Van Gisbergen overhauls Davison in Townsville opener

Shane van Gisbergen has overhauled Will Davison in a gripping NTI Townsville 500 opener.

Van Gisbergen made up 17 seconds on Davison after the second stops.

It was van Gisbergen’s ninth win in Townsville, 10th of the season of 64th of his career.

Cam Waters passed Andre Heimgartner on the penultimate lap for third.

With Anton De Pasquale sixth, van Gisbergen opened up his series lead to 262 points.

"I thought we'd put ourselves too far back," van Gisbergen said.

"Came home strong in the eight, good battle with Will. His lines were awesome, he was driving really well.

"It's going to be tough tomorrow, for sure."

Davison added: "I didn't know if we could manage it, we just ran out of laps.

"Great job by the team. It was a really fun race."

Davison cleaned up van Gisbergen off the line and shot into an early lead.

James Golding was forced into the lane early after a start-line clash with James Courtney, who was handed a time penalty.

Tim Slade (ninth), David Reynolds (11th) and Bryce Fullwood (16th) were the only drivers to start on Super Softs.

Slade rocketed to the front, was up to second by lap 2, and passed Davison for the lead on lap 6.

By lap 10, Slade had opened up a 2.5s lead over Reynolds, who worked his way to second.

Van Gisbergen reeled in Davison and made the overtake at Turn 2 on lap 14. By then, Slade was 5.2s clear of Reynolds.

De Pasquale stopped from ninth, bolted on Hards, and rejoined behind Todd Hazelwood, who took on Super Softs on lap 14.

By lap 24, Slade led Reynolds by nine seconds; van Gisbergen dropped Davison, and was five seconds behind Reynolds.

Chaz Mostert stopped on lap 25 and rejoined ahead of De Pasquale.

Over the next three laps, Reynolds, Fullwood and Slade reverted to Hards.

Davison followed Slade in on lap 29, and rejoined just ahead of Mostert.

Van Gisbergen stopped at the end of lap 31, and resumed effective eighth, having completed a long fuel stop.

Slade regained the lead once Jack Le Brocq stopped on lap 32, and led Super Soft-shod Hazelwood by eight seconds.

As Slade pulled away, Davison overhauled Hazelwood for second.

Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, was 20 seconds from the lead, but had fuel in hand versus Slade.

By lap 41, the margin from Slade to van Gisbergen was 16.8s, with Heimgartner helping him past De Pasquale.

Davison slashed Slade’s lead to 2.8s by half-race distance; all the while, van Gisbergen cleared Heimgartner and Reynolds.

Davison caught Slade, which allowed van Gisbergen to cut the margin to the #3 Mustang to 12.9s.

The leaders’ final compulsory stop round began when Davison stopped on lap 55.

Those behind stopped and took on Super Softs; Slade stopped on lap 59 and bolted on Hards, and rejoined behind Davison and Mostert.

With 25 laps to go, van Gisbergen made his final stop, and rejoined three seconds behind Slade.

With 23 laps to go, Davison led Mostert by 5.5s, who was 9.9s ahead of Slade.

Van Gisbergen quickly overhauled Slade, and had 17 seconds to make up on leader Davison.

With 12 laps to go, van Gisbergen cleared Mostert at Turn 10, and was 7.4s behind the leader.

All the while, as the leaders hit traffic, Heimgartner cleared Mostert for third.

Van Gisbergen closed on the rear of Davison on lap 84, and armed with better drive traction, took the lead out of the final corner.

As Mostert’s slide down the order continued, Waters caught the rear of Heimgartner for third.

Van Gisbergen crossed the line with a 5.1s margin over Davison, with Waters 20.4s from the lead.

Scott Pye finished fifth ahead of De Pasquale, Broc Feeney, Slade, Mostert and Le Brocq.

Cars will return on Sunday for Race 20 ARMOR ALL Qualifying at 10:10am local time.