Shane van Gisbergen is out of the lead for the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy but is not too worried, with 150 points on offer for today’s final race at the ITM 500 Auckland.
“Today’s points is triple what we got in the last three races, so we should be right,” van Gisbergen told v8supercars.com.au.
The Kiwi admits the penalty – investigated because of contact with Jason Bright in Race 11 yesterday – was the correct call.
“The penalty is deserved – I mucked up and bounced off the kerb into Jason. I thought it was his fault, but watching the video it was my fault, so that sucks, but we’ll try and make it up today.
“There’s just one car that was quicker, which was Mark (Winterbottom), so hopefully we can try and match him. We’ll see. We’ve made a few changes, so hopefully they’ll be better.”
Now, Frosty is leading the chase for the special prize.
Winterbottom – who is thrilled, having taken the Championship lead yesterday from Craig Lowndes as well – acknowledged the meaning behind the round win at the ITM 500 Auckland.
“Today’s the day. Effectively we race three races for the same points in today’s race. One position is a big gap, where yesterday one position was only two points, or something. If today was worth 50 points, you’d be really confident you could win it, but 150 points – everything needs to go your way.
“Cool to lead for the JR Trophy, for sure… it’s good to win the round, even though it’s not recognised (usually). If you just keep winning the rounds, that’s how you win the Championship.
“It’d be really cool to win it. Anyone that’s tied to a trophy is obviously a pretty special person, so he was a special guy and to win it would be amazing. But we’ve got to try and do the job first before we get ahead of it.
“But it was great last year to see it go to BJR, because I think that was the most fitting.”
The V8 Supercars will qualify at 1pm local time today.
