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Drivers

Shane Van Gisbergen is leaving Supercars to race in Nascar in 2024

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Hi to all you Supercars Fans Around the world!

It was back in July 2023 that Shane Van Gisbergen notified his team’s management, Red Bull Ampol Racing that he would be accepting a full-time position in the U.S. NASCAR championship for the 2024 season.

It came after a long period of rumours on Gisbergen’s future especially after winning back-to-back championship titles in 2021 and 2022.

It would have been a difficult decision to make and possibly harder to deliver after being with Red Bull Ampol Racing for 7 years plus having his long-term teammate & friend Jamie Whincup now in the roll of “boss” for the team.

Whether this departure from Supercars is permanent or not, I felt that Shane Van Gisbergen’s career is full of so many accomplishments I had to write an article about him.

Shane was born 9th of May 1989 in Auckland, New Zealand.

He made his Supercars debut in 2007 (at the age of 18) with Team Kiwi Racing (TKR) at Oran Park Raceway. He also made his Bathurst 1000 debut in the same year as co-driver to John McIntyre.

In 2008 he earned himself a full-time seat with Stone Brothers Racing and was teammate to already well known driver James Courtney. In this season Gisbergen won his first podium finish at Sandown.

In 2010 the Supercars series kicked off in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. Shane had podium finishes at both venues. 

During the 2011 season Gisbergen took his first ever race win on home soil at Hamilton (New Zealand) before getting another win at Darwin. His talents were beginning to shine.

In 2013 he moved from Stone Brothers Racing to Tekno Autosports. He made the team’s investment worthwhile by winning the coveted Clipsal (Adelaide) 500.

In 2014, still with Tekno Autosports he won a further 2 races and also scored his first Bathurst 1000 pole position.

In 2016 he moved to the Red Bull Racing Team and found his home with the new crew and teammates Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes. 

He started the year winning the Bathurst 12 hour driving for McLaren. He followed up with exceptional performances throughout the year and earned his first Supercars Season title.

In 2017 he started his title defence in good form by winning the first 2 races. However, regardless of how good you are it is hard to challenge a legend (and teammate) like Jamie Whincup who went on to win his 7th season title that year. Also in the mix was the rising star, Scott McLaughlin.

In 2018 he was runner up again. This time to Scott Mclaughlin who was now hitting his stride.

In 2019 he was runner up to Scott McLaughlin in the Bathurst 1000.

In the following year 2020, Shane Van Gisbergen was determined and took his first Bathurst 1000 win. This is the dream of all race drivers on an international level.

In 2021 he started the year with a broken left collarbone but still managed to win the majority of the races and resulted in his 2nd Championship title.

In the following year of 2022 Shane Van Gisbergen dominated the season with 21 race wins. It earned him a back-to-back title and his 3rd title for his career.

He started the 2023 season badly, being disqualified in the first race for having the cool suit dry ice box on the wrong side of the car. His teammate Broc Feeney was also disqualified for the same reason. It seemed an awfully petty reason to be taken out of the running as it would have not given them any advantage over other drivers.

Gisbergen pushed on and did well throughout the season. Even no points for the first race he was within reach of the title entering the last event for the year. However, bad luck struck again in the last event where he received a DNF  (Did Not Finish) in both races. It gave Brodie Kostecki a clear win for the year. It really must have been heartbreaking to be so close to winning a 3rd title in a row (and his 4th overall)

During his Supercars career Shane Van Gisbergen has competed in other highly regards races like the Daytona, 24-Hour Spa and the Le Mans 24 Hour. He has also been over to the USA and competed in a NASCAR race at Chicago where he took the winning place and followed up with another attempt in Indianapolis.

In 2014 Gisbergen also competed and took the title in the New Zealand Highlands 101.

He did the same in the New Zealand Grand Prix in 2021.

After 16 years of racing in Supercars Shane Van Gisbergen has had 508 race starts, 81 wins, 176 podiums and 48 pole positions. He has taken 3 championships titles and 3 Bathurst 1000 wins.

