Kiwi driver Shane van Gisbergen still has plenty to fight for at the final round of this season’s V8 Supercar series in Sydney this weekend.
Ten days ago van Gisbergen announced that he was leaving the category at the end of the season.
However he is still 100% focused on his battle to retain fifth place in the points standings and heads into this weekend’s series final at Homebush in Sydney with that in mind.
After podium finishes at the last ‘away’ round of the season in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of November it looked like van Gisbergen could even challenge FPR Falcon driver Will Davidson for fourth.
But a dnf (did not finish) in the first race at the penultimate series round at Winton a fortnight later saw team mate Tim Slade close the gap from sixth to van Gisbergen’s fifth to just 22 points.
The series final on a temporary circuit at the Olympic Village site in Homebush in western Sydney has provided some memorable moments for van Gisbergen over the years, no more – or less – so than when he was leading the second race in 2010 before running out of fuel with just two corners to go.
Last year he qualified sixth for the first race, set the fourth quickest time in the Top Ten Shootout the finished third in both races and looked set to end up third in the series points standings only for Mark Winterbottom to win a race and push him back to fourth.
This weekend’s format sees practice today (Friday) before the first qualifying session, Top Ten Shootout and first 47 lap race on Saturday and second qualifying sessions and second – this time – 67-lap race on Sunday.
