Frosty is true hero of race win, lauds SVG
SHANE van Gisbergen has credited his first season win in Tasmania to the work done by Triple Eight customer Team 18 and Mark Winterbottom.
The Kiwi ended the Mustang’s unbeaten streak this season to earn Holden a first win of 2019 after earlier also claiming his first season pole.
And although changes to centre of gravity and Red Bull Holden’s traditional domination of Symmons Plains may have played a part, van Gisbergen was keen to highlight Winterbottom and his team.
The former Tickford driver had his best weekend since arriving at Team 18 after claiming pole on Saturday and finishes of fourth and sixth in Race 7 and 8 respectively.
As part of Irwin Racing’s revamped deal with Triple Eight, the two teams formed a technical relationship where information is passed across, and SVG was the one to benefit most from it.
“Frosty (Winterbottom) was strong in some areas I was really struggling with this weekend, and Phil Keed is a pretty sharp engineer,” van Gisbergen said.
“Information is going both ways and as long as they keep up with the parts that are coming through and the cars are the same, I think we can work together strongly.
“Some of the stuff they were doing, we’ve never even thought about before, so it was pretty cool to plug that in and find a little gain.
“Hopefully it works at other tracks too.”
The relationship with Team 18 became even more valuable given the loss of Craig Lowndes’ car, meaning there is less information passed across.