Gold Coast 500 Ultimate Betting Preview
The Gold Coast 500 has been a consistent presence on the Supercars Championship ever since its inaugural edition in 2010, and will this year be the penultimate event of the season. In this article, we’ll talk you through everything that you need to know about this pivotal weekend of racing, including the details of the race itself, how to watch, and the major contenders.
When is the Gold Coast 500?
The Gold Coast 500 will take place over the course of the final weekend of October, kicking into gear on Friday the 28th and concluding on Sunday the 30th.
Gold Coast 500 Schedule
The first day of the weekend’s festivities will entail predominantly practice and qualifications, with Friday’s action beginning at 10:15am and concluding at 4:30pm. The next day, a host of other races will get us started, before Race 31 of the Supercars Championship will start at 3:45pm. Sunday will follow a similar format, with a number of curtain raiser events preceding Race 32 of the Supercars Championship, which kicks off at 2:15pm.
Gold Coast 500 Circuit
After years of being run as the Gold Coast 600, this event will this year take place over a reduced distance of 500 kilometres consisting of two 250-kilometres races. The Gold Coast 500 circuit comes in at a little under three kilometres, with drivers completing 85 laps for both Race 31 and Race 32. Notable parts of the circuit include a hairpin at the conclusion of the straight, and a difficult series of four turns just prior to the straight.
How Long Does the Gold Coast 500 Take to Complete?
The track schedule leaves two hours and five minutes for each of the two races which make up the Gold Coast 500 to be completed, but realistically they’ll likely be a little quicker than that. These races have previously been raced over an extra 50 kilometres each so there’s no direct frame of reference for this distance at this course, but expect the winner to complete each race in a little under two hours.
How Can I Watch the Gold Coast 500?
The Gold Coast 500 will be broadcast both on Fox Sports and Channel 7. Fox Sports, which you can access either on Foxtel or Kayo Sports, will have a comprehensive broadcast running throughout each of the three days, while Seven’s coverage will be available from 2pm on 7Mate on Saturday, and 12:30pm on Channel 7 on Sunday.
What Has Happened in Supercars 2022 Up to the Gold Coast 500?
It’s been all Shane van Gisbergen so far this year, with the 33-year-old Kiwi backing up his Championship-winning 2021 season with an even better one in 2022. He started the season like a man possessed, winning seven of the first ten events, and after slowing down slightly mid-season he’s hit perhaps the best form of his career in recent weeks. Heading to the Gold Coast, van Gisbergen has won ten of the last 12 races on the calendar, and raced out to a virtually unassailable lead with two events to go.
Sitting immediately behind him are a couple of younger names still searching for their first ever Supercars Championship in Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale. Waters has been in terrific form since Perth SuperNight, the fourth event of the season, rarely finishing out of the top ten, while de Pasquale has also been a consistent presence in the top ten, albeit with a couple of disappointing results of late.
In terms of the Teams’ Championship, it’s unsurprisingly van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight Race Engineering sitting in the box seat with two events to go, with Broc Feeney proving a more than handy second fiddle in that duo. Sitting behind them is de Pasquale and Will Davison’s Dick Johnson Racing while Tickford Racing is in third, but regardless of what happens on the Gold Coast and then in Adelaide, Tripe Eight Race Engineering will end the year on top.
Gold Coast 500 Contenders
Unsurprisingly, Shane van Gisbergen will head into these races as the comfortable favourite to take them out. As mentioned, he’s been on an absolute tear of late, winning ten of the last 12 races, and he’s also had plenty of success here in the past. The last time this event was held, back in 2019, he won Race 2 alongside Garth Tander, while he also won the first race in three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016 with Jonathon Webb in the first two of those, and France’s Alexandre Prémat in the last. That makes him the second most successful driver here in the event’s history behind only Jamie Whincup, and combined with his incredible form makes him the clear man to beat.
Cameron Waters will be viewed as one of his biggest dangers, though actually getting ahead of the Kiwi has proven difficult for him in recent weeks. He heads to the Gold Coast with four consecutive podium finishes, but none of those have resulted in wins and three of them have seen van Gisbergen end on top. Waters has never won at this course, though he has been there or thereabouts a handful of times; he finished fourth and fifth in the two races in 2019, and was second in the first race here in 2017.
Will Davison should also be in the mix as he attempts to win here for the second time. The 40-year-old was first past the post in the second race back in 2012 alongside Finland’s Mika Salo, though he hasn’t had a great deal of success here recently. He finished seventh in both races in 2019, but prior to that he didn’t finish higher than 13th for eight consecutive races. Still, he enters this year’s event having won a race at two of the last three events and with a second and a fourth thrown into the mix too, so write him off at your own peril.
The ever-consistent Chaz Mostert will also likely be there when the whips are cracking in a season which will likely mark his fourth consecutive top five finish and seventh consecutive finish inside the top seven. The Melbournian has been as reliable as ever of late, finishing in the top six in each of the last six races and finishing second on three of those occasions. He’s also enjoyed racing here in the past; one of just ten multi-time winners on the Gold Coast, he won the first race alongside first Steve Owen and then James Moffat in 2017 and 2018, so evidently he’s comfortable at the track.
Rounding out the top five in terms of favouritism is Anton de Pasquale. The 27-year-old has had the best season of his career to date in 2022, carrying the form which saw him win five races out of the last 12 in 2021 into this year, though he has faded a little in recent weeks. In the last ten races he’s finished in the top five just once, and has also won just a solitary race this year. He also has minimal experience at this track, having raced here just four times for a best finish of eighth. Still, the man is currently sitting in third place in the Drivers’ Championship, so he certainly deserves consideration.
Gold Coast 500 Odds
Take a look at the odds for the races which make up the Gold Coast 500 below.
Race 31 Odds
Shane van Gisbergen (Holden) – $2.00
Cameron Waters (Ford) – $5.50
Will Davison (Ford) – $7.50
Chaz Mostert (Holden) – $8.50
Anton de Pasquale (Ford) – $10.00
David Reynolds (Ford) – $13.00
Andre Heimgartner (Holden) – $21.00
Broc Feeney (Holden) – $23.00
Brodie Kostecki (Holden) – $26.00
James Courtney (Ford) – $41.00
Lee Holdsworth (Ford) – $41.00
Will Brown (Ford) – $41.00
Gold Coast 500 Predictions
Shane van Gisbergen (Holden) to win Race 31 @ $2.00
It’s impossible to go past Shane van Gisbergen to win both Race 31 and 32 individually, and most likely both of them, so good is his form. He might be only at even money to win Race 31, but even that appears to be good value. He’s won 19 of 30 races this year, or a little over 63%, but more recently that percentage is far, far higher; over the last 12 races he’s got a winning strike rate of more than 83%, and when you add to the mix the fact that he’s the second most successful driver at this course in history, all of a sudden his $2 odds to win Race 31 look relatively appealing.
