Guiding Shane Van Gisbergen to a maiden Supercars crown represents the culmination of 10 years of hard graft according to engineer Grant McPherson.
McPherson has played an instrumental role in helping the Kiwi to the championship in a partnership which only began this year following Van Gisbergen’s arrival from Tekno Autosports.
The experienced Supercars engineer is regarded as one of the best in the paddock, but up until last weekend his 10 years in the category had failed to deliver a championship.
During an eight-year period at FPR/Prodrive he has engineered an array of star drivers including Will Davison (2012-2013) and Mark Winterbottom (2014) before moving to Triple Eight to engineer Craig Lowndes in 2015.
Overwhelmed by the achievement McPherson has paid tribute to Van Gisbergen and the entire crew on the #97 Holden for helping him achieve his career goal.
“I’ve been trying for so long and so has Shane and all the boys in this crew,” McPherson told Speedcafe.com.
“We have been flogging our guts out for years in this sport and to finally get there is very cool.
“This is the biggest prize in our sport and you have to invest so much time and effort in trying to do it.
“You make all the sacrifices to be away from your family and friends. All of that stuff adds up with 10 years of trying.
“I have worked with four of the best drivers in our sport. I’m not going to try and separate them… but Shane is brilliant.”
McPherson admitted there were some nervous moments on the pit wall during Saturday’s race especially after Van Gisbergen was issued with a drive-through penalty for contact with Mark Winterbottom.
“It was nerve wracking especially with so much on the line,” he added.
“It was so much more than just a race, it was about a whole year.
“He probably started off a bit too conservative and we were just trying to survive.
“We got boxed around a bit by guys with nothing to lose.
“He made a bit of a meal with the move on Mark and didn’t drive his normal way and make the move stick.
“It was unfortunate to ruin someone else’s race and rightly so we got a drive-through which we had to work really hard to recover from.”
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