RED BULL KEEN TO MAINTAIN FORM
SHANE van Gisbergen was the toast of the Townsville 400 after taking out Sunday’s race, but he believes it’s the crew working behind the scenes who deserve the credit for Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s incredible weekend.
Van Gisbergen and teammate Jamie Whincup finished 1- 2 across the two races – with Whincup claiming his 10th Reid Park win on Saturday – in a dominant display in their Holden ZB Commodores.
Townsville was the first round this season where both van Gisbergen and Whincup have been on the podium together and van Gisbergen said it all came down to their improved qualifying speed.
Drivers also had to deal with vastly different weather conditions across the weekend after an overcast race on Saturday, but van Gisbergen said the Red Bull crew had risen to the challenge.
“It ( the weather) makes a huge difference to the cars,” he said.
“The boys did an awesome job making the set- up adapt to the track and the car was great both days.
“There’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes back at the workshop.
“The guys and girls have been working very hard – particularly qualifying has been a weakness.
“We’re always quick in racing and once we started up front we knew we could take them on.”
Van Gisbergen didn’t want to talk up his championship hopes, but said he felt it was a promising result in Townsville as he looked to close the 131- point gap on leader Scott McLaughlin.
“It does give me confidence. We’re always good on street tracks so we hopefully just carry that momentum on,” he said.
“I do feel like we took a big step forward with our cars and then when we get back on a normal track the next few races that’ll be a real telling point.”
Almost 148,000 fans came out across the weekend to celebrate the Townsville 400’ s 10- year milestone, which was a 3.5 per cent increase in attendance on last year’s event.
The event is only locked in for one more year at Reid Park, but van Gisbergen said it was always a great atmosphere, with even fans of rival teams cheering on his victory burnout on Sunday.
“There were Ford fans even cheering at the end, it was pretty cool the respect they give us,” he said.
“They love seeing a really good fight and it was only two cars with Jamie and I, but we fought as hard as we could and hopefully we put on a good show.”