MOTORSPORT: Van Gisbergen secures Supercars title
Only a Bathurst disqualification can now deny SvG his second Supercars championshipRain stopped play but not the celebrations as Shane van Gisbergen began a second reign as Repco Supercars Champion at Sydney Motorsport Park.
A brilliant win on a slick track on Saturday night was enough to confirm SvG as provisional champion when a day of torrential rain prevented any racing in the planned 250km final on Sunday afternoon.
The damp decider gave the 2016 champion a 349-point margin over Jamie Whincup with just 300 points available from the Repco Bathurst 1000 on December 5.
Barring a disqualification at Mount Panorama, the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team has completed a whitewash of this year’s Supercars competition with victory in the teams’ championship as well as a 1-2 result in the drivers’ series.
“It’s been an awesome year. Obviously some challenges, ups and downs. We came here with a plan and pretty much executed every race,” said van Gisbergen.
He was the dominant force throughout season 2021, despite breaking his collarbone early in the championship, often looking like a great white shark as he hunted for wins in a field that looked more like prey than rivals.
“It was SvG’s championship from a while ago and it was only a question of time,” said Whincup, who retires at the end of the year to become team manager at The Bulls.
Young gun Anton De Pasquale led the Ford Mustang teams on the fourth weekend of back-to-back racing at the Sydney circuit, bagging another pole position for Shell V-Power Racing.
But it was Cam Waters who bagged the best result with third on Saturday night in his Monster Mustang.
His result ended a bleak month for the Tickford team, which struggled to extract anything on repeated go-rounds at its bogey track.
“Super excited and pumped to get the podium. The team have been down in the dumps and they needed a pick-me-up,” he said.
With the extraordinary end to the Supercars sprint season now done, the focus is shifting quickly to the big one at Bathurst in a fortnight.
Van Gisbergen is promising a belter with nothing at stake, Whincup wants to go out as a winner, and the rest of the field is looking for something special at the end of the dislocated COVID-hit series.
“We’re just going there purely for the race win with both cars. It will probably be more intensive, but more enjoyable,” he said.
Said Whincup: “I’ll go and enjoy Bathurst. We don’t have to worry about the championship or anything.”
Waters also added: “We are a lot more confident and excited for Bathurst. Our car works better (there). It started to make sense again.
Sydney SuperNight Results
Race 1 – 64 laps
- Shane van Gisbergen, Commodore
- Jamie Whincup, Commodore
- Cam Waters, Mustang
- Anton De Pasquale, Mustang
- Chaz Mostert, Commodore
- Scott Pye, Commodore
- Will Brown, Commodore
- Brodie Kostecki, Commodore
- Will Davison, Commodore
- Nick Percat, Commodore
Race 2 – 64 laps
- No result
2021 Repco Supercars Championship standings:
- Van Gisbergen – 2828
- Whincup – 2479
- Davison – 2233
- Mostert – 2194
- Waters – 2093
- De Pasquale – 2075
- Percat – 1804
- Brown – 1749
- Winterbottom – 1611
- Kostecki – 1530
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