Shane Van Gisbergen
Australia’s ‘Golden West’ hosts the penultimate round of this year’s V8 Supercar championship series this weekend.
Stone Brothers Racing’s SP Tools-backed young gun Shane van Gisbergen looking to consolidate on his year-best fourth overall placing at the Island 300 meeting at Phillip Island a fortnight ago.
A storming fifth in the first race and equally impressive sixth in the second saw the fast-rising 20-year-old just miss out on a step on the podium but break into the top ten in the overall series points standings.
If he can do the same – or better – at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway this weekend he could well enter the series finale at Sydney’s new Homebush street circuit in early December vying for a place in the top six.
“The plan’s definitely to keep the momentum from Phillip Island going, ” van Gisbergen said as he headed to the airport this morning to fly from his Gold Coast base to Perth. “We had a great weekend there and if we can qualify well and get a good run in both races at Barbagallo there’s no reason why we can’t end up in the top five or six again.”
This weekend sees the return of Dunlop’s new soft compound ’sprint’ tyre for the first time since the Queensland House and Land.com 300 at Queensland Raceway in August, something which – again if qualifying goes to plan – could prove to be a plus for van Gisbergen.
“The way it’s tended to work, ” he explains, “is that if you qualify well you pretty much have to use the sprint tyre in the first race to maintain track position. If you don’t (qualify well), then obviously you can keep it until Sunday and use it to help you move through the pack in the second race.”
At just 2.42kms Barbagallo Raceway is one of the shortest tracks on the V8 Supercar championship calendar, last year the difference between fastest qualifier Mark Winterbottom and 20th quickest qualifier Marcus Marshall just over a second, meaning it will be more important than ever this weekend to qualify well.
Young gun van Gisbergen characterises the Barbagallo circuit as a low grip track which is hard on tyres and he welcomes ambitious local plans to both extend the existing circuit and develop the infrastructure around it.
The V8 Supercars will be on track tomorrow (Friday) for practice with qualifying and the Top Ten shootout on Saturday morning and a 42 lap/100km race complete with a compulsory stop for 50 litres of fuel in the afternoon.
Sunday brings a second qualifying session in the morning and an 84 lap/200km race with two stops in the afternoon.
Ends
Shane van Gisbergen Gallery
2009 V8 Supercar Series
Points after Rnd 12 of 14
1. Jamie Whincup 2905
2. Will Davison 2783
3. Garth Tander 2565
4. Craig Lowndes 2292
5. Mark Winterbottom 1964
6. Steven Johnson 1961
7. Rick Kelly 1925
8. Lee Holdsworth 1817
9. James Courtney 1790
10. Shane Van Gisbergen 1679
11. Russell Ingall 1676
12. Michael Caruso 1623
13. Paul Dumbrell 1585
14. Jason Richards 1579
15. Steven Richards 1504
16. Cameron McConville 1451
17. Todd Kelly 1423
18. Alex Davison 1423
19. Fabian Coulthard 1350
2009 V8 Supercar championship series
Rnd 1: 19 – 22 Mar 2009 Clipsal 500, Adelaide Clipsal 500 Adelaide Street Circuit
Rnd 2 (N/C): 26 – 29 Mar 2009 ING Australian Grand Prix Albert Park
Rnd 3: 17 – 19 Apr 2009 Hamilton 400 Hamilton City Street Race Ev
Rnd 4: 01 – 03 May 2009 Winton Motor Raceway Winton Motor Raceway
Rnd 5: 29 – 31 May 2009 Falken Tasmania Challenge Symmons Plains Raceway Ev
Rnd 6:19 – 21 Jun 2009 SKYCITY Triple Crown Hidden Valley Raceway
Rnd 7: 10 – 12 Jul 2009 Dunlop Townsville 400 Townsville 400
Rnd 8: 31 Jul – 02 Aug 2009 Norton 360 Sandown Challenge Sandown
Rnd 9: 21 – 23 Aug 2009 Queensland House and Land.com 300 Queensland Raceway
Rnd 10: 11 – 13 Sep 2009 L&H 500 Phillip Island Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
Rnd 11: 08 – 11 Oct 2009 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Mount Panorama, Bathurst
Rnd 12: 22 – 25 Oct 2009 V8 Supercar Challenge SuperGP
Rnd 13: 06-10 Nov 2009 The Island 300 Phillip Island
Rnd 14: 20 – 22 Nov 2009 Big Pond 300 Barbagallo Raceway Wanneroo
Rnd 15 (final) 04 – 06 Dec 2009 Sydney Telstra 500 Homebush, Sydney
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