Supercars Gold Coast 500: Shane van Gisbergen clinches title with commanding win

Shane van Gisbergen has sounded a warning to Supercars bosses within hours of securing another title, hinting he could leave the sport if the standard of racing falls.

Shane van Gisbergen.

Barely an hour after clinching his third Supercars championship in emphatic scenes on the Gold Coast, Shane van Gisbergen revealed he has put contract extension talks with Triple Eight on hold until after he tastes the Gen3 era next season.

The man who will race just about anything on four wheels was asked where he saw his future in the category after dominating the 2022 campaign winning 20 of a possible 31 races with three still to run.

“That depends on Gen3 probably,” van Gisbergen revealed.

“I’d like to stay here. If I stay in Supercars I’ll definitely stay with Triple Eight, I love the team and we’ve started talking about a new deal but maybe I’d like to start next year and see what the racing is like.”

Gen3 has been hailed as a game changer for the category but the recently crowned 2022 champion said he didn’t want Supercars to become all about the driver and not the car.

“I just hope it’s a good race car, a fun race car for everyone and we still have some room to develop it and change it around,” van Gisbergen said.

“I don’t want it to be like Porsche Cup where they’re all the same speed, boring racing, because it sounds very stock at the moment.

Shane van Gisbergen celebrates his win on he Gold Coast.

“At the moment you can see a Walkinshaw car, a Grove car, a DJR car – you can see all those differences when you’re driving, and there’s that ability to change things and have a different style of car.

“I just hope that we’re not locked in next year and everyone is the same, (because) that makes the racing a bit stale.”

After a hard-fought title battle in 2021, both of van Gisbergen’s rivals in Scott McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup departed the category.

“We need to get (McLaughlin) a car for tomorrow so we can have a race but he probably needs to sober up first,” he joked of his fellow Kiwi who was in attendance.

Cam Waters, Chaz Mostert and the Dick Johnson Racing duo of Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale pushed him at stages but from Townsville onwards van Gisbergen hit another gear and was nigh-untouchable.

Having relished the short-lived battle with David Reynolds on Saturday, before passing on lap 16 and fading into the distance, van Gisbergen said he still felt challenged in Supercars despite his procession to the title this season.

“I like winning but no, it’s good having someone who pushes you all the time,” he said.

“There have been points where it’s been Chaz or Cam or Anton; Will’s been very strong (too). But I think our biggest strength has been our consistency. Our bad days we’re still on the podium.”

Shane van Gisbergen is congratulated on the podium.

SVG’S PARADISE: REIGNING CHAMP ROMPS TO SUPERCARS TITLE

He farewelled fans at Pukekohe as a hometown hero then sent Holden out a last-start winner at Bathurst with a drive for the ages.

But on Saturday at Surfers Paradise, Shane van Gisbergen’s record 20th victory of the Supercars season was all for him.

The 33-year-old clinched his third drivers’ championship and second-consecutive title in perfect Surfers Paradise conditions to punctuate an all-conquering campaign that will be talked about for years to come.

Van Gisbergen becomes the 11th driver to win back-to-back Supercars championships, gapping the field by more than 17 seconds to take his fifth career race win on the Gold Coast.

Shane van Gisbergen ends up on two wheels during the Gold Coast 500.

For weeks the Kiwi’s ascension to the Supercars crown had looked a fait accompli and it long seemed a matter of when and not if he would break Scott McLaughlin’s Supercars season wins record of 18.

He equalled the total in New Zealand and set a new high watermark at Bathurst, as McLaughlin watched on with a smile in the States. But even then the man himself refused to talk titles despite the wins piling up and the gap to the field growing wider.

After a gruelling 250kms in searing Surfers Paradise heat, enduring the equivalent of running a half-marathon in 30-plus degrees, an exhausted van Gisbergen offered an insight into his killer mentality.

Finishing anywhere other than dead last would have been enough to clinch the title on Saturday but there was no way known the No. 97 would take it lightly.

“Hearing all the talk, ‘Oh he has to finish 23rd (to win the title)’ or whatever, I used that as motivation. I never start a race to finish 23rd, so I went out there, got the lead and just raced the gap behind on the dash,” he said.

“My goal was to get the gap to 20 (seconds) and I failed but yeah, I do my talking with the finish position.”

An aerial shot of van Gisbergen during the Gold Coast 500.

That became immediately apparent by the end of qualifying when he romped home almost four tenths of a second faster than Chaz Mostert.

He started on the front row alongside surprise pole-sitter David Reynolds, who uncorked an almighty lap in the Top 10 Shootout to beat van Gisbergen to the top of the grid.

But as McLaughlin had detailed only a day earlier the difference between his compatriot and the rest this season has been consistency – rarely bettered and even then, almost never beaten. And so it proved when the whips were cracking.

Reynolds battled superbly and even outdrove van Gisbergen in the opening stanza, denying the would-be champion a first passing attempt on lap 15.

Shane van Gisbergen is Supercars champion again.

But he left the door open on the very next lap and the hunter would not be denied again. He completed the pass, found clear air and from there it was all about guiding the Red Bull home.

So eager was he to mark his title triumph with a victory that on lap 50, trailing the Shell V-Power Mustang of Will Davison who had exited the pits, van Gisbergen complained his rival was going too slow – despite Davison producing the fastest second sector of the race during the radio exchange.

But the frustration bled into bliss once his second stop was in the books and he exited with a full 10-second gap on the trailing Reynolds, coasting the final 25 laps to victory.

Reynolds retained second to the chequered flag for his best race finish since the Melbourne 400 in April, with Chaz Mostert rounding out the podium.

Davison climbed five places from his grid position to take fourth, while Cam Waters survived a meeting with the wall on lap 52 to finish fifth and keep a healthy lead to Anton De Pasquale in the race for top Ford driver in 2022.

Triple Eight’s attention now turns to securing the teams’ championship on Sunday.

Despite van Gisbergen’s victory, the DJR duo combined to outscore their Triple Eight rivals 148 points to 142 after Broc Feeney crossed in 14th place.

That closed the gap to 665 points with three races to run.

Davison and De Pasquale have to outscore van Gisbergen and Feeney by 90 points on Sunday to take the title fight to Adelaide.

Originally published as Supercars Gold Coast 500: Shane van Gisbergen clinches title with commanding win