Van Gisbergen hungry for title
EREBUS Motorsport’s David Reynolds believes Shane Van Gisbergen is more desperate to win this year’s Supercars title than six time champion Jamie Whincup.
The two Triple Eight drivers are leading the championship after 17 races, with Whincup on 1821 points and Van Gisbergen on 1711.
While there’s still almost half the season to go, including the endurance rounds, only Mark Winterbottom, on 1701 points, looks to be able to stop a Triple Eight driver taking the title. Question is, which one? ‘‘Jamie is still a very good driver, but Shane is a bit more hungry,’’ said Reynolds, who is driving for Erebus Motorsport this season, after being with PRA in 2015.
‘‘Jamie has won six titles, so where is his motivation going to be after winning so many races?
‘‘He’s about to win his 100th race and will do it in half the amount of time it took Craig Lowndes.
‘‘So his goals might not be the same and he’s just started up a small business outside of this, that might detract some of his focus too.
‘‘But Jamie is arguably the best driver this sport has ever had.’’
While Van Gisbergen is still in a good position to win the title, his chances would be better if he hadn’t GETTY IMAGES made a few of costly errors.
In Tasmania, after leading for most of Sunday’s race he slid off the track, going over an oil spill and ended up in the gravel trap.
In Darwin he overtook Michael Caruso too early after a safety car restart and was punished with a drive through penalty.
Then last Sunday in Ipswich he thought a safety car was about to be brought into the race after Scott Pye crashed and dived into the pits.
Van Gisbergen thought he’d catch a jump on everyone else, only to find himself double stacked behind Whincup and to make matters worse, the safety car didn’t come out.
‘‘If Shane didn’t stuff up all the time, he’d probably be leading the series,’’ Reynolds said.
‘‘He lost a lot of points for what happened at Darwin and Tasmania and he’s only got himself to blame for that.’’ Tony Kelly, Tawa; Lisa Seator, Eketahuna; C M Scales, Palmerston North; G D King, Waikanae; Shirley Harvey, Gisborne; P A Tree, Hamilton Vinesh K, Rorotua; Monique Robison, Papamoa; Ray Boyer, Sydenham; Ian Whitelaw, Huntly; Janet Bruce, Thames; Jean Winder, Blockhouse Bay; John Wood, Huntly; Perry Soloman, Waverley Darren Young, Waterview; Mrs D O’Neill, Palmerston North; Aroha Phillips, Napier; Stephen Tse, Lower Hutt; E Mallinson, Rolleston; Sandra Gail Cadman, Matamata; Gwen Mockford, Mosgiel; Mr Rick Rive, St Lukes; Zack Kimura, Palmerston North; Selesetine Lene, Ashburton
‘ If Shane didn’t stuff up all the time, he’d probably be leading the series’ DAVID REYNOLDS