With the Supercars season building towards a climactic finish, Shane van Gisbergen could come away from Gold Coast this weekend with one hand on the trophy.
The New Zealand driver has a 139-point lead over team mate Jamie Whincup and with just Pukekohe and Sydney to go after this weekend, van Gisbergen can either search ahead to a potentially unassailable lead, or leave the door open for Whincup to win the title for the seventh time.
The off track shenanigans and verbal jousting between the Supercars management and Red Bull Racing over the controversial appeal after Whincup was given a 15-second penalty for ‘that’ incident have subsided and it’ll be back to racing this weekend, for what can be the most thrilling race of the season.
Mistakes bite hard around the narrow Gold Coast street circuit and unlike around most of the Bathurst, there’s no sand traps, or grass verges, just concrete walls.
“The aim is still the same, to get around from the white line back again as quick as you can,” said Whincup on Thursday, wearing a pair of Warriors NRL shorts as he and the other drivers at his team dressed up as their alter ego characters for a video promotion.
“We’ve got a different setup for a street track, but it should be OK.”
“Some of the guys who were quick at Bathurst always struggle on street tracks.
“But we have a pretty good base setup on both tracks, so we’ll be up there hopefully.”
The Castrol Gold Coast 600 is also the third and final race of the Endurance Cup, but unlike at Sandown and Bathurst, there is a race each day of the weekend and for the past two years van Gisbergen has won on the Saturday.
It’s a place that suits his style of racing, where taking risks and being egressive can pay off – as long as you don’t crash.
“I love the commitment, you’ve got to be flat out all the way,” van Gisbergen said.
“You rub the car against walls and you’re going to come back with scratches on it, but trying not to break it.
“But it’s flat out the whole way and I love it.”
For van Gisbergen, it will be important to hit the ground running when the cars hit the track for practice on Friday.
At Bathurst, Whincup dominated every practice session, as well as qualifying and the top 10 shootout, but that is a race where it doesn’t really matter where you start on the grid, but at the Gold Coast it does.
“It’s a hard track to pass, so if you can qualify in the front row, or maybe the second row you can win the race.
“Last year when it was a fuel race, was the only time it was won outside of the top six, so qualifying is very important.”
It’s also a track where wing mirrors don’t usually last long on the cars, such is the limit that the drivers push them to.
“That’s the thing, you can expect to come back with them on, they bring so many spares,” van Gisbergen said.
“You don’t intentionally knock them off, but to go fast you’ve got to.”
It’s also a track where around the chicane on the back straight the cars are usually on two wheels, lifted up by the curbs. It looks spectacular, as well as dangerous.
“You can feel it [going on two wheels] and still be in control, then you drop the car down when you want,” he said.
“But you’ve got to keep turning and keep it on two wheels, but it’s a crazy feeling to balance the car on the edge like that.”
