Van Gisbergen controversially split with Stone Brothers Racing at the end of 2012 and walked away from the sport briefly.
That came amid a change of team ownership, with Stone Brothers Racing becoming Erebus Motorsport courtesy of a buyout by Betty Klimenko.
The move away from the Ford Falcon FG to the Mercedes-Benz E63 didn’t sit well with van Gisbergen, and he quit the team under a cloud despite having a three-year contract.
“Personal reasons” were cited for van Gisbergen’s departure. At the time, the team claimed that the ownership change and manufacturer switch did not influence van Gisbergen’s decision.
Van Gisbergen stunned the Supercars paddock shortly after his Stone Brothers Racing split, signing with Holden team Tekno Autosports.
A lengthy legal stoush between SVG and SBR followed, which was ultimately settled out of court.
Speaking with US outlet The Athletic, van Gisbergen revealed his father, Robert ‘Cheese’ van Gisbergen, had been a key part in reviving his racing interest.
“In 2012, at the end of that year, I was out of racing. I wanted to stop, and I sort of did stop,” he explained.
“And then Dad really convinced me to keep going, and we changed teams.
“It was a big legal shit-fight, and I ended up joining another team.
“It was really bad publicly, but I was able to just knuckle down and focus on my driving.
“There was so much outside noise and legal shit going on, and then I went out and won the first race with a new team.
“So it was really cool to just go out there and push through that. It was messy, but great.”
Van Gisbergen won the opening weekend of the 2013 season on the streets of Adelaide with Triple Eight customer team Tekno and finished second to Jamie Whincup in the drivers’ championship the following year.
Off the back of his Tekno performances, van Gisbergen was promoted to Triple Eight Race Engineering for 2016 as part of an expanded three-car operation alongside Whincup and Craig Lowndes.
When asked why he decided to continue racing, van Gisbergen said: “Well, I love racing. It was just a bad time and a lot of shit going wrong.
“The team (Stone Brothers Racing) had sort of gone bad; they changed ownership, and … I didn’t want to drive there.
“They were changing manufacturers, doing it a completely different way that you knew wasn’t going to work — which I was right, they ran terrible.
“I just was like, ‘I’d rather not race than drive for this sort of thing’.”
The self-confessed introvert said he regretted not being more upfront about the reason for the split. Among the claims was that van Gisbergen was suffering from depression.
“I went about it the wrong way, because I was too shy publicly and let the team say all my words,” van Gisbergen explained.
“They made out that I had depression, and they made out like I was backstabbing them and stuff. I was open with all the people, but the way it got twisted publicly sounded bad for me.
“So I really wish I was more forthright publicly to let people know what was going on, especially fans and stuff, because they got the wrong side of the story. But it worked out well in the end.”
Van Gisbergen went on to enjoy a prosperous career in GM equipment, winning the Supercars title on three occasions and the Bathurst 1000 three times.
The last of those Bathurst 1000 wins came with Richie Stanaway in a Gen3-spec Chevrolet Camaro in 2023.
Van Gisbergen ditched Supercars for good off the back of a breakout NASCAR Cup Series debut with Trackhouse Racing during that year, winning on the streets of Chicago.
Reflecting on why he left Supercars, van Gisbergen said he was not enjoying the racing.
“I hated that car,” he said of the Gen3 Camaro.
“It was just a shitbox, boring car. You had to drive it 40 percent every time you drove, and if you tried to drive hard, you’d go backward or slower.
“It was just mind-numbing to drive. And the racing, everyone would be in a line just driving around at 40 percent, and I found it so boring.
“The generation before in Supercars (Gen2) were like 400 percent driving. They were awesome. So I don’t miss that car.”
Van Gisbergen will continue his Cup Series season with Trackhouse Racing at Sonoma on Monday, July 14.
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