Now (2024) he will be racing fulltime in the Nascar Cup series and Xfinity Nascar series.

Shane Van Gisbergen! Thanks for all the Supercars memories. You will be missed on the track in Australia.

Best of luck in your NASCAR adventure. Go show them what real legends are made of!

Drivers

Scott McLaughlin leaves Supercars for Indycars

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Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

The reason why I am doing this post is because it is the end of the 2020 season and the Season Champion, Scott McLaughlin announced his departure from Australian Supercars for an opportunity in the U.S. To drive in the IndyCars series for Team Penske.

I want to highlight Scott McLaughlin’s amazing career in Australian Supercars. He is an amazing talent the likes of which we won’t see again for a long time.

Scott McLaughlin was born on the 10th of June, 1993 in New Zealand.

Scott McLaughlin started driving karts when he was 6 years old and started racing when he was 7 years old. Soon he was representing New Zealand in competitions overseas.

At the age of 9 he and his family moved to Australia.

In 2010 at the tender age of 16 years old he became the youngest driver ever in V8 Supercars, racing for Stone Brothers Racing in the Dunlop Super2 Series.

His hard work soon paid off. Early in 2011 he hit another high point at the age of 17 becoming the youngest driver ever to win a race in the NZ Touring Car Series championship.

In 2012 it all came together. He became the NZ Super Tourers Series champion. He also competed in the Dunlop V8 Supercars series and took the title for that as well.

Scott McLaughlin also made his debut at Sandown and Bathurst as co-driver to Jonathon Webb.

After he won that he got called up from Garry Rogers to replace Alex Premat in the Sydney 500. Alex Premat was unable to race due to heat exhaustion from racing the day before.

In 2013 Scott McLaughlin became full time driver in the V8 Supercars Championship Series.

In that same year he won 2 races at Pukekohe Park Raceway, New Zealand (race 6) and the again at Queensland Raceway (race 22).

From 2014 to 2016 Scott McLaughlin continued to drive in the Garry Rogers team, now going by the name ‘Volvo Polestar Racing.

In 2017 he switched to Dick Jonson Racing (DJR) and was teamed up with another excellent driver, Fabian Coulthard. It was a good match. McLaughlin in his Falcon proved to be fast. So fast he earned 16 pole positions for the season (now that is a lot – something like 50% of the races).

He even proved to be stiff competition to legend Jamie Whincup. Whincup had won the series championship in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

In the last race of the season the Newcastle 500, Whincup was leading the championship going in. In the first race Whincup crashed out and Scott McLaughlin won. McLaughlin was now leading the point score for the championship. Things were very tense. It all came down to the last race.

McLaughlin made quite a few mistakes in that race probably due to nerves and was penalised. Whincup’s experience kept him cool and steady throughout. He won the race but had only beaten McLaughlin by 21 points.

In 2018 he won his first championship. 2019 he took his 2nd championship as well as his first Bathurst 1000 trophy.

2020 he again dominated the series and took his 3rd championship. Driving a Mustang, he earned 15 Pole positions out of 27 races. He had 21 Podium finishes. 13 of them were wins. Now that is crazy!

Now he has moved to the U.S. to compete in the 2021 Indycars series as a full time driver for Team Penske. The contract has him locked in for 1 ½  years.

He has achieved so much and is still only 27 years old!!!!

From me and I am sure a great many others, we wish you the best of luck for the future Scott McLaughlin. You will be missed by everyone in the Supercars community.

Below I have some further stats on Scott McLaughlin’s career and other drivers he has been associated with.

His co-drivers were:

  • 2013 Jack Perkins car 33.
  • 2014 – 2015 Alex Premat, car 33.
  • 2016 David Wall, car 33.
  • 2017 – 2019 Alex Premat, car 17.
  • 2020 Tim Slade, car 17.

Scott McLaughlin has been in the Supercars for 9 years:

  • Had 252 races
  • Won 56
  • 76 poles
  • Driven 14,230 laps
  • And was leading for 2,362 laps

Supercars in Australia for season 2021.

