Driving ambition
Shane van Gisbergen may be chasing a Supercars championship this season but he’s also keen to develop the next generation of New Zealand motorsport talent. David Long reports.
Shane van Gisbergen wants to play his part in helping the next New Zealander to make it into Supercars.
There are five Kiwis flying the flag in Supercars this season, with Scott Mclaughlin, Fabian Coulthard, Andre Heimgartner and Richie Stanaway also in the category and they’ll all be in action at Tailem Bend this weekend.
While it’s pleasing to see such a strong representation of Kiwis in Supercars, a question that needs to be asked is who’s the next New Zealand to break through because there’s noone on the horizon.
There are no New Zealanders in the Super2 series, the second tier of Supercars, and while Wellington’s Madeline Stewart has been learning the ropes in Super3 this season it will be a few years before the teenager is ready for a shot in the main game.
Van Gisbergen may have to spend a lot of the year in Australia to compete in Supercars, but he is passionate about helping other Kiwis come through.
‘‘I’ve been doing a bit of driver training lately,’’ van Gisbergen told Stuff.
‘‘I had a young guy, Campbell Stewart, come over and then there’s Peter Vodanovich, he’s in the Toyota 86 series, with Paul Morris and they’re both pretty good.
‘‘After myself, the last guys were probably Nick Cassidy, Mitch Evans, Richie Stanaway and then there’s
been a lull for a while.
‘‘Now we’ve got Marcus Armstrong and another wave coming over now, so it’s going to start again.
‘‘New Zealand has had a rough couple of years for that unfortunately, but it looks like that with the Toyota 86s there are a few kids coming through, which is good.’’
Armstrong and Liam Lawson have both been making strides in the FIA Formula 3 Championship this season, with the former recently winning the Sunday race in Hungary, his first victory in the category.
Armstrong and Lawson both seem destined for careers in open-wheel cars and it could be a while before there’s another New Zealander in the motorsport category that’s of most interest to Kiwis. So why the lull?
‘‘There were a few bad years in
New Zealand, obviously with the V8s stopping and there wasn’t a clear future,’’ van Gisbergen said.
‘‘But now with Formula Ford coming back, it should be better. I’ve got a Formula Ford I’ve bought – I’m going to try to put a young kid in it next year and I’m going to try to help those coming through.
‘‘There have been a lean few years, but motorsport is like rugby – for a small country we do punch above our weight.’’
Formula Ford is a proven training ground for young drivers. Van Gisbergen came through it and was the New Zealand Formula Ford champion in 2005-/06.
While van Gisbergen wants to help out young New Zealand drivers, he’s not able to go as far as setting
up his own team, but given he’s busy driving around the world when not racing in Supercars, that’s understandable.
‘‘I want to run a car for fun and do some fun things, but I’ve got no interest in running a team,’’ he said.
‘‘But if I can play a part in helping someone else come through and be a professional driver, then that would be really cool.’’
Meanwhile, it seems inevitable that compatriot Scott Mclaughlin will make the switch to Nascar in the United States at some point in the future.
But such a move doesn’t interest van Gisbergen, who enjoys the freedom of racing in Supercars and other events around the world.
‘‘With where I’m at at the moment, I’m allowed to race as much as I want, as long as it doesn’t conflict with Supercars,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m in a pretty awesome spot, where I can race a GT car in Asia.
‘‘I love racing overseas, but when I come back it’s still the best competition and normally the closest. So I’ll stay here for as long as I can.’’
While van Gisbergen has been able to drive in many big races around the world, there’s still one event he’d love to be able to do one day.
‘‘Le Mans, but that always conflicts with Darwin and it’s quite hard to get a one-off ride in that,’’ he said.
‘‘It will come. I’ve got plenty of years left, but that’s on the bucket list.’’