ALL it took was waving a chequered flag at a Red Bull and the Supercars championship race is suddenly very much alive.
Shane van Gisbergen held off Red Bull Holden Racing teammate and Saturday winner Jamie Whincup to take out the Townsville 400 and cut Scott McLaughlin’s championship lead to just 121 points.
On a weekend of domination for Red Bull, van Gisbergen won a frantic final five lap sprint prompted by a safety car to land his first win since Adelaide.
“It is awesome,’’ van Gisbergen said.
“Our cars have just been awesome all weekend. It is all really cool for the car No. 97 team and we have turned it all around in qualifying and racing. We came out on top.’’
Whincup’s runner-up finish leaves him just behind Holden’s David Reynolds in fourth place in the title race in a successful weekend for Red Bull.
“And the team getting a double one-two is just awesome,’’ van Gisbergen said.
“I am already looking forward to the next race here because Townsville is just an cool place and an awesome track.’’
Van Gisbergen gave himself the winning shot when he blasted his way around the Townsville street track to score an emphatic top-10 shootout win.
The 2016 champion clocked a 1.12.10 to beat teammate Whincup by two tenths in an all-out attack that announced Red Bull as qualifying force after a season of struggle with one-lap speed.
“We’ve made a huge step forward and it feels really awesome in qualifying trim,” van Gisbergen said.
“All three of us [Triple Eight drivers] were in the top 10 and just privileged to drive these cars.
“The car was amazing on that lap. I drove it quite smoothly, it was hooked up.”
McLaughlin’s car was not so good.
In a rare miss for the V8 qualifying king, McLaughlin finished seventh in the shootout to leave himself with a 70-lap rescue mission.
Out to make McLaughlin pay, van Gisbergen shot off the line to claim the race lead when the second instalment of the Townsville 400 launched to life.
While it was a clean getaway for one Red Bull, Whincup was forced back to fourth after being Reynolds and Rick Kelly launched a start-line blitz.
“To cut a long story short for me it was just a poor start,’’ Whincup said.
“That put us a long way back. They was also something going on in the front end of the car. The kerbs are very aggressive here and I may have hit one.’’
After he slipped to 10th following a slow start, McLaughlin stopped on lap 13 in an attempt to put himself back in contention with the undercut.
Whincup covered the move a lap later.
But it soon became a battle of the bulls with van Gisbergen winning by less than a second.
“I pushed Shane hard at the end,’’ Whincup said.
“There were no team orders and if there was a gap I would have taken it.’’
McLaughlin finished third after the team’s strategic masterstroke saved him from his slow start.
“I didn’t do anything,’’ McLaughlin said.
“All the guys and gals in the team gave me an absolute awesome strategy and the tyre life was excellent.
“It just sucks that I didn’t get the best start and I lost a few places when we had a really fast car.’’
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