Shane van Gisbergen will head into 2017 with no doubts over the level of respect he has earned among his rivals after ending the Supercars season with a surprise final accolade.
Before officially receiving the championship trophy at Monday night’s Supercars gala, the 27-year-old was announced as the winner of the ‘Driver’s Driver’ award.
Voted on anonymously by each of the 26 full-time Supercars drivers, the award was inaugurated last year – where it was taken out by Team 18’s Lee Holdsworth – to recognise an individual for outstanding conduct.
The award comes a month after a newspaper article on the eve of Van Gisbergen’s home race Pukekohe claimed that rivals had “had enough” of the Kiwi’s aggressive driving style and that some were planning revenge to disturb his title push.
The article was followed by a local television report in which David Reynolds, whose 2015 championship chances evaporated in a clash with Van Gisbergen, said “there’s not a lot of respect out there for him with the way he goes about his business”.
Van Gisbergen brushed off the controversy to win the Jason Richards Trophy at Pukekohe as part of his stunning Supercars season that also yielded the championship and the Pirtek Enduro Cup.
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“It’s an amazing award,” said Van Gisbergen upon accepting the Driver’s Driver honour at the Supercars gala.
“To have the respect of everyone like this is an amazing feeling.
“To all the other drivers, I race a lot overseas and have experienced some pretty cool classes the last few years.
“It’s very competitive and intense overseas but you come back here and it’s the highest quality of racing.
“A few guys up the back in our class get a hard time but man, they’re so close to us, qualifying within half a second.
“Everyone in our class is a great driver.”
When asked to nominate the highlight of his season, Van Gisbergen found it hard to pick a single moment.
“I’ve just had some really, really good battles,” he said.
“Will (Davison) at Bathurst, JC (James Courtney) and Scotty (McLaughlin) the other day at Homebush … I probably shouldn’t have been involved in that (while trying to secure the championship) but I couldn’t help myself, it was so much fun.”
Upon accepting the championship trophy on stage, Van Gisbergen thanked his Triple Eight team, his parents, and the Stone and Webb families that helped him reach the top in Supercars.
He also made special reference to Brit Steve Hallam who worked alongside Van Gisbergen at Tekno and helped introduce him to McLaren’s GT program.
Van Gisbergen won the Bathurst 12 Hour and Blancpain Endurance Series with McLaren earlier in the year and will again be in action with them at the Sepang 12 Hour this weekend.
“He played an enormous part in my growth the last few years and really taught me a lot about the approach of racing,” said Van Gisbergen of Hallam, who left Tekno to take a job with Toyota Racing Developments in the United States earlier this year.
“His experience was huge and I have a lot to thank Steve for.”
Van Gisbergen also directly addressed Triple Eight boss Roland Dane, who expanded his team to accomodate the Kiwi and subsequently helped him reach his potential.
“You said you’d never go to three cars but it’s been an amazing ride this year,” said Van Gisbergen to Dane.
“Learning how a team works properly and being a part of the team… we grew together and from mid-year on we really moved forward as a team.
“The way you lead everyone and gel everyone together is really impressive and to be a part of that is very special, thank you.”
Promising that he’ll defend his title rather than “do a Rosberg mic drop and leave’, a relaxed Van Gisbergen signed off by affirming that he won’t take the #1 plate into 2017.
“To the ’#97 for life boys’… I’m sorry but we’re keeping the number,” he said looking towards his crew.
The last time the #1 was absent was 1997 when defending champion Craig Lowndes headed to Europe for a season of Formula 3000.
No driver has, however, elected against running #1 as the defending champion since Dick Johnson in 1990.
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