Kiwis kings of etiquette
Kiwis and Supercars championship rivals Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin highlighted an unwritten piece of driving etiquette last weekend that could prove vital in the chase for this year’s crown.
The New Zealanders were on different strategies during last Sunday’s race at Winton, Victoria when van Gisbergen, on much newer tyres, caught McLaughlin in the middle part of the race. Instead of fighting to hold his Holden rival off, McLaughlin turned on the indicator of his Shell V-Power Ford and allowed the Red Bull Holden past.
It might seem like particularly good sportsmanship but there was more to it than that.
Had the pair got involved in a midrace battle it would have held both drivers up compared to rivals who were racing in clean air.
A day earlier van Gisbergen was held up badly in a similar circumstance trying to get past Nissan’s Rick Kelly. It took the Kiwi a number of laps to pass him, burning up his tyres in the process and costing him valuable time compared to rivals.
“Rick was holding me up — it was a great battle but there were five other cars that hadn’t pitted, not battling, that were doing fast lap times,” van Gisbergen said.
“As much as I enjoyed the battle with Rick, we lost so much position and all those other cars jumped us.
“If Scotty had elected to battle me [on Sunday] then Fabian [Coulthard] would have jumped us in the pits so it was just smart racing at that time of the race.”
The reigning series champion admits that kind of driver etiquette gets stored in the memory bank and in reverse situations payback will be delivered — good or bad. “Everyone knows that you give room, give respect to get it back,” van Gisbergen said.
“Scotty let me go in the middle of the race and that will pay back one day. You don’t win the race in the middle stint and if he is catching me one day I will do the same to him — it is swings and roundabouts.
“You remember who doesn’t the other way as well.”