Van Gisbergen wins both Michigan sprints

Shane van Gisbergen has won the opening two races of Round 9 action in the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries to tighten his grip on the inaugural virtual title.

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Van Gisbergen has now won nine of the last 12 races in a spectacular run of form that hasn’t been slowed in any way by his move back to Australia.

One race remains tonight at Michigan International Speedway: a longer 45-lap outing.

In the opening race, it was van Gisbergen who took a remarkable victory after a stellar recovery drive.

The Red Bull Holden driver was caught up in a lap 5 incident with Macauley Jones, sending both plummeting down the order.

But the Eseries points leader stuck to it and gradually slipstreamed his way forward.

Out the front, Anton De Pasquale had tailed Scott McLaughlin for almost the entire first 20 laps before most of the frontunners made their compulsory stop.

Van Gisbergen joined them and soon found himself moving from the back of the top 10 into third.

As the final lap arrived, De Pasquale finally made his move on McLaughlin – only for van Gisbergen to get a double slipstream to catapult past both.

It allowed the 31-year-old Kiwi to rescue a potential disaster for his title hopes and instead open his lead further by taking the maximum 75 points available.

McLaughlin ended up back in front of De Pasquale for second, with Lee Holdsworth, Jordan Boys, Fabian Coulthard and Bryce Fullwood all finishing within a second of van Gisbergen.

Aaron Seton made it two wildcards in the top 10, putting his #66 Repco Mustang ninth.

The middle race of the night saw Rick Kelly and Jamie Whincup lead a reverse grid outing, though both would find trouble that sent them backwards.

Cameron Waters’ outside title chances took a hit when he was the only driver not to stop behind the Safety Car, ultimately finishing outside the top 20 – a fate that also met De Pasquale.

Van Gisbergen led for much of the second half of the race as cars behind him swapped places.

In the end it was Bryce Fullwood who came home second, with McLaughlin third ahead of adversary David Reynolds and Shell V-Power Racing teammate Coulthard.