Holden’s Shane van Gisbergen has turned a corner in his horror Supercars season, winning his first race of 2020 by upstaging Scott McLaughlin in Townsville.
The Red Bull ace failed to finish Saturday’s race around the Reid Park street circuit, but dominated on Sunday after qualifying fourth-fastest.
Van Gisbergen’s 37th career victory is his first since December in Newcastle.
The 31-year-old finished more than eight seconds ahead of McLaughlin in second, while van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight teammate Jamie Whincup came in third.
A perennial championship contender, van Gisbergen has endured a number of near-misses this season as his fellow New Zealander McLaughlin appears destined to win a third straight title.
“It feels good. The (bad) weeks we’ve had, the crew’s never given up,” van Gisbergen said.
“To get a win like that is awesome – we smoked them.
“It’s going to be hard this afternoon but hopefully we can put on a show.”
Brad Jones Racing’s Todd Hazelwood will start the final race of the round from the front of the grid after securing his maiden pole.
The 24-year-old Holden driver has only scored one podium finish in his Supercars career but now has a golden opportunity to claim his first race victory.
“I had an absolute rocket. We had our dramas (on Saturday) but I knew we’d come back swinging today and we certainly proved that,” Hazelwood said.
McLaughlin will have to play catch up in the round’s third race after an incident with Matt Stone Racing’s Garry Jacobson saw the Shell V-Power ace slump to 10th.
Holden’s Jacobson took responsibility for the mistake.
“It was a communication error. I thought I had more time behind me than I thought and didn’t really hear anything on the radio,” Jacobson said.
“I’m really gutted for Scott McLaughlin. I apologised to him straight away and I’ll wear it.
“Scott had every right to be upset. He just said ‘you should have known I was coming’.”
Sunday’s second 39-lap race gets underway at 2.40pm AEST.