Former SBR Australian V8 Supercar driver Shane van Gisbergen has confirmed he will run the full 2013 BNT V8 SuperTourer season in Corkery Motorsport’s Ford Falcon V8ST.

Van Gisbergen, who raced in V8 Supercars last season before quitting the series to return home to New Zealand, will run his traditional race number – 97 – and will take on New Zealand’s top V8 drivers including Greg Murphy, John McIntyre, Craig Baird and Andy Booth, as well as the inaugural V8 SuperTourer champion Scott McLaughlin.

“I have kept an eye on the series in its first year and came along to a couple of the races last year, as well as testing the car a couple of times, and it’s a series which really excites me,” he said. “There’s a close field of competitive drivers in evenly matched cars and I’m looking forward to getting into the mix and hopefully getting some good results.”

Van Gisbergen spent many of his early racing years competing against current BNT V8 SuperTourer drivers such as Andrew Waite and Simon Evans in go-karts, and he is looking forward to getting out on the track against some of his old mates. “I’ll be taking no prisoners on the track though,” he added.

Mark Petch, Managing Director of V8 SuperTourers, said: “It’s fantastic to have yet another champion join the BNT V8 SuperTourer Series, as we move forward to official recognition as the country’s Premier Touring Car Championship. Shane is really going to put the cat among the pigeons, that’s for sure. The Corkery car is undergoing a full rebuild in preparation for Shane’s assault on the championship.”

The 2013 BNT V8 SuperTourer series blasts off at Hampton Downs over the weekend of February 16 and 17 with full coverage on TV3 and same day coverage in Australia.