Supercars Sandown 500: Shane van Gisbergen plans to take adrenaline rush even further
Far from taking things easy after coming a cropper on a mountain bike, Supercars star Shane van Gisbergen is thinking of taking the adrenaline rush even further.
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Shane van Gisbergen has vowed to keep mountain biking despite the accident that left him with a shattered collarbone, declaring you “can’t wrap yourself in cotton wool”.
After producing one of the sport’s great comebacks from injury to complete a clean sweep of the Sandown SuperSprint at the weekend, the Triple Eight star said he was even thinking of buying a dirt bike.
Van Gisbergen produced a masterful performance to win all three sprint races and extend his lead in the Supercars championship just two weeks after surgery to install a plate and screws in his collarbone.
The Bathurst 1000 champion revealed he would have the metal in his shoulder for the rest of the Supercars championship this year before having it removed in the off-season.
Despite the pain he pushed through after the surgery to get himself on track for Sandown, the 31-year-old was blunt when asked if his mountain biking days were over.
“No. I’m going to get a dirt bike, too,” van Gisbergen said.
“You can’t be scared and wrap yourself in cotton wool.
“These things happen and I just made a mistake.”
Van Gisbergen said he would visit his surgeon again on Tuesday for X-rays to ensure he had not done any more damage to his injury racing on the weekend.
“(The plate will come out) probably at the end of the year, the surgeon said,” van Gisbergen said.
“But I go and see him on Tuesday and (have an) X-ray and see if I have done any damage.
“But I feel pretty good. And (I’ll) just keep recovering, hyperbaric chamber and sling, keep it in the sling, keep the weight off it.”
Van Gisbergen revealed the extent of the injury stretched beyond the shattered bones.
“I wrecked the AC joint a bit and I tore a bunch of ligaments off, so my ligament is held onto the plate by a rope,” the 2016 Supercars champion said.
“I think the bone is OK because it is literally bolted together, but it’s all the ligaments and stuff that I ripped apart that hurt.
“The whole side of me was pretty black.”
Van Gisbergen sought advice from Dakar Rally star Toby Price and motocross racer Chad Reed about his recovery in the lead-up to Sandown.
“Those guys are nuts, they go through it all the time. Toby has got the same thing, he’s got the rope and he just busted through it and broke it the other week,” he said.
“And Chad has got the hyperbaric chamber, he has got his own one at home. That’s how hard core those guys are.
“You know what those guys are talking about so you happily take their advice.
Van Gisbergen extended his Supercars championship lead to 155 points over teammate Jamie Whincup ahead of the next event at Symmons Plains in three weeks.
But he hoped to race at the GT event at Mount Panorama over Easter before then.
“(I’ve) got GT in two weekends’ time, so I should be ready to go for that again,” he said.
“I’d love to do it and the production car race on the same weekend. I’m in a competitive car for both of them, so I’d love to be there.”
Broken, but never beaten: Why SVG’s in rare air indeed
Shane van Gisbergen produced a masterful performance in the wet to complete a clean sweep of the Sandown SuperSprint and cap a remarkable comeback from injury to remain unbeaten streak.
Backing up from his thrilling victory from 17th place on the grid on Saturday, van Gisbergen claimed back-to-back victories on Sunday to extend his unbeaten run to five races this year in an ominous warning to his rivals.
Nursing a broken collarbone after a mountain-biking accident two weeks ago, van Gisbergen extended his championship lead to 155 points after just two rounds.
Including his Bathurst 1000 win last year, van Gisbergen has now won six straight races to prove he is going to take some beating in this year’s championship.
After claiming a pair of poles earlier in the day, the Triple Eight star commented that he didn’t normally “like the rain”, but he proved to be at home in the wet conditions.
The Bathurst 1000 champion cruised to a 14-second win ahead of Erebus Motorsport rookie Brodie Kostecki, who impressed in the wet to claim his first-ever podium in Supercars.
David Reynolds claimed his first podium this year for new team Kelly Grove Racing after finishing third.
