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!