Motorsport: Rick Kelly gives Nissan emotional Supercars win

Rick Kelly turned back the clock to win his first Supercars race since 2011 and hand Nissan Motorsport a victory in the same week they announced the manufacturer would exit the sport at the end of the season.

Kelly got in front after a late safety car intervention and led home Walkinshaw Racing's Scott Pye and Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen.

The experienced Kelly thanked his team in what has been a challenging week for the outfit.

"I am trying to hold it all back," he said. "It was pretty quiet on the radio so I think everyone is pretty overwhelmed.

"The guys have put so much into getting it to this point. We took advantage of the situation to get the win."

For the second round running Van Gisbergen came storming home with a clever strategy to claim a podium spot. He opted to stay out longer than most of the field and had fresher tyres at the end.

"We made it hard for ourselves [by qualifying 14th] but had a good run through," the 2016 champion said. "I just kept pushing – we planned to pit early but the car just kept get better and better so we stayed out."

Championship leader Scott McLaughlin saw a fifth straight win disappear when Tim Blanchard parked his Holden in a sand trap and the race went yellow. That saw bunched up the field behind him and the Kiwi made a small error, on the restart, running wide and was swamped by Kelly, Pye, Van Gisbergen and teammate Fabian Coulthard.

"A little error there," McLaughlin admitted. "The surface of the tyre was really cold at the restart. My fault and we will rebuild for tomorrow.

"For the team it is nice to get fourth and fifth when the other guys are having a bad day.

"We had a fast car, the safety car came at the wrong time for us."

It was a horror day for most of McLaughlin's leading title rivals. Jamie Whincup qualified outside the top 10 and had very little race pace in finishing 17th. Craig Lowndes qualified even further back and was a non-factor in the race while David Reynolds was caught up in a first lap drama that saw him sustain damage on his Erebus Holden and he spent a long time in the pits repairing it.

McLaughlin holds a 140-point lead over Van Gisbergen but the chasing drivers are now 100 points or more further adrift.

Kiwi Richie Stanaway was also caught up in that first lap contact and was spun, sending him to the back of the field. It was particularly disappointing for the former GP2 racer, who qualified inside the top 10 for the first time in his Supercars career.

Andre Heimgartner started near the rear of the field but worked his way up to 16th.