Following his surgery to insert a plate and screws in his collarbone on March 6, there was serious doubt if van Gisbergen would even make it to the start line at Sandown.
“It’s hard to sum up, but it’s pretty special and something no one thought was going to happen including myself,” van Gisbergen said.
“But had some awesome help the last few weeks and been pretty methodical with it and done everything I can to try and get better from the physio and hyperbaric chamber.
“I had some good advice from a couple of collarbone experts — Chad Reed and Toby Price — they said I would be OK, just grin and bear it and it felt OK.
“I’m not worse than what I started yesterday, so I managed it through the weekend. Iced it up every session and stuff so it felt good.
“But it’s pretty special to win all three, especially after qualifying yesterday.”
Van Gisbergen’s dominant start to the year places him in some elite company.
Allan Moffat won six races in a row at the start of 1977, Peter Brock won five in a row to start 1980 and Mark Skaife won six in row to start 1994 — all went on to win the championship in those years.
Van Gisbergen will carry a comfortable buffer in the championship over teammate Whincup, who finished fourth, into the next round at Symmons Plains.
Kostecki was beaming after his breakthrough Supercars podium, but had been confident he could snag one early in his debut year in the main game.
“It’s one of those things if you don’t think you have a chance then you shouldn’t be here,” Kostecki said.
“Now we’ve had a taste of champagne, I think we need to push hard throughout the rest of the year and try and get some more of it.”
Earlier, van Gisbergen claimed his fourth win of the season in the first of Sunday’s two sprint races when he cruised to a 12-second win over Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters and Whincup.
Waters remarkably held onto a podium finish after recovering from a 360 spin just three laps earlier as he waged an engaging battle for second place with former teammate Chaz Mostert.
SECRET BEHIND WHY HE’S GETTING FASTER
Supercars’ superman has done it again.
Shane van Gisbergen has backed up from his incredible win nursing a broken collarbone in Saturday’s opening sprint race at Sandown to claim his fourth win from as many races this year and extend his championship lead on Sunday.
The day after producing a thrilling victory from 17th place on the grid, van Gisbergen kept his unbeaten record intact with another masterful drive in changing conditions after starting from pole position.
Earlier in the day, van Gisbergen bagged a pair of poles in the wet to continue what has been a remarkable comeback from surgery to insert a plate and screws in his collarbone after a mountain biking accident two weeks ago.
The Triple Eight star will have another chance to continue his winning run in this afternoon’s second 36-lap sprint race.
Van Gisbergen cruised to a 12-second win over Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters, who remarkably held onto a podium finish after recovering from a full 360 spin just three laps earlier as he waged an engaging battle for second place with Chaz Mostert.
Seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup was third again after his Saturday podium.
Van Gisbergen said his car kept getting better as the wet track cleared.
“It was awesome … once it dried up, my car got better and better,” van Gisbergen said.
“I thought we could have come in (to pit) two or three laps earlier, but no one had pitted surprisingly so you don’t want to be the pioneer in that case, so we were just waiting.
“Thanks to the team. The car’s been good, it’s been a perfect start so hopefully get it this afternoon.”
Including his win in last year’s Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama, van Gisbergen has now claimed five straight race wins.
It is the first time in van Gisbergen’s career he has five races in a row.
After the latest instalment of his ongoing battles with former teammate Mostert, Waters said he had been lucky to hold onto his position after his spin.
“That was a pretty epic race there, obviously she was pretty wet at the start and I was just holding on,” Waters said.
“It was drying out and I knew Chazy was coming there, he obviously got inside my door, we were having an awesome race and got me loose.
“So just did the old philosophy of ‘If in doubt, power out’ and it got me through.
“I don’t know what’s going on, we qualify next to each other every race. We’re right next to each other again so it will be interesting.”
EXHAUST LEAK LEAVES REYNOLDS IN A SPIN
David Reynolds revealed he felt like throwing up after breathing in fumes in the first sprint battle at Sandown before recovering to claim a podium finish in the final race.
