QUICK KIWIS: V8 ACE WANTS TO SEE NEW ZEALAND DOMINATION OF SUPERCARS
THE Kiwi takeover of Supercars is on – and Shane van Gisbergen is loving it.
The Gold Coast-based Holden star last season became the first New Zealand driver in 25 years to win the Supercars championship.
This time around, contenders from across the ditch are lining up for a crack at the crown.
Van Gisbergen sits second in the title race, a mere seven points behind Fabian Coulthard, who was born in England but identifies as a Kiwi.
Coulthard’s DJR Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin, from Hamilton, has been a regular up the front of the grid too and is well in the hunt in fifth, 97 points adrift of the lead.
Naturally, van Gisbergen would love to see his Triple Eight team lock out the podium in Perth this weekend, just as they achieved last year in the west.
But the next best thing, he says, is the prospect of standing on the podium alongside his countrymen.
“Three Kiwis in three awesome cars is a cool thing for our sport,” he said.
“New Zealand motorsport has died off again with the New Zealand V8 series over there so we’re still pushing on (over here) and hopefully getting good results for us Kiwis.
“We have had three top three qualifying (sessions) where we have locked it out but we haven’t managed to do it in the racing so it would be awesome to lock out a podium of Kiwis only.
“Hopefully we can keep pushing and when we get to Pukekohe at the end of the year, we’ll put on a good show.”
Despite having a cleansweep in the Clipsal 500 and running second overall in the standings, van Gisbergen labelled his start to the season as “average”.
He puts that down to not nailing the little things, such as receiving a penalty at Phillip Island last month when ruled to have illegally entered the pit lane.
He is eager to get his campaign back on track this weekend at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway.
“It feels worse than it is,” van Gisbergen said of his year to date.
“We feel like it has been average by our standards. But we’re still second in the championship and very close to first.
“So yeah I think we just need to get back into a rhythm and keep out of trouble and it will happen again for us.
“Last year we were nowhere at the start … mid-season on we moved forward so yeah it’s not a worry.”
Perth will see a return to the soft compound tyre, as opposed to the hard rubber version that failed so badly in the conditions last round at Phillip Island.
“It’s not until Bathurst that we are back on the hard tyre again – so that is a bit of a worry for Bathurst,” van Gisbergen said.