Post Race Report, V8 Supercars

Sydney Coates Hire 500 2015 – Post Race Report

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William and Chris Brady
HI to all you v8 Supercars fans around the world.

On the weekend of the 4th – 6th December 2015 was the Coates Hire Sydney 500

This year dad and I stayed at the Novotel again, it’s one of our favourite hotels… They look after us very well, this year they tried to put us on the 14th floor, but the bathroom was too small for my wheelchair, so they went out of their way to find a room that was wheelchair friendly. We ended up on the 7th floor and had a great view of the track.

In race 34 Mark Winterbottom started on pole position alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen, as Craig Lowndes was after the championship, but due to hitting the wall in qualifying, he has to start at the back of the pack. On lap 1 of 37 Mark Winterbottom got the jump into turn 1. James Moffatt had right front steering damage as a result of contact with Jason Bright. Rick Kelly got squeezed by Tim Slade and Garth Tander.

On lap 4 Frosty still had the lead, meanwhile Craig Lowndes was still coming through the pack. Then Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead.

On lap 5 when Shane Van Gisbergen pulled off into the pits Mark Winterbottom took over the race lead again, then James Courtney took over the when Frosty had pulled off into the pits the race lead had changed again James Courtney took the lead. On departure Jamie Whincup got out in front of Shane Van Gisbergen.

On lap 6 Rick Kelly was chasing Garth Tander on lap 7 both James Courtney and Jason Bright made there pit stop.
In the middle of the race Steve Owen was holding Craig Lowndes behind.

Riana Crehan and Greg Murphy were chatting with Tim Edwards and Mark Dutton about their chances at winning the championship. Towards the end of the race Jamie Whincup was out in front. And running away with opening race. That first race win for Jamie Whincup took his career tally up to 95.

Results for race 34

1st – Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia
2nd – Shane Van GISBERGEN – Tekno Autosporrts
3rd – Jason Bright – Team BOC

In race 35 Jamie Whincup started from the pole position alongside him was David Reynolds. On lap 1 of 37 Jamie Whincup led the field down to turn 1 for the first of 37 laps. There was contact between Fabain Coulthard and Todd Kelly.

On lap 2 Craig Lowndes was back in the pack trying to move forward passing Scott Pye, but he couldn’t get the move done at turns 2, 3 and 4. But Craig Lowndes managed to pass him at turn 5; his next car to pass was Lee Holdsworth.

On lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen got swamped as he was chasing James Courtney in.

On lap 4 Lee Holdsworth was being chased by Scott Pye.

In the middle of the race all the pit stops had been completed towards the end of the race Jamie Whincup was again in the right position to make it 2 from 2.

Results for race 35

1st – Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia
2nd – David Reynolds – Rod Nash Racing
3rd – Mark Winterbottom – Pepsi Max Crew

Today my mate Jesse Ellis and his dad joined us to watch the race… It was so nice to have a like-minded friend to share the experience with.

In race 36 James Courtney started on pole Position alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen. On 1 of 74 James Courtney led at the start of the 36th and final race of 2015, Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom started on the 2nd row of the grid. Towards the end of the opening lap Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to pass James Courtney, but that didn’t work. At the final turn James Courtney got tagged by Shane Van Gisbergen in the left rear quarter panel.

On lap 2 James Courntey was still the race leader and Frosty was running 3rd. Jason Bright was the first of the Brad Jones Racing Cars to make a pitstop. David Reynolds passed Rick Kelly in between turns 9 and 10. Tim Slade was sitting behind them just in case one of the cars ahead of him made a mistake.

On lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen was trying take control of the race but he couldn’t until James Courtney let him pass.

On lap 4 Shane Van Gisbergen was still putting pressure on the Holden Racing Team car, and then Shane Van Gisbergen spun James Courtney around in between turns 9 and 10. As a result he didn’t get a drive thru for that incident. Then James Courtney had smoke coming out of the right rear guard.

On lap 5 Scott McLaughlin was right behind the outgoing champ in Jamie Whincup, at turns 9 and 10. Jamie Whincup just pulled straight away.

