Shane van Gisbergen will race in a new chassis this weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park after battling handling dramas at the last two Supercars events.
The Red Bull Ampol Race Engineering driver was plagued by issues through the Hidden Valley weekend, with the handling niggles in the #97 Camaro rearing their head again last time out at the NTI Townsville 500.
Now Triple Eight Race Engineering has opted to swap him out of 888A-060 and into 888A-063, reports Supercars’ official website.
888A-063 is the Camaro which has been used for the Supercheap Auto wildcard campaign, with Zane Goddard already racing it at Hidden Valley.
Van Gisbergen is in a relative drought, winless since Race 7 of the season at Wanneroo Raceway, but is still within touching distance of the championship lead at 72 points in arrears of Will Brown.
The three-time Supercars champion finished fifth in the most recent race of the year, despite battling not only handling issues but also a sticky throttle and braking dramas.
He would have finished fourth if not for the instruction to cede that spot to team-mate Broc Feeney given the Banyo-based outfit had orchestrated a position swap in a bid to run down Andre Heimgartner for the final podium place, something which caused tension in the Triple Eight camp.
Speaking after that race, van Gisbergen remarked, “The biggest credit for this weekend goes to our mechanics.
“They busted their arses all weekend to try and make the car go better, but we keep finding so many problems.
“The steering had a mind of its own, my throttle was jamming and cutting out, and my brakes weren’t working.
“At every brake zone, I was hoping my throttle was going to return and had my foot hovering over the clutch in case that happened.”
Feeney is third in the championship and van Gisbergen fourth ahead of this weekend’s Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight, with the Repco Supercars Championship field on-track tomorrow from 12:15 local time/AEST.
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