Richards backs ‘ The Giz’ to do the biz and end Kiwi title drought
This weekend’s penultimate round of the Supercars championship at Pukekohe will be a pivotal event in the title race. Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen has a bit of breathing space over his teammate Jamie Whincup holding a 148- point buffer, which may, or may not, be enough to see ‘ The Giz’ become the first Kiwi champion in more than two decades.
There are three possibilities come tomorrow afternoon — van Gisbergen will have a fight on his hands heading into the last round at Sydney on December 2- 14, he’ll have one hand firmly on the trophy with the other almost touching it, or, he’ll leave his home country with the title.
The later is unlikely, but possible if Whincup has a nightmare and van Gisbergen continues his dominant form. He now has six race wins to Whincup’s four and is definitely the man to beat.
The last time a New Zealander raised an Australian V8 title was ‘ Gentleman’ Jim Richards back in 1991. Richards is arguably the best V8 pilot to come out of New Zealand ( his record certainly attests to that) having won four Australian Touring Car/ V8 Supercars titles as well seven Bathurst 1000 trophies along with numerous others. He also set the record as the oldest winner at 55 when he and Mark Skaife won on The Mountain in 2002.
Richards has seen a plethora of young Kiwi racers make their name in the Supercars category and he reckons van Gisbergen may just have what it takes to finally take his record as the last Kiwi to win the title.
“Standing on top of the podium [ winning title] is definitely a possibility this year for van Gisbergen,” said Richards.
“He does have one hand on the trophy and I’d have to say that Shane over his career so far has been very, very quick, but sometimes a little bit like a bull at a gate.
“Last year and this year he has really turned into a thinking man’s fast driver. In the last few races he’s settled sometimes for second place because he’s looking at the championship,” he said. “It’s always good to settle a championship as soon as possible and he’ll be looking to try and win over the weekend and wrap it up.
“If you think about finishing fifth or sixth to try and win the championship, that’s when it’ll all go wrong,” said Richards.
Van Gisbergen has always been fast and had talent to spare, as those who watched him at Pukekohe during a Formula Ford race about 10 years ago where he was going around the outside of other drivers through turn one will concur.
The red mist occasionally descended in his early years in the V8s and he made a few mistakes. The past few seasons though, his outright speed has remained, but you can see there’s a lot more analytical thinking going on inside the car.
“He’s got the reputation now of being able to catch drivers quickly and pass them quickly. It’s almost like if you see him coming in the mirror you know he’s going to pass you at some stage so you may as well not make it too hard for him.
“It’s that mindset he has; getting behind someone quickly, passing them quickly and getting on with the job.
“During the last race [ Gold Coast 600] van Gisbergen showed he could catch Whincup, but he’s just almost as fast as van Gisbergen. He knew that to get past Whincup he would have had to push really hard and as Whincup is also gunning for the championship it might have got messy.
“Van Gisbergen would have thought ‘ I’ve proved I can catch him, but to go that extra step would have bee a risk so I’ll just stay here [ second]’,” said Richard.
For many years in the late 1990s and early 2000s there were really only two Kiwi shining lights in the V8 Supercars — Greg Murphy and Jason Richards, with Paul Radisich making a mark also. Now there are five drivers in the main game — van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard, Chris Pither and Andre Heimgartner.
There’re plenty of talented drivers in motorsport and getting into one of the most competitive categories in saloon car racing is no mean feat.
“When I was racing competitively you didn’t really think about it. I was here, Robbie [ Francevic] was here and Greg Murphy was too so there was no reason why any good guy from New Zealand shouldn’t come over.
“It’s so hard to get into the Supercars these days and you have to show them what you’ve got before they’ll look at you. It’s so hard to get a drive [ for Kiwis] because there are so many Australian drivers trying to get a drive also. It’s bloody hard to break into.
“Three of the drivers you’ve mentioned, van Gisbergen, McLaughlin and Coulthard have been in Australia for a long, long time. I’d say they’ve been here for at 10 years or so. They’ve all come up through the ranks and progressed to where they are now.
“Talent will always get noticed and people like the Stone Brothers [ Racing team behind van Gisbergen] who wanted a Kiwi at the top level and of course they helped McLaughlin as well. Gary Rogers [ Racing with McLaughlin in the Volvo] also had an eye for developing young talent.”