Van Gisbergen still not “comfortable” with car

Shane van Gisbergen says he is still not “comfortable” with his Red Bull Ampol Camaro after a frustrating practice and a fourth in qualifying at the Vailo Adelaide 500.

The man who is vying for a third straight championship had bailed out of Car #97 with minutes remaining in Practice 2 due to what Team Manager Mark Dutton confirmed as a steering rack problem.

In the session which followed, he would earn passage to tomorrow’s Top 10 Shootout, although it is championship leader Brodie Kostecki who is on provisional pole position.

“Not the best day for me, unfortunately,” lamented van Gisbergen.

“I still don’t feel comfortable in the car, but we’ve made tomorrow’s shootout so that’s a box we needed to tick.

“Looking at the positives, out of the car, everyone has been fantastic; the team, the fans, my family and friends – it’s been amazing to have so much support from everyone.

“Our team in the garage is working super hard so hopefully we can reward them over the next couple of days.

“We’ll review everything tonight, work hard with the crew and focus on the shootout and the race tomorrow.”

If van Gisbergen’s day was frustrating, team-mate Broc Feeney’s was arguably even more so.

He missed the majority of Practice 2 due to an engine problem and then fell less than 0.05s short of the top 10 in Qualifying for Race 27 after a late kerb hop.

“We were a little bit surprised rolling into the track this morning with the weather being dry, and we got a few laps in the first session this afternoon but the engine stopped, unfortunately,” recounted Feeney.

“The boys did a mega job to get the other engine in the car and get it out with no problems.

“I’m feeling pretty disappointed to miss out on the shootout again. The last three shootouts, I’ve missed out by a couple of hundredths, so I’m pretty bummed.

“I’m disappointed to miss out by such a small margin, but I just need to do better because I hate being on the wrong side of the shootout.

“Now we can focus on the race car and hopefully we can do a long run during tomorrow’s practice and figure out what the car is going to be like.

“Last year’s first race was pretty wild, so I think anything can happen.”

Practice 3 starts tomorrow at 09:45 local time/10:15 AEDT.