On lap 6 Scott Pye saw the damage on the back of the 22 car. McLaughlin made a move at turn 1, which would give him the racing line for turns 2, 3 and 4. David Reynolds was following the HRT car. Craig Lowndes was following Fabain Coulthard, Tim Slade hit the wall on approach to the final turn which triggered a safety car and a flurry of activity in the pits while the Safety car was out, Nissan Motorsport had to put the pit boom back in place.

The restart was on lap 15. In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still leading with Jamie Whincup hunting him down.
Towards the end of the race Jamie Whincup couldn’t pass Shane Van Gisbergen.

Results for race 36

1st – Shane Van Gisbergen – Tekno Autosports
2nd – Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia
3rd – Rick Kelly – Jack Daniels Racing

Well done to everybody on a great 2015 V8 Supercars championship season. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year, see you in 2016.

Will Grant McPherson be the race engineer for on car 888 in 2016 For Team Vortek?

Jamie Whincup will go back to the car No. 88 which he has not had since 2011.

Shane Van Gisbergen will have 97 under the Red Bull banner and next year will be the first time that Craig Lowndes will have his own car. But he will be sharing a pit Boom with Tekno. Because Triple 8 race engineering are going to be going to 3 cars.

Post Race Report

Adelaide Clipsal 500 2014

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Hi Guys and Girls on the 27th February to the 2nd of March 2014 was the Clipsal 500.

In race 1 Red Bull Racing Australia’s Jamie Whincup started on pole position alongside him was his teammate Craig Lowndes.  Craig got the jump into turns 1, 2 and 3 for the first of 39 laps. Also on lap 1 Chaz Mostert went into the wall at turn 5, due to an oil leaking from the rear of car 6.

Tim Slade was trying to pass the Rick Kelly, towards the end of the opening lap, Shane Van Gisbergen was ahead of Mark Winterbottom in 3rd spot. On lap 2 the race leaders had to be careful due to the oil that Chaz had left behind in-between turns 4 and 5. Chaz’s car ended up in the pit garage to fix the oil leak issues, and the sister car of David Reynolds also pitted due to damage on the front right hand corner, from hitting the wall at turn 11. Scott Pye ran wide down at turn 9 due to a locked brake on the front left corner. On lap 3 Lee Holdsworth had David Wall and James Moffat. Jason Bright ended up being passed by Russell Ingall. Garth Tander passed the DJR car, for position 12.

On lap 4 Jamie was the first car to make his pitstop for tyres and fuel, so that his teammate didn’t have to double stack, the 2nd car was Garry Rogers motorsport Volvo Polestar racing, car 34 driven by Robert Dahlgren. On lap 5 David was in the garage getting checked over by the doctor after a hard hit at turn 11. On lap 6 James Courtney was chasing Mark Winterbottom, through turns 1, 2 and 3. Todd Kelly was asked to enter pit lane in car 7 on lap 7, cars 7, 21 and 16 pitted on the same lap. James Courtney, also Scott McLaughlin pitted together.  On the pit exit Todd got passed Scott as he was re-joining the racetrack.

The Pepsi Max crew FPR team did Mark’s pitstop on lap 9, James Moffat had to serve a pit lane penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit which is 40 klms/hour. Car 97 peeled off on lap 13 for his compulsory pitstop. Craig pitted on lap 14, for 2 tyres and fuel. Craig said ‘what the heck happened there’, and his race engineer Jeromy Moore said sorry to Craig about the pitstop issue with the right rear wheel.

In the middle of the race Shane was following Craig for the effectively 2nd and 3rd positions. Towards the end of the race cars 22, 47 and 2 are all were battling for 10th 11th and 12th spots. Tim nearly hit the wall on the left hand side.

Nick Percat made contact with Michael Caruso. In the end Nick ended up in the garage. Craig caught the grass on approach to turn 14. Rick was under pressure from Scott, in the end Jamie ended the first race of the season on the top spot of the podium and he claimed his 8th win at Clipsal and race win number 74.

