Albert Park repair helped seal new contract for SVG

Shane van Gisbergen says the Triple Eight crew’s efforts to repair his crashed car at Albert Park helped seal a new contract with the team.

The three-time champion has signed a new, multi-year deal to drive for Red Bull Ampol Racing in the Repco Supercars Championship, which will take his tenure with the squad to at least a decade.

The announcement comes off the back of the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint where van Gisbergen won Race 3 of the season on the Thursday afternoon at Albert Park.

It had seemed an unlikely outcome hours earlier when he crashed in the opening session of the weekend, an incident which kept the #97 Chevrolet Camaro sidelined from Practice 2 also.

With a rapid-fire format and multiple tyre compounds, van Gisbergen was thoroughly on the back foot when he rolled out for qualifying, but he managed to earn a Row 2 start for one race and pole position for another, then converted the former into a victory.

“Extending with Red Bull Ampol Racing was a no-brainer for me,” said the 33-year-old.

“It’s certainly exciting to continue with the best team in pit lane and I’m stoked to be able to stay.

“I’ve never been happier at this team. The coolest moment for me, and one that really solidified my decision, was the team repairing my car after I had that shunt at the Australian Grand Prix – everyone stuck in to help each other to get #97 fixed.

“Even though we missed the next practice session, to come out and put the car on pole in qualifying was amazing.

“Seeing how much that meant to everyone was a special moment, and to then win that race was unreal.

“It’s such a fantastic team environment at the moment, and we have a great crew that I love working with.”

While it was highly improbable that van Gisbergen would go anywhere else in the Supercars pit lane, there had been a question mark about his future in the category.

The New Zealander said last October that he wanted to see how the new-for-2023 Gen3 cars performed before recommitting to Supercars, and maintained a public silence on technical matters during pre-season.

However, SVG is on the record as saying he has “always been Supercars” and has had its best interests at heart, even if his critique of aspects of Gen3 has apparently not always been well-received within the senior ranks of Supercars.

He was positive about what lays ahead in comments he made as part of the announcement of his contract renewal with Triple Eight, which is the Chevrolet homologation team.

“The best thing about our sport is that it’s always evolving,” added van Gisbergen.

“All these challenges we’ve had with the new cars will hopefully work themselves out as we keep updating the cars over the next few events – there’s always something to learn and always things to keep getting better at.

“It’s those challenges that keep it fresh, and working with this team to understand those challenges and make the cars better is what I really enjoy.

“I want to thank the team, our partners and our fans for their support. Triple Eight is a cool place to be a part of and I’m looking forward to the future.”