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Shane van Gisbergen has revealed that he completed Race 22 of the Supercars Championship at The Bend on a borrowed steering rack after changing five this weekend.
It could yet be a bitter pill to swallow after van Gisbergen complained of steering regularly throughout the OTR SuperSprint weekend.
“You’ve got to thank the team,” he said, post-race.
“We’ve done five steering racks this weekend, we’ve run out, we got one off PremiAir [Racing] for that last race.
“But, they all just feel so different.
“It’s a real shame, it’s a worry for Sandown, that’s for sure, for everyone – we’re not the only ones that are having these problems – but I just struggled to drive it.
“But, Andrew [Edwards, Race Engineer] and my team, they’ve done a great job just trying to make the car as good as possible.
“We’ve still got points but Brodie’s super-fast; those guys have really nailed it.
“It’s still fun, but we’re just really battling with the car.”
Fortunately for van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering is understood to be staying on at The Bend tomorrow to test a new steering rack specification.
The planned change is thought to be the installation rather than the rack itself, after his Team Principal, Jamie Whincup, floated “something new” on that front in response to Speedcafe questioning during the previous event of the season.
Meanwhile, the New Zealander is now 137 points behind Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki in the drivers’ championship but remains second on the table, thanks in part due to misfortune for both fellow Triple Eight driver Broc Feeney and Erebus’s Will Brown.
“I can’t celebrate other people’s misfortunes,” remarked van Gisbergen.
“It’s a shame for Will, seeing his crash yesterday, but Brodie’s driving away from us.
“They’re fast, so we need to get better.”
