Gen3 critic Shane van Gisbergen declined to comment on Ford’s newfound form at the Gold Coast 500 as he continued his late challenge to retain his Supercars crown.
In a late charge, van Gisbergen rounded up all the pace-setting Mustangs except that of pole winner Cam Waters, who just held on for his first on-the-track victory of the year in Saturday’s opening 250 km leg.
Asked by Speedcafe if the aero updates for the Fords made them more difficult to pass, SVG replied: “No comment”.
Pressed on his unusual reluctance to voice his opinion on the parity debate, he added: “I don’t have anything to say in a positive light.”
While he was clearly unimpressed with the parity aero concessions granted to the Mustangs following the Chevrolet Camaro rout at the Bathurst 1000, the fact remains that van Gisbergen was in contention throughout.
He qualified third in the Top 10 Shootout and recovered from falling to fifth at the start to come within a couple of tenths of a second of beating Waters.
SVG admits that a front row start and performing better in the early stages will be the key to success in Sunday’s 250 km race.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “Just qualify a little bit better and get a good start. Being back to fifth at the start probably put me back a bit, but we weren’t very fast at the start. I really had nothing.
“I lost a lot and Davey [Reynolds] was really fast. So, yeah, just need to be better early in the race when the car’s full [of fuel] and, hopefully, get some good points again.”
As championship leader Brodie Kostecki ‘slumped’ to fifth after a kerb hop penalty in the Shootout relegated him to 10th starting position, van Gisbergen closed the title gap to 104 points – a gain of 27.
Asked by Speedcafe if, with three races to go, the reduced difference had become “tantalising” for his last-gasp title bid, the NASCAR bound defending Supercars champion was unmoved.
“No,” SVG declared. “I have to do the best I can in every race, but I think he [Kostecki] has to [only] finish sixth in every race or something [to win the championship].
“So he needs to make an error, which I’m not going to wish for, and I just have to focus on doing my best.”
The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 continues with the final 250 km leg, scheduled to start at 14:15 local time.
