SVG’s big call for title battle
SHANE van Gisbergen is prepared to help Supercars teammate Jamie Whincup’s championship challenge but has not lost all hope of his own title chances just yet.
Van Gisbergen won his maiden crown last year and got his 2017 campaign off to the perfect start by winning both races in Adelaide.
But from there the proud Kiwi, who lives on the Gold Coast, has been plagued by a range of issues to be fifth in the standings leading into the Surfers Paradise round.
An up-and-down run to fifth in the Bathurst 1000 at the weekend helped reduce his points deficit to 289 but Whincup remains the Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s most likely chance by far with just three events to go.
“If I can’t win the championship, the team winning is the priority,” van Gisbergen said.
“Obviously you do whatever you can for your team- mate to get it if you can’t get it, but you have got to do it in a fair way.”
That is not to say he has given up on his championship defence.
“There have been a lot of dramas with tyres and just a lot of random stuff … I’m still proud of the effort we have put in and had a really, really good crack at defending the title,” said the 28-year-old, who will compete in the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney tomorrow.
“We still haven’t given up on it yet. It can still happen.”
After taking “a good look at ourselves” following Bathurst, van Gisbergen and his crew will be out to snap a 10-race winning drought in a week’s time at the Gold Coast 600.
“The competition is better than ever at the moment so we just have to work harder than the others and hopefully we can push back to the front,” he said.
The No.97 driver is paired with young gun Matt Campbell.