Van Gisbergen praises team after winning #50

In scoring his 50th Supercars career win in Townsville on Sunday, Shane van Gisbergen has nothing but praise for his Red Bull Ampol Racing Team and their part in his continuing success in the Repco Australia Supercars Championship. The Kiwi followed up his win on Saturday at the NTI Townsville 500 round with a near carbon-copy on Sunday, beating home his team mate Jamie Whincup with Anton De Pasquale third.

“To get a team one-two on both days and for the team to dominate the weekend is awesome,” commented van Gisbergen. “As I said yesterday, our cars were unbelievable to drive, and the way they handled and looked after the tyres, we’re obviously lucky guys to be able to drive them. I can’t thank our engineering team enough – they work so well together, and our cars are getting better and better, especially on tracks like this. It’s honestly so cool to be a part of it.

Again, Whincup won the start and was clear of van Gisbergen who was swamped by Nick Percat and Todd Hazelwood, into fourth position.

“I had a good little battle with Jamie (Whincup). I had another horrible start today, the same as yesterday, and came back through the field, but it was an awesome battle with Jamie. It’s never good that we touch but it was a cool bit of racing – hopefully it was cool to watch.

Having cleared Percat and Hazelwood, van Gisbergen shadowed Whincup for much of the race, dropping 10 seconds after both pitted for tyres and fuel. With 30-laps remaining, and showing more pace, Van Gisbergen took the lead until the chequered flag.

Van Gisbergen now has a 245-point series lead over Whincup heading into next weekend’s WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint.

“Even though we’re returning to Townsville next weekend, I’m not sure what the format will look like, but we’ll obviously look at our strategies and we’ll have to change the car to set up for two tyres in the pit stops, so they’ll be small differences, but everyone will be aggressive when they return here, so we’ll have to be ready”