Man, second sucks, says van Gisbergen

HOLDEN star Shane van Gisbergen has fallen agonisingly short of a Bathurst crown for the second time after a late safety car left him in a last-lap dash to the finish with Mount Panorama’s new king Scott McLaughlin.

Chasing his first Bathurst crown alongside new co-driver Garth Tander, van Gisbergen had been chasing down race leader McLaughlin in the charge towards the finish line when a safety car was deployed on lap 158 after Andre Heimgartner hit the wall.

There were concerns the race could finish under the yellow flag but when it restarted after Heimgartner’s car was quickly cleared away, the 2016 Supercars champion was left with just one lap to mount a last-ditch bid to reel in the allconquering McLaughlin.

Van Gisbergen has now finished second twice at Mount Panorama after standing on the podium with McLaughlin’s co-driver Alex Premat in 2016.

The Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver was shattered to fall short again and felt he could have been in with a shot to catch McLaughlin, with question marks over whether the series leader would have enough fuel to get to the finish, had the safety car not been deployed.

“Man, second sucks,” van Gisbergen said. “I knew I was going to have a go. Same as Scotty, trying to keep as much temp as possible while saving the fuel. I got through the first two corners and saw he had more grip, once he got through those he got a clear run over the top. It was tough. I thought we might have been on.

“I could see he was starting to save more and more [fuel] and I was hitting better than the number I was given, so I knew I would have a few more on those last couple of laps. “But what could have been. “I’ll keep trying, I’ve got a lot of years left. … we’ll come back next year and have another crack.”