Shane van Gisbergen doesn’t care for his teammates crown, he just wants to win more races
He is Supercars renegade leader. A man who doesn’t bow down to anybody and he is adamant he doesn’t care for the crown. SVG just came to win.
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SHANE Van Gisbergen has had the best seat to watch the Jamie Whincup show in Townsville for the past five years.
He knows precisely why his Red Bull Holden Racing teammate is known as the King of the North.
As for succeeding him on the throne, that’s for another day.
The runaway Supercars championship leader is expected to take over the top seat in the Triple Eight Engineering garage.
He will be the face of the most dominant team in pit lane for the past decade.
But for the driver himself, all he cares about is winning his next race.
With 250km of the hybrid Reid Park surface in front of him, Van Gisbergen admitted he will have little time to think about much else.
“We like (the longer distance), but mainly this track and how intense it is. You get a short straight but the rest of it is full on the whole lap. It is going to be tough,” he said.
“I don’t think about (the championship). I just take every round, one round at a time, and score as many points as possible.
“Everyone knows what we are in for this weekend. Sunday is projected to be hot so it will be a long slog, especially backing up Saturday’s race. Here you can’t cruise, you have to be flat out every lap, you have to attack the kerbs every lap. It is hard on the cars and hard on the bodies.”
The Triple Eight team have been a dominant force at Townsville since the race’s inception in 2009.
The team has taken out 17 race wins at Reid Park from a possible 29 races, with Van Gisbergen the second most successful driver behind Whincup (12) with five race wins.
Asked about the team’s success though, Van Gisbergen was short for answers.
“I don’t know, we just seem to go well here,” he said.
“Getting to see (Whincup’s) data and driving style here the last few years, you can see why he is so fast. I have tried to learn and emulate that and get better myself, but certainly Jamie is the benchmark here.
“(It is) always cool racing here and it is a track that suits our cars.”
Van Gisbergen leads the Supercars championship by 221 points from his Red Bull Racing teammate, with Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert in third place a further nine points behind Whincup.
Originally published as Shane van Gisbergen doesn’t care for his teammates crown, he just wants to win more races
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