In claiming his second Australian Supercar Championship title at Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday, Shane Robert van Gisbergen has joined a select group talented Kiwi drivers who have won it more than once.
Topping the list is ‘Gentleman Jim’ Richards with four titles (1985, 1987, 1990 and 1991) then comes Scott McLaughlin with 3 (2018, 2019 and 2020), while Shane joins iconic Aussie names like ‘Stormin Norman Beechy (1965 & 1970), Glen Seton (1993 & 1997) and Marcos Ambrose (2003 & 2004) with two each.
It is van Gisbergen’s retiring teammate Jamie Whincup who holds the record with seven championship title wins (2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2117) four of them across consecutive years between 2011 and 2014.
Impressively, three drivers – starting with 60’s great Ian Geoghegan – who won the title in 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969) have won the title five times, the other two being iconic Ford man and long-time team owner Dick Johnson (1981, 1982, 1984, 1988 and 1989) and Holden equivalent Mark Skaife (1992, 1994, 2000, 2001 & 2002).
Two other drivers, the late Bob Jane (1962, 1963, 1971 & 1972) and expat Canadian Allan Moffat (1973, 1976, 1977 & 1983) join our own expat, Jim Richards with 4 titles to their names, while 3x title winner Scott McLaughlin is in very good company with both the late Peter Brock (1974, 1978 & 1980) and the only just retired Craig Lowndes (1996, 1998 & 1999) also winning the Aussie title three times each
Oddly enough of the eleven drivers with just the one title to their name, there is only one Kiwi – Aucklander Robbie Francevic – who topped the charts in 1986 in a Mark Petch-owned and run Volvo 240 Turbo.
While Shane has only just (last year, remember) got a win on board in the now Repco-backed 1000km race at Bathurst, only a brave man would, bet against the still just 32-year-old who – with his Red Bull and Ampol – backed Triple 8 team remains at the absolute top of his game – claiming another two, three or even four Mt Panorama scalps before he calls time on a positively glittering Supercars career.
Speaking of which, put yourself in Shane’s shoes. Then tell me what class and/or category of car – or rather let’s say – four-wheeled vehicle you’d rather he driving at the movement….
Let’s see. Right. Seeing as how he got out of Karts, Fomula Ford and the TRS after just single season runs in each suggests his mind was made up as to the path, he wanted his career to take.
Not for him the lottery of the European or even the US single seater routes favoured by others. No, Australia was as far as either Shane or his parents Robert and Karen wanted him to go in search of a career, therefore that’s where he made his ‘dream-come-true’ supercars series debut at the tender age on 18 at the Jim Beam 400 round of the 2007 series at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway in a Team Kiwi Racing Ford Falcon.
Fellow Kiwis, the Stone Brothers, Ross and Jimmy, stepped up to the plate in 2008, but though Shane proved immediately competitive (finishing fifth in the second race at his debut run with the team at the opening round of the 2008 series at Adelaide, the wins took longer to materialise.
Come they did though; in the second race at his ‘home round’ at Hamilton in early 2011 then again at Hidden Valley. That year – Shane’s 21st – he finished fourth overall in the championship points standings; not a bad effort for the team and its talented young Kiwi, but I well remember at the time thinking something was missing….
2012, should, for instance, have been a breakthrough year for van Gisbergen and the team. Instead, it was a year which came remarkably close to breaking his spirit as he found himself a simple pawn in a high stakes game of brinkmanship between the Stone brothers, Ross and Jimmy, and a would-be new team buyer.
The upshot was that Shane returned home to NZ with every intention of staying – at least until he could find a team that wanted to improve as much as he did.
Fortunately, just such a team – Jonathan Webb ‘s Techno Autos ports – not only existed but was also on the lookout for a driver able to motivate every team member to step up his or her game.
And so, Shane van Gisbergen was back in the game. And how. First he won the second race at the 2013 Clipsal 500 event in Adelaide and – in a season full of promise in which he finished in the top 6 a further 16 times (including another impressive race win in the season finale race at Sydney’s Olympic Park circuit) – the now 24-year-old ended up 5th in the series points standings.
A year later he finished 2014 in an even better position, second in the series’ overall points standings behind only Red Bull’s Jamie Whincup, and with wins at home at Pukekohe Park Raceway, Sydney Motorsport Park, and the Gold Coast.
With less restrictions in his contract (a valuable lesson learned from signing away many of his freedoms when signed up to an old skool Stone bros. one) to take up opportunities to race other cars should they come up.
First came an opportunity in 2013 via then team sponsor Tony Quinn to share Quinn’s Porsche 997 GT3 at rounds of that year’s Quinn-owned Australian GT Championship.
Early the next year (2014) Van Gisbergen got his first taste of the 24 hours of Daytona in a Porsche 997 GT3 leased from Porsche by Alex Job Racing.Then came an opportunity to contest the 24 Hours of Spa round of that year’s Blanc pain GT Series in Europe in a McLaren MP4 -12C GT3 car for works-backed team Von Ryan Racing.
This was more like it, reckoned the driver the Aussies had dubbed ‘The Giz, who spent another productive season anchoring the Tekno Autosport squad’s V8 Supercar championship but wary that he could get too comfortable.
And so, when it was announced that he was moving to the Triple Eight Race Engineering squad for the 2016 year the general feeling was that the timing could hardly be better, and it was very much going to be a matter of ‘watch this space.’
As it turned out Bathurst remained his bogey run but 2016 was nonetheless an exceptional year for the 27-year-old who finally won the Supercars series title with seventeen podium finishes of which eight were wins, seven were runners-up spots and two were for third placings.
2016 was also year that van Gisbergen and teammates Alvaro Parente and car owner Jonathan Webb dominated the annual Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race in a McLaren 650S GT3 owned by Webb.
Next week, the 2017 to 2021 years.
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