After starting the race in fifth Shane van Gigbergen claimed the first win of the weekend at Symmons Plains.
Van Gisbergen started moving towards the front of the field early on, moving ahead of teammate Broc Feeney in the opening laps.
Thomas Randle, Macauley Jones, and Jack Le Brocq all had their own off-track moments in the early laps though the latter also had what appeared to be a broken steering arm, forcing him into the pits.
Van Gisbergen took third from Brodie Kostecki, before moving into second soon after.
By the halfway point in the race, the Kiwi had taken the race lead from pole-sitter Cam Waters, who made his pitstop a lap later, which drew SVG into the lane the next lap.
“I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pass them,” van Gisbergen said after the race.
“What a great race. I had to rub them up a bit but that’s what we’re here to do. Hopefully it was a good show for everyone.
“We did this last year and then fell back on the Sunday, so we need to be better tomorrow. I’m focussed on that.”
Though the pit stops didn’t change the order of the top two it did put Davison back into second splitting the Red Bull and Tickford entries.
Heimgartner had held the position he qualified in through the early stage of the race, until his pit stop, the pit crew struggled to get one of the wheels of the car, dropping it off the air jacks in the process.
With just eight laps remaining, Mark Winterbottom made contact with David Reynolds spinning both cars on the exit of the hairpin, with Mostert who had been behind the pair getting caught in the drama, suffering damage to his car.
Despite the pit issue, Heimgartner finished in eighth, with Chris Pither in 20th.
The field will be back on track for two more races tomorrow.
Main image: Red Bull Ampol Racing Facebook
