Kiwi dedicates win to parents

An emotional Shane van Gisbergen paid tribute to the sacrifices his parents had made to help him clinch the 2016 Supercars title on Saturday.

The South Aucklander finished third in Saturday’s race at the Sydney 500, putting in one of the best drives of his career to fight back from 22nd.

For the second time in as many races it brought out tears from the 27-year-old. At the last round in Pukekohe it was because he’d won the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, the first New Zealander to do so.

But in Sydney it was because of the realisation that all the hard work and dedication from him and his parents, Robert and Karen had paid off.

‘‘I owe everything to my family,’’ van Gisbergen said.

‘‘Dad [Robert] is a racer. I’m a pretty big critic of myself, but he’s even more so.

‘‘Even yesterday, he was standing at a few points of the track and would come in and say ‘Jamie [Whincup] was doing this and looks a bit better.’

I’m like ‘I know, I can see it on the data,’ he’s always trying to tell me what to do.

‘‘But he’s been a great influence, he and my mum have sacrificed a lot and they travel to most races now.

‘‘To have them there and be one of the first people I see after this moment was a really cool thing.

‘‘He had some tears in his eyes and it was pretty cool.’’

Having achieved this goal, van Gisbergen doesn’t intent to do a Nico Rosberg and retire at the top, nor is he looking to leave Supercars behind and race in another category around the world. ‘‘I really want to commit to V8s,’’ he said. Garth Tander, who finished second on Saturday, also felt van Gisbergen was the rightful champion. ‘‘He totally deserves it,’’ Tander said. ‘‘Having seen Shane develop since he first came into the series to where he is now, he’s matured and settled down.

‘‘He’s been really impressive to watch and I’ve been a team-mate of his a couple of times in the GT series last year and I couldn’t match him in the same car, he’s seriously fast.’’