Giz under attack for his ‘sexist’ team view

Newly-crowned champion Shane van Gisbergen has enjoyed the shortest of Supercars honeymoons, coming under fire from his former would-be boss Betty Klimenko the day after winning his maiden title.

The trailblazing Klimenko was due to take on the contracted van Gisbergen at her Erebus team after assuming control in 2012 of the Stone Brothers Racing licence.

The New Zealander instead walked with a cloud hovering over his motivations and an “unconscionable conduct” legal action settled out of court when he later joined Tekno Autosport.

Klimenko, who transformed the team by converting the Falcons to Mercedes-AMGs, arrived at the conclusion that the Aucklander couldn’t see past her gender.

“Not going into manufacturers, there was one thing [different] that was not about the car and that was me — a woman.

“I find that to be insulting. I thought it was very, very wrong and very sexist of him because that’s all I can think of.”

Reflecting on the saga last week, van Gisbergen said he had serious reservations about the new outfit, saying he “would have rather have stayed on the couch than raced for the new team”.

He rejected Klimenko’s claims yesterday as “completely false”.

“It was absolutely nothing to do with her. I just didn’t believe in the programme and the way it was going to run,” he said.

Two motorsport icons believe van Gisbergen will be a multiple Supercars champion.

But Aussie Mark Skaife and Kiwi Jim Richards warn it won’t be easy in the face of rising stars, hungry veterans and his own demons.

Skaife, once critical of van Gisbergen’s inconsistency, said his new team had mentored him well.

“In Triple Eight, he’s clearly competitive week in, week out,” said the five-time champion.

“Is he fast enough? Yes. Is he totally focused and committed? Absolutely, yes. Has he been able to put the year together? Yes.

“So there’s no reason why he won’t win again.”

Richards, the winner of four Australian touring car titles and the last Kiwi victor before van Gisbergen in 1991, agrees.

“He may win one or two more. He may even decide to go overseas and ply his trade in the GT series over there and go do bigger and better things. Who knows?” said Richards.

Skaife flagged motivation and fatigue as another hurdle for van Gisbergen, who dabbles in other categories in his spare time. “He’s driving lots of cars, which is fantastic, but at some stage that has a bearing on your level of effort.”