Fast forward for ‘ The Giz’
Series- leading Kiwi knows his Holden will show the scars of street circuit’s walls
Former Bathurst 1000 winner Paul “The Dude”’ Morris will be at Pukekohe, November 4- 6, but not in a V8. The former Supercars racer will be punting something considerably slower at the New Zealand event than his usual ride. Morris has accepted an offer to race a Ssangyong ute in one of the support classes. Sticking with utes, Supercars are to replace their existing V8 Ute championship with SuperUtes in 2017. They are opening the class up to any manufacturer who makes a dual cab, turbo- diesel based vehicle, with a tray, of course. It’ll be like watching truck racing, but on a smaller scale. The sound of the booming V8- powered Formula 5000 cars will be heard again at Barbagallo Raceway, Perth for the first time in 37 years this weekend. The last time they were there was in 1979 when the track held the Australia F1 Grand Prix. The class is competing as part of the annual Shannons Perth Classic motor racing meeting. Marc Marquez might have been crowned MotoGP world champion after winning the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend after Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo crashed out, but the battle for second place in the series is still on. The riders are at Phillip Island, Australia this weekend for round 16 with only 14 points separating Rossi and Lorenzo. While Will Davison and Jonathon Webb have been confirmed as the 2016 Bathurst 1000 winners, there is still some bad blood pooling on the ground. Six- time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup is pretty dark, and rightly so, about comments made by the category’s CEO James Warburton. Whincup took particular umbrage when Warburton said it was “unAustralian” to put in a protest over his time penalty. What the CEO fails to realise is that it probably wasn’t Whincup’s decision to protest. New Zealand Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen has put the disappointment of narrowly missing out on his first Bathurst 1000 a couple of weeks ago well behind him.
He and his co- driver Alex Premat are eyes forward, laser focused on this weekend’s Gold Coast 600.
Van Gisbergen and Premat have managed the first t wo of the three endurance races that go to make up the Pirtek Enduro Cup — a series within a series — well to allow van Gisbergen to lead the overall championship by 139 points.
A storming second place finish at Mount Panorama after another strong second at the Sandown 500 have shown the Kiwi and Frenchman are the pair to beat this year. Van Gisbergen likes street circuits and this one in particular, having won there last year.
“We’ve had two close races so far and I think we’ll be in with a shot of a good result again here,” said van Gisbergen from the event.
“It’s a track I like and am quick at and I don’t see the weekend being any different from the past few. Hopefully we’ll have a fast car, as it’s been good so far.
“I’m not too sure why I go well on a street track, but I’ve always been pretty competitive on them. The Gold Coast especially is where you have to have a high level of commitment and be prepared to scrape the car along the fence and put a mark on it.
“It’s not like I intentionally try and break the car, but you have to hang it out a bit [ go fast] and I enjoy getting the most out of the car and myself at tracks like this one.”
Van Gisbergen really is the form driver at the moment and many are predicting that, after a good weekend on the Gold Coast, and if Jamie Whincup has issues, he could wrap up the championship at his home event at Pukekohe on November 4- 6. That would just leave the Sydney 500 ( December 4- 6) as the season finale.
However, whenever you raise the loaded question about the Kiwi potentially winning his first Supercars championship, the discussion is quickly shut down as van Gisbergen is just focused on getting through the last of the endurance race weekends with a straight car and more points in the bag.
“Not too much about that [ winning the title]. As I’ve said all year, we’ll concentrate on the championship only after the Gold Coast race. We’ll try and have a good weekend and finish off the Enduro Cup well.
“For me, this i s part t wo of the championship nearly over and we want a strong finish. That’ll lead into part three with only two rounds to go.
“We’re after good, consistent results this weekend and then we’ll have a look where we’re at next week,” he said.
If, by some miracle and good driving, van Gisbergen does collect the maximum 300 points over the weekend and a win at Pukekohe, he will become the first Kiwi driver in more than t wo decades to win the championship. It’s been a good year for New Zealanders with Scott McLaughlin fifth, Fabian Coulthard 10th and Chris Pither and Andre Heimgartner getting better at each round.
When it was announced earlier in the year that Premat would partner van Gisbergen, it raised eyebrows and even elicited some less- thancomplimentary remarks. The New Zealander, however, was never in doubt of the Frenchman’s pedigree behind the wheel. It has come as no surprise to him that Premat has gone about his business as a true professional.
“Alex has done a very good job. There was lots of unjustified criticism and comment in the media but I think he silenced everyone pretty quickly.
“It came as no surprise to anyone in our team and he’s been faultless in both races so far. They don’t have too many street tracks in his part of the world but he’s been really competitive at the Gold Coast the last couple of years and really fast.
“We have no issue with him racing here.”
Qualifying starts today at 12.45pm ( NZT), with the first race at 3.55pm ( NZT). Tomorrow qualifying i s at 11.35am, top 10 shootout at 1.25pm and race two at 4.25pm.