Shane van Gisbergen believes incoming Triple Eight enduro driver Scott Pye is good enough to still be a full-time Supercars Championship driver.
After four years of full-time competition with Team 18, Pye will steer one of the two Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaros in next year’s Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.
The move takes the South Australian back to the team which gave him his Supercars debut, at Dunlop Super2 Series level, back in 2012.
In the 11 years since, he has virtually been a fixture on the grid in the top tier, a run which will come to an end with this weekend’s Vailo Adelaide 500.
Van Gisbergen, a friend of Pye’s, hopes it will only be a brief spell as an enduro co-driver.
“I think it’s pretty good,” the three-time Supercars champion told Speedcafe of Triple Eight’s decision to sign Pye.
“I’d rather see him obviously full-time – I think he’s good enough to be full-time – but he’ll be perfect at this team.
“Obviously, they gave him a good opportunity and rides a few years ago, so I’m excited to see how he goes.
“Hopefully he can get back in, in the next year or two, but I think he’ll be really good here.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering has enough drivers on its books now to fill its Red Bull Ampol Camaros for the 2024 enduros, given Team Principal Jamie Whincup, who partnered Broc Feeney to victory in this year’s Sandown 500, can be deployed.
As yet, though, it has not confirmed its driver pairings, nor even if Whincup will get behind the wheel next year.
The likelihood is that he will, though, given the busy schedule which awaits NASCAR-bound van Gisbergen in 2024.
The New Zealander is expecting to contest around 20 races as part of a varied programme put together by Trackhouse Racing, although details are yet to be confirmed.
Whincup is willing to step aside if van Gisbergen is available for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, but the NASCAR calendar means that scenario is improbable.
The Cup Series and Xfinity Series fields will both take to the Charlotte ‘roval’ on the weekend of Sunday, October 13, when the Great Race will be taking place, and it would hardly be surprising to see van Gisbergen in action on the road courses in either or both of those competitions.
Even if he is not racing in Charlotte that weekend, the busy nature of a NASCAR season creates a challenge in terms of returning to Australia for testing ahead of the enduros.
The driver with whom van Gisbergen shared victory in this year’s Bathurst 1000, Richie Stanaway, has used his time with Triple Eight as a springboard back into full-time competition with Grove Racing next year.
SVG revealed after that win that he wished Stanaway had been given the nod as his own replacement at Triple Eight, a drive which had already gone Will Brown’s way.
Nevertheless, Whincup has backed Brown, who has his last start with Erebus Motorsport next weekend at the Vailo Adelaide 500.
Practice in the South Australian capital starts on Thursday.
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