V8SC: Van Gisbergen's U-turn, old seat still 'vacant'

Van Gisbergen has joined Jonathon Webb’s Tekno Autosports team and the pair will race two new Triple Eight Race Engineering-built Holden Commodore VFs backed by the VIP Petfoods of Tony Quinn, a GT and tarmac racer and now also the owner of the Darrell Lea sweets business.

So not only is Van Gisbergen not leaving the series, he’s not having any longer break than the other drivers. He won’t even have missed a race when he competes at Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 on the first weekend of March.

Rather than sit on the sidelines, Van Gisbergen will be busier than ever, having already committed to drive the entire New Zealand V8 SuperTourer series – in a Ford Falcon!

He also has expressed interest in doing the NZ Rally Championship and is keen on drifting as well.

Van Gisbergen’s move to Tekno has been portrayed as a decision taken after six weeks of rest and recreation at home in NZ.

Kobe Webb, chief executive of Tekno Autosports and wife of Jonathon, said “it was only a week or so ago that Shane began to consider his return to V8s”.

However, sponsor Quinn has revealed in NZ this week that “we started talking about it from the later half of October last year”.

That was weeks before Van Gisbergen’s announcement leading into the Sydney 500 at the start of December that he was quitting Stone Brothers Racing as it transitioned from a Ford team to the Erebus Motorsport-owned outfit that will field three AMG Mercedes-Benz E63s in this year’s V8 Supercar Championship.

Readers might recall that we mentioned here on January 4 a “whisper… that… young Kiwi star Shane Van Gisbergen may not be lost to the championship after all. We hear that ‘The Giz’ and Jonathon Webb’s Tekno Autosports are exploring the possibility of combining for him to drive a Triple Eight-built Holden”.

Quinn has told the NZ Herald newspaper that the talks “from the later half of October” were “not so much with Shane but more with Holden Motorsport”.

Luring Van Gisbergen means Holden will have all three Kiwis in this season’s field, which will give it a marketing and promotional edge over Ford, Nissan and the customer Merc squad when the V8 Supercars go to NZ in mid-April for the return of V8 Supercar racing to the Pukekohe circuit near Auckland.

The other Kiwis in the series this year will be Fabian Coulthard with Brad Jones Racing and rookie Scott McLaughlin with Garry Rogers Motorsport.

While Van Gisbergen’s return, without ever having really left, is big news within the sport, the vacancy he left at Erebus/Stones could be a plum ride – if HWA, the company that effectively is the sedan racing arm of Mercedes, produces a good 5-litre engine (as would be expected) and it marries well with the generic V8 Supercar ‘Car of the Future’ chassis under the E63 bodywork.

It would not have surprised if a top European driver had filled the seat Van Gisbergen left empty, but word is that it will be Chaz Mostert, the V8 Supercar development series driver who Ford Performance Racing does not have a place for and may “lend” out to gain “main game” experience.

Another vacancy is at Dick Johnson Racing, expected to be filled by Karl Reindler, and there are two at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, with Scott Pye – a youngster with the backing of Triple Eight boss Roland Dane – and Dean Fiore earmarked for them.

Joining Rick and Todd Kelly in the four Nissan Altimas, although it hasn’t been formally announced yet, will be Michael Caruso and James Moffat.

So the field is pretty much set, although there are whispers that there may yet be further developments at DJR – the longest-running team in Australian touring car racing but again battling to find sponsorship.

Van Gisbergen has said that at Stone Brothers, which he called “a factory team” although it was more of a factory-supported team (with FPR the factory team), he had felt “a lot of pressure”.

“Towards the end of last year I started to lose motivation,” he said. “The environment wasn’t right and I was struggling to remember why I was racing – it wasn’t a great mindset to be in, so I made the decision to take a break.

“I spent six weeks back home and was able to recharge my batteries. I had a good hard think about my career and considered my options.?

“As part of that, I decided that if I was going to return, I needed a fresh challenge in a new environment, and this is exactly the opportunity I was looking for.?

“Tekno Autosports is one of the sport’s up-and-coming teams, and Jonathon and Kobe Webb have built a really strong, tight-knit team.

“Tekno has great staff, and the equipment and resources that you need to win races.? “I was never retired - retirement is final, and that was never my consideration.

“I said I was leaving the sport for a bit. “I’ve considered my options and this is the next chapter in my career.”?

Now 23, Van Gisbergen burst on to the V8 Supercar scene at 18 – with the old Team Kiwi in mid-2007.

His breakthrough win with Stones came at NZ street circuit Hamilton in 2011. He won another race that year in Darwin and finished fourth in the championship.

Last year all the races were won by Triple Eight’s Team Vodafone and FPR. Van Gisbergen finished sixth in the championship, behind Triple Eight’s Jamie Whincup and  Craig Lowndes,  FPR’s Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison and fifth-placed Stones driver Tim Slade.

Webb finished 12th in a Commodore that ran with little sponsorship.

The friendship between Webb and Van Gisbergen is said by Kobe Webb to have developed after the pair drove together – for Stones - at Bathurst in 2008, a race that ended in the wall.

2013 V8 Supercar Championship line-up

Ford Performance Racing
Cars: Ford Falcon FG
Drivers: Mark Winterbottom, Will Davison

Holden Racing Team
Cars: Holden Commodore VF
Drivers: Garth Tander, James Courtney

Tekno Autosports
Cars: Holden Commodore VF
Drivers: Jonathon Webb, Shane Van Gisbergen (NZ)

Nissan Motorsport (previously Kelly Brothers)
Cars: Nissan Altima L33
Drivers: Rick Kelly, Todd Kelly, Michael Caruso (TBC), James Moffat (TBC)

Rod Nash Racing
Car: Ford Falcon FG
Driver: David Reynolds

Charlie Schwerkolt Racing
Car: Ford Falcon FG
Driver: Alex Davison

2013 V8 Supercars calendar