2022 Calder Park 500

The **2022 Calder Park 500** was a motor race held as the opening round of the 2022 season of the Shannons AUSCAR Championship. It was won by Scott McLaughlin.

## Qualifying

Shane van Gisbergen took the first pole of the year and the 37th of his career. Will Davison was a tenth back, with standout Andre Heimgartner in third. Other stars included Matt Stone Racing's Jack le Brocq in fifth, Heimgartner's Grove Racing replacement Zane Goddard in eighth and Lee Holdsworth, returning to the series, in eleventh. David Reynolds and Scott Pye, 28th and 29th respectively, were notable absences from the top 20.

## Race

### Race Report

Van Gisbergen held the lead from the start, while a good start from Anton de Pasquale netted him third from Heimgartner. The top three pulled away over the opening laps, with SVG and Davison establishing a slight margin over Anton. The rest of the pack was largely held up by Andre Heimgartner, allowing for Nick Percat to climb five spots by lap 22. Three laps later, he passed Heimgartner for fourth. Towards the back, Garry Jacobson reported issues with his engine, and pitted to investigate, losing two laps in the process. On lap 37, James Moffat also had an unscheduled stop with an oil line reported loose. Scott McLaughlin took fifth on lap 48 from Heimgartner, marking his first Top 5 running since the 2020 Bathurst 1000.

The first safety car of the year occurred on lap 53. This was as a result of two mechanical issues. First, Tyler Everingham slowed with an electrical issue. As he limped back to pit lane, Mark Winterbottom blew an engine and stopped on the back straight. Everingham lost several laps, while Winterbottom was the season's first retirement. From the Lap 58 restart, a key move occurred into Turn 1 as Will Davison took the lead. The next two laps, Davison and van Gisbergen switched the lead. Behind, a slow pit stop had cost Heimgartner ten positions, meaning Cam Waters was sixth. On lap 61, McLaughlin passed Nick Percat for fourth. The next lap, van Gisbergen was shuffled high, allowing de Pasquale, McLaughlin and Percat to all slide underneath him and for DJR Team Penske to take a 1-2-3 at this time in the race. Van Gisbergen immediately recovered position from Percat, but found the Mustangs harder to crack.

McLaughlin showed real pace at this point. He got by Anton on lap 66, and, after a good run out of Turn 4 two laps later, dived down the inside of Davison on lap 69 at Turn 1 to become the race's third leader. Davison showed very little pace after being passed by McLaughlin and not only allowed a one second lead for the 17, but also drove Anton back towards Shane van Gisbergen. It was little surprise, then, to see the two switch positions on lap 72. Six laps later, Richie Stanaway was forced into the lane with electrical issues similar to those of Everingham.

The safety car was required again on lap 85, with Kurt Kostecki suffering a similar fate to Winterbottom. Every car on the lead lap chose to pit, and Van Gisbergen lost track position to Percat in the lane. The WAU driver made good on that chance, immediately dispatching De Pasquale (who also lost a spot to teammate Davison) for third on the Lap 91 restart. This three-way fight (with several others right behind and sniffing for opportunity) allowed McLaughlin and Davison to clear out up front. SVG got Anton on Lap 94, and it was soon clear that while Davison was slow the prior sting, Anton was fading in this one. Before the race's 100th lap, he was dispatched by Will Brown, Waters, Randle and Holdsworth to slide to ninth, and on lap 105, Broc Feeney moved past as well. Both Triple Eight cars took a position that lap as Van Gisbergen finally repassed Percat.

Chaz Mostert was the mover of the third stint. Much like Heimgartner, a slow first stop took him out of the top 10. But in the third stint, he rose from just outside the 10 to eighth thanks to passing Brodie Kostecki, Anton, Feeney and Holdsworth. Jack le Brocq, who had qualified fifth, fell off the lead lap at the exact halfway stage after picking up a puncture. The rest of the stint was highlighted by close battles between Waters and Brown, and between Mostert and Feeney, and by the speed of the Penskes putting several notable cars a lap down (Heimgartner, Todd Hazlewood, and even teammate de Pasquale just before the pit cycle).

Lap 166-170 saw the first green flag stops of the day. The top 4 were unchanged but the undercut worked handsomely for Le Brocq, who emerged from the cycle fifth. However, he was at the front of a large queue of cars, who soon began to work past him. After just 13 laps, he was down to tenth. Mostert had emerged as the fifth car by now, although Waters did not make his task easy. He soon got past his slowly fading teammate for fourth.

Just as it was looking likely that both Erebus cars would be lapped too, the Safety Car was needed for Team 18's second engine failure of the event, this time ending a disappointing race for Scott Pye. The pit stop cycle toasted Nick Percat's hopes, who dropped to 11th and last on the lead lap. The race resumed on lap 196, but was immediately neutralised again after an accident for Zak Best. Best, on debut, suffered a tyre going down into Turn 3 and went in backwards. Despite being badly bent up on the passenger side, the Eggleston car was repaired and sent back out, albeit two more laps down.

The Lap 201 restart was much cleaner. Two laps into the new stint, the longstanding DJRTP 1-2 was broken up as Van Gisbergen slid by Davison down low through the first turn. The safety car was soon out again though, as another engine went up in smoke - this time, Bryce Fullwood's BJR debut ended early. McLaughlin had a new challenge on the restart - in addition to van Gisbergen hunting the lead, Anton de Pasquale, who had shown speed, was trying to get his lap back. The threat of his teammate was covered off immediately, though, when he missed the jump on the restart. Percat, however, had a great restart, and with 40 laps to go, repassed Mostert for fourth.

He then inherited third quite fortuitously. Will Davison, who had been holding the WAU cars (plus Broc Feeney and Zane Goddard) was baulked by a lapped car. Percat and Goddard shot by on the high line, while Mostert and Feeney cleared both Davison and the lapped car a corner later. Mostert had to mount a comeback drive, having lost nearly a second to Percat and Goddard. So he did. He caught Goddard on lap 250, passed him, but was immediately repassed on the low line by the Grove driver. At this point, his tyres began to slightly drop off, and he fell back from Goddard.

Up front, van Gisbergen was desperate. He nearly got the move done with eight to go but a bold and late brake into Turn 1 by McLaughlin allowed him to re-clear Shane. Ultimately, though, the job couldn't be done. McLaughlin won his first race in the category in over 12 months, with Van Gisbergen second and Percat holding off a late charge by Goddard for a podium.

## Trivia and Milestones

* All 36 drivers started their first ever AUSCAR race. However, when ATCC results are included (as is the convention), only six drivers were debuting in the series: Broc Feeney, Dan Cammish, Jayden Ojeda, Matthew Payne, Tyler Everingham and Zak Best. In addition, five drivers - James Moffat, Lee Holdsworth, Michael Caruso, Richie Stanaway and Scott McLaughlin - were returning from absences lasting over a year.