Results for race 1

1st Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia.
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Team VIP – Tekno Autosports.

 

In race 2 Craig Lowndes started on pole position alongside him was Scott McLaughlin, Craig got the jump into the turns 1, 2 and 3 chicane. On lap 1 Lee Holdsworth tried to get passed the Pepsi Max Crew Ford. When James passed the FPR car, he started to chase Lee Holdsworth. Meanwhile Nick Percat and Garth Tander made contact at turn 9. On lap 2 Craig got a kerb strike Neil Crompton said that Craig burning a kerb hop after lap 1 was not good. Jamie managed to get passed Scott McLaughlin, for 2nd spot. On lap 3 Jason Bright tried to a make a move down the main straight. Mark Beretta was right at the last corner, turn 14. On lap 4 Jason Bright tried get down the inside of the Volvo at turn 9. On lap 5 Scott was complaining about the over steer to his race engineer Richard Hallway. The first car to make to a pit was Robert Dahlgren. Robert stalled on exit of the pits Matt White was talking to Robert and he said to him ‘I bet it is not 30 degrees where you come from on the east coast of Sweden’, he replied ‘yeah minus’.  In the middle of the race James Courtney nearly lost the passenger’s side door on approach to turn 4. Towards the end of the race, Scott and Jamie were battling for 2nd and 3rd.

Results for race 2

1st Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Scott Maclaughlin – Volvo Polstar racing GRM.
3rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.

In race 3, Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position alongside him was the 5 times V8 Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup. Jamie got the jump and led the field into turns 1, 2 and 3 for the first of 78 laps. Rick Kelly made contact with the tyre bundle at turn 1. As a result of the guard rubbing on the front left tyre, there was smoke pouring out of the left hand side of his car. On lap 2 David Reynolds pitted early for fuel. On lap 3 Todd Kelly had no throttle meaning the car running only on idol due to a broken throttle cable.

Shane tried to pass Jamie at turn 9, but wasn’t able to make the move stick. On lap 4 the first 3 cars to pit were Craig Lowndes, Chaz Mostert and Fabain Coulthard. On lap 5 Car 7 was limping back to the pits. On lap 6 James Courtney made his first compulsory pitstop. On lap 7 Nick Percat came in for tyres and fuel. On lap 8 the Volvo 560 got through on Tim Slade, at turn 9. Micheal Caruso got a black flag for speeding in the pitlane. Will Davison went into the wall at turn 8 on lap 10, as a result a safety car was deployed, that meant that cars 1 and 2 could make their compulsory pitstops.

At the restart on lap 14, Jason Bright ended up rolling his car at turn 1, the cars that were involved were cars 8 Jason Bright, 6 Chaz Mostert, 16 Scott Pye, and 4 Lee Holdsworth. The 2nd safety car was deployed due to this crash.

On the 2nd restart on lap 19, cars 15 and 97 got drive thru penalties for not maintaining the speed after the restart, Mark went into the tyres between turns 6 and 7. When Rick took his pit lane penalty that left cars 1 and 888, to start the next lap in positions 1 and 2.

In the middle of the race Craig came in for his last pit stop and

towards the end of the race Jamie got a pit lane drive thru penalty for the car controller touching his car as Jamie was trying to save his day he made contact at turn 9 with Michael Caruso. In the end James Courtney won race 3.

Results Race 3

1st James Courtney – Holden Racing Team
2nd Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen –Techno Auto Sports

The next event is the Tasmania 400 on the 28th to the 30th of March 2014 races 4, 5 and 6. Craig Lowndes currently leads the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship series points standing by 282 points over 2nd placed Fabain Coulthard.

Trivia

Tekno Auto Sports, VIP Petfoods, Lucas Dumbrell motorsport and HHA Racing have only got one car in this year’s Championship. Mark Larkham has a new inferred camera which he uses for checking out the temperatures on both the front and rear brake routes and pads.

The last time that Tim drove for Supercheap Auto Racing before this year was 2009.