Shane van Gisbergen took victory for Stone Brothers Racing in the second of the grid-deciding sprint races that set the starting order for V8 Supercars' Phillip Island 500k.
Ford driver van Gisbergen benefited from his co-driver John McIntyre having made their car's compulsory pit stop in the first sprint. Under the event format, the driver pairings in each car raced in one qualifying race apiece today, and had to make a compulsory pit stop in one of them.
Van Gisbergen got ahead of polesitter and championship leader Jamie Whincup at the start of the second sprint, and though the Triple Eight Holden driver stayed on van Gisbergen's tail, unlike his rival Whincup still had to make his pit stop. Once he had done so, van Gisbergen was free to pull away and take victory, comfortably clear of a massive battle for second.
Inevitably the crews who had got their pitstops out of the way in race one rose to the front, with Garry Rogers Holden's Paul Dumbrell holding off Greg Murphy (Kelly Holden), Mark Winterbottom (Ford Performance Racing), James Courtney (Holden Racing Team) and Rick Kelly (Kelly) for second.
Whincup got back up to 12th, but the significant result was Luke Youlden's 15th place. That combined with his FPR co-driver Will Davison's race one win to earn them pole for the 500k race.
HRT's Garth Tander and Nick Percat's second and 14th places gave them the other front row spot, with Whincup and Andrew Thompson set to start fourth, behind van Gisbergen and McIntyre.
Results - 14 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Shane van Gisbergen Stone Brothers Ford 22m34.0272s
2. Paul Dumbrell Rod Nash/FPR Ford + 9.1748s
3. Greg Murphy Kelly Holden + 9.4509s
4. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford + 9.7472s
5. James Courtney HRT Holden + 10.8913s
6. Rick Kelly Kelly Holden + 12.0070s
7. Warren Luff Lucas Dumbrell Holden + 19.2735s
8. Russell Ingall Paul Morris Holden + 22.4581s
9. Dale Wood D'Alberto Ford + 24.2177s
10. Matthew Halliday Dick Johnson Ford + 28.5322s
11. David Wall Britek/BJR Holden + 38.9072s
12. Jamie Whincup Triple 8 Holden + 42.4875s
13. Mark Skaife Triple 8 Holden + 50.1712s
14. Nick Percat HRT Holden + 52.4192s
15. Luke Youlden FPR Ford + 56.2777s
16. Greg Ritter Garry Rogers Holden + 1m02.9108s
17. Craig Baird Walkinshaw Holden + 1m04.4449s
18. Marcus Marshall Garry Rogers Holden + 1m06.6828s
19. Tim Blanchard Kelly Holden + 1m07.5137s
20. David Russell Kelly Holden + 1m11.4324s
21. Daniel Gaunt Rosenberg/SBR Ford + 1m15.8808s
22. Michael Patrizi Triple F Ford + 1m17.1434s
23. Paul Morris Paul Morris Holden + 1m19.7650s
24. David Besnard Dick Johnson Ford + 1m21.3174s
25. Richard Lyons Tekno Ford + 1m26.7615s
26. David Brabham Stone Brothers Ford + 1m26.8770s
27. Shane Price Brad Jones Holden + 1m27.1311s
28. Andrew Jones Brad Jones Holden + 1m33.0470s