Red Bull Racing’s Jamie Whincup may have won this afternoon’s first 250km race of the season finale weekend in Sydney, but it was his teammate, Shane van Gisbergen, who finished third, that took all the glory.
All the Kiwi driver needed to do was finish fifth or higher and he would have secured his maiden Supercar title, so third place was more than enough to get the job done.
This result means that van Gisbergen becomes the first Kiwi driver to lay claim to the drivers crown since Jim Richards twenty five years ago.
Unfortunately it wasn’t a clean cut race for the new champ after an early altercation with the man giving him the number one, Mark Winterbottom, saw him handed a drive through penalty by the stewards.
“Pretty amazing feeling – sorry to Mark, I went up the inside and didn’t commit,” van Gisbergen said. “It was good racing, a big battle with James and Scotty (McLaughlin) at the end. What an amazing year, thanks to all our sponsors … pretty awesome day. I just wanted to do a burnout but we’ll do that tomorrow.”
