Young Kiwi Ford driver Shane van Gisbergen scored a triple treat at the Skycity Triple Crown V8 Supercar meeting at the Hidden Valley circuit in Darwin over the weekend, third place finishes in both races seeing him join race winners Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom on the round podium.
The result strengthened the SP Tools-backed Stone Brothers Racing Falcon driver's hold on fourth place in the championship points standings behind James Courtney, Whincup and Craig Lowndes. He now has 1412 points, just 40 behind third placed Craig Lowndes and less than 300 behind current points leader Courtney.
After setting the seventh quickest lap time in the Top Ten Shootout on Saturday morning van Gisbergen used awesome speed and a canny pit strategy to work his way up to third place in the first race of the weekend on Saturday. Then after qualifying tenth for the longer race on Sunday the young Kiwi made the most of the team's decision to start him on the control tyre and use the stickier soft set each driver was allocated later on.
Shane van Gisbergen – Driver, SP Tools Racing Car #9
“I was falling back at the start of the race to all the guys on the soft tyre but we knew when we made the change to softs at the end we were in with a good show, " he explained. "We had great pace (on the soft tyre) and I had heaps of fun coming though the field and passing all the guys on the hard tyres.
“The whole team has been awesome this week, all three cars have been so strong and it’s been really good to see all three of us up there, the team are just loving it.
“I was pretty gutted for Alex when I made my last stop and saw he was out of the race, it was great to see him get pole position today and Tim has really stepped up.
“This weekend has been a great way to bounce back from the disappointment at Winton, I was really having fun out there today.”
Also impressing in Darwin was van Gisbergen's new-for-2010 teammate Tim Slade who finished sixth in both races.
The other member of the Stone Brothers Racing team, Alex Davison, was not so lucky however.
After claiming pole position and leading Sunday's race early on his car ground to a halt with a mysterious electrical issue.
Ross Stone – SBR Team Principal
“Another great job by Shane, we had a good solid strategy for car #9 and I have kept saying to Shane if we just keep going for podiums soon we will have a car that is really on the money and he will win a race and probably do it easy. There is no hurry with him, the object is to hang in there in the points and he is doing that so we are really pleased."
The Stone Brothers Racing Team will now head back to the Gold Coast to begin preparations for the Sucrogen Townsville 400 between July 9 – 11.
Race 1 (Saturday)
1. FPR - Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon/Mark Winterbottom
2. TeamVodafone/Jamie Whincup
3. SP Tools Racing/Shane van Gisbergen
4. Team BOC/Jason Richards
5. Jim Beam Racing/James Courtney
6. Wilson Security Racing/Tim Slade
7. TeamVodafone/Craig Lowndes
8. The Bottle-O Racing Team/Paul Dumbrell
9. Jack Daniel's Racing/Todd Kelly
10. Toll Holden Racing Team/Garth Tander
Race 2 (69 laps)
1. Team Vodafone/Jamie Whincup
2. FPR - Orrcon Steel /Mark Winterbottom
3. SP Tools Racing/Shane van Gisbergen
4. Jim Beam Racing/James Courtney
5. Team Vodafone/Craig Lowndes
6. Wilson Security Racing/Tim Slade
7. Team BOC/Jason Richards
8. Jack Daniel's Racing/Todd Kelly
9. Jack Daniel's Racing/Rick Kelly
10. FPR - Dunlop Super Dealer/ Steve Richards
Round points
1. Jamie Whincup 288
2. Mark Winterbottom 288
3. Shane van Gisbergen 258
Points after Rnd 8
1. James Courtney 1698
2. Jamie Whincup 1641
3. Craig Lowndes 1452
4. Shane van Gisbergen SP Tools Racing 1412
5. Mark Winterbottom 1344
6. Garth Tander 1242
7. Rick Kelly 1226
8. Lee Holdsworth 1218
9. Michael Caruso 1139
10. Steven Johnson 1040
11. Paul Dumbrell 933
12. Jason Richards 912
13. Jonathon Webb 870
14. Russell Ingall 869
15. Tony D'Alberto 849
16. Tim Slade 813
17. Jason Bright 794
18. Will Davison 792
19. Todd Kelly 768
20. Steven Richards 615
