Shane van Gisbergen was somewhat lost for words after taking a thrilling, last-ever victory at Pukekohe Park Raceway in Race 29 of the Repco Supercars Championship.
The 60-year-old circuit closes to motorsport activities in April 2023, meaning the category will never race there again.
Van Gisbergen was born in nearby Auckland, the capital city of the region in which Pukekohe is located, and can now count himself as the winner of the last two races which Supercars will hold at the track.
While his victory in Race 28, the first Sunday affair at the ITM Auckland SuperSprint, was relatively straightforward, the triumph in Race 29 will go down as one of the best which Pukekohe has ever seen.
It was a popular win for the partisan Kiwi crowd, while Pukekohe’s most prolific race winner, fellow New Zealander Greg Murphy, was on hand to conduct the post-race television interview.
“Unreal, it’s hard to put into words right now; like, it’s a dream,” said van Gisbergen.
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“I grew up watching Supercars here and fell in love with it and just wanted to be a Supercar driver, and to send this place out like that is a pretty amazing feeling.
“Been struggling a lot in the high-speed corners and we made a couple of tweaks there and the thing was a rocket and I just had the eyes on and charged on.
“But, doing the skid [post-race burnout] and having the crowd, it was it was pretty cool.”
The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver had come from eighth on the grid to emerge third after the compulsory pit stop cycle, before picking off countryman Andre Heimgartner with just over 10 laps to go.
Cameron Waters, however, provided far sterner resistance, even if he was battling with his Tickford Racing Mustang.
On Lap 35, when van Gisbergen got down his inside at the Hairpin, Waters fought back on exit and they ran side-by-side until contact at Turn 11 which nearly put Car #50 into the wall at high speed.
Four laps later, van Gisbergen went outside of Waters at the Hairpin and pulled off a textbook criss-cross, sealing the move as they turned back onto the main ‘straight’.
Having lifted when they made contact on Lap 35, #97 said he was not going to hold anything in reserve at the second time of asking.
“He just ran me off the road but maybe I wasn’t far enough up; I have to see it,” he admitted.
“But the second time, I wasn’t lifting, I was going on the fence.”
In winning the race, the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver also secured the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy for the highest-scoring driver at the Pukekohe weekend.
The title is named after the New Zealander who lost his life to cancer in 2011 and, having last driven in the Championship for Brad Jones Racing, is one who van Gisbergen’s current engineer, Andrew Edwards, worked with at his old team.
Edwards was able to share the podium with SVG, as they accepted the trophy.
“I could just see [the crowd], see the reaction and the people; like, it’s crazy,” remarked van Gisbergen.
“And then the next lap up to the Hairpin, it was pretty hard not to be distracted.
“I was telling Andrew to keep me concentrated there; I didn’t know how many laps there were to go.
“Andrew as well, he was pretty close with JR, worked closely with him, and how emotional he was for the JR trophy, it’s pretty cool to share that with him.”
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