Reynolds claimed his first podium with his new team Kelly Grove Racing in the final race of the Sandown SuperSprint, but it came after a scary moment earlier in the day.
The 35-year-old was left with a headache, watery eyes and nausea after fumes made their way into the cockpit of his car.
“I’m glad they didn’t come and test my blood because I would have been over the limit if there was a test for carbon dioxide,” Reynolds said.
“Ten minutes after the race I was fine, but as soon as I got out of the car I had a massive headache and my eyes were watering and I wanted to throw up.
“But then 10 minutes later I was not bad. It’s never happened to me before in my life. It’s not enjoyable.”
Reynolds went on to finish third behind a barnstorming Shane van Gisbergen, who completed a clean sweep of the event, and Erebus Motorsport rookie Brodie Kostecki in the next race.
Earlier, he had finished 22nd after his in-car dramas, the cause of which he said the team was still investigating.
“I honestly have no idea (what happened). My helmet fan disconnected from my lid so I was kind breathing in the circulated air,” Reynolds said.
“Maybe there must be a slow leak in the exhaust somewhere and it must get in through the doors. I don’t know, we’ll have to investigate it.”
There were also dramas for Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert, who finished last after being forced back to the garage with a broken throttle cable in the final race.
The car trouble proved costly for Mostert in the championship standings. Sitting second — 80 points behind van Gisbergen — before the race, he is now 163 points behind in third.
“Really disappointing way to finish the weekend with that broken throttle cable, just one of those rare occurrences that bites, and bites hard, but that’s motorsport as they say,” Mostert said.
“Having said that, for the guys to get it replaced in such a short amount of time was something pretty special, everyone put their hand up and got the job done quicker than I thought was possible, so a huge thank you to them for getting the car back out there.”
SVG DEFIES BELIEF IN SANDOWN DELUGE
Shane van Gisbergen has backed up from his incredible win in the opening race at Sandown to claim a pair of pole positions in the wet for the first of two Supercars sprint races.
After producing an amazing comeback just two weeks after surgery on a broken collarbone to win from 17th place on the grid on Saturday, van Gisbergen claimed his second and third poles of the year in slippery conditions at the Melbourne track.
It was a front row lock-out for Triple Eight for both of today’s 36-lap races with seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup twice qualifying second behind his teammate.
“It was awesome to drive, I could tell following these guys out we had plenty of grip and Jamie was on me as well and just learning the lines and trying to find the train tracks,” van Gisbergen said.
“The car was awesome in both sessions.”
Van Gisbergen survived a scary moment in the first qualifying session when he slid off the track at turn three after skidding on the kerb.
SVG flies to the top!#RepcoSCpic.twitter.com/WKboGBbvBv
— Supercars (@supercars) March 20, 2021
But the Supercars championship leader was able to reverse the car out of trouble to avoid triggering a red flag.
“I had a big spin but I was just panicking trying to get going to not cause the red flag and lose the best lap,” van Gisbergen said.
“The car was really good but it started raining heavier so it wasn’t real fun at the end, so this (next qualifying) session will be wet at the start.”
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert, Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters and Kelly Grove Racing’s Andre Heimgartner rounded out the top five for today’s first sprint race.
Dick Johnson Racing’s Will Davison, David Reynolds and Heimgartner completed the top five for the second race this afternoon.
Van Gisbergen admitted the wet conditions were favourable for his collarbone, lessening the load on the injury.
“Normally I don’t like the rain, but today it’s not a bad thing,” van Gisbergen said.
Van Gisbergen said there were no issues with his injured collarbone, which he hurt in a mountain biking accident.
“Hopefully the weather (later) is easier, it’s not one or the other – it’s either rain or dry – and not in between because that’s when it gets tricky.
“But it’s awesome that both our cars are good and thanks to the team here it’s great.”
Van Gisbergen has won the opening three races of the Supercars season and holds a 60-point lead in the championship.
Originally published as Supercars Sandown 500: Shane van Gisbergen plans to take adrenaline rush even further
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