Van Gisbergen wins incident-packed Race 28

Shane van Gisbergen has played his way into Jason Richards Memorial Trophy contention with Race 28 victory.

Van Gisbergen’s 17th win from 28 starts was also his sixth Pukekohe victory.

The points leader crossed the line ahead of Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters, with Will Davison fourth.

"What a feeling, I'm going to miss this place," van Gisbergen said.

"Next race is going to be hard off the back, but I'll try my best to get through.

"What a feeling, thank you everyone."

Davison’s teammate Anton De Pasquale crashed on lap 1, as did Will Brown.

The crash all but ends De Pasquale’s faint title hopes.

The race was suspended following dual incidents on the opening lap, the latter damaging pit entry wall.

De Pasquale, who made a poor start from fourth, collided with Brodie Kostecki.

De Pasquale's Shell V-Power Ford was sent into the concrete barriers and sustained major damage.

De Pasquale checked up behind David Reynolds, and was forced into the path of Kostecki.

Officials late communicated no further action over the incident.

It did little for De Pasquale, who suffered his first DNF since Bathurst 2021.

Later around the lap, Brown found the pit exit barriers after contact with Mark Winterbottom.

Such was the impact, that the concrete barriers were dislodged.

With pit lane entry compromised, officials opted to suspend the race.

The race restarted following a 20-minute stoppage, and van Gisbergen left his restart as late as he dared.

Davison ranged around the outside of the #97 at Turn 8, but ran wide and collided with Waters.

Mostert scythed through into second, with Davison dropping to fourth ahead of Pye.

All the while, Feeney had dropped to 10th and was brought in on lap 9.

Van Gisbergen kept Mostert at bay, with Waters and Davison within four seconds.

Tickford brought Waters in on lap 16; he emerged ahead of Pye, who stopped on lap 11.

Mostert led Davison in on the following lap, with Waters splitting them on re-entry.

Van Gisbergen emerged ahead of Mostert following his lap 18 stop, with the margin 0.5s.

Van Gisbergen kept the margin at 1.3s, with Waters unable to make a dent on Mostert.

The points leader took the flag after 36 laps, and scored all 105 points on offer.

Mostert was 2.3s behind, with Waters 4.4s from the winner.

The curtain will fall on Supercars at Pukekohe with Race 29 at 4:10pm local time/2:10pm AEST.