Van Gisbergen reveals surprise next challenge

1 year ago 108

There's nary slowing down for Shane van Gisbergen.

Fresh disconnected winning his 3rd Supercars title, the Kiwi has confirmed he'll caput location conscionable a fewer days aft the season-ending Adelaide 500 to marque his Sprintcar debut astatine Baypark Speedway.

The motorsport all-rounder hasn't shied distant from dabbling successful antithetic forms of motorsport.

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This twelvemonth helium contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans successful a GTE introduction and besides made his FIA World Rally Championship debut astatine his location event, Rally New Zealand, where helium claimed a people podium successful WRC2.

Alongside his Supercars commitments, van Gisbergen besides contested prime rounds of GT World Challenge Australia connected the SpeedSeries enactment card.

Now, the 33-year-old has a slew of speedway races connected his radar, starting connected Saturday successful Tauranga astatine the North Island Sprintcar Championship meeting.

"They're implicit beasts," van Gisbergen told V8 Sleuth.

"Obviously you're connected ungraded and you're successful an open-wheeler that's 500kg with large aerodynamics and 900bhp.

"You beryllium successful them similar you're successful a bus. It's the astir overseas feeling but you get the biggest rush.

"The races past for 5 minutes but truthful overmuch tin happen. It's brainsick but I've ever been a instrumentality of it, truthful it'll beryllium a bully challenge.

"I expect I'll get my arse kicked but hopefully aft 5 oregon six races I tin commencement going fractional ok."

It's not the archetypal clip van Gisbergen has gone ungraded racing.

He made a Midget cameo successful 2020 but was stopped abbreviated of a afloat play aft his erstwhile squad brag Roland Dane saw van Gisbergen caught successful the melee of a clang successful his archetypal event.

"I did 1 Midget contention and past got the telephone to stop," van Gisbergen explained.

"I got my arse kicked and past I hated not having the accidental to get amended the adjacent week and improve. It's stuck with maine for a agelong time.

"I got the telephone from the guys I raced the Midget for, Brian Theobald and Shaun Insley, to inquire if I wanted to thrust their Sprintcar.

"I was amazed to get different call, and Jamie (Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering boss) said 'yes'."

The two-time Bathurst 1000 victor isn't the archetypal from Supercars onshore to effort Sprintcar racing.

Tickford Racing's Cameron Waters has spent plentifulness of clip racing connected the ungraded ovals portion Brodie Kostecki of Erebus Motorsport has besides dipped his toes in.

Van Gisbergen has immoderate anterior Sprintcar experience, having sampled 1 successful 2015, though it volition beryllium his archetypal sensation of wheel-to-wheel racing.

Van Gisbergen said he's readying to bash arsenic overmuch racing arsenic his squad allows him to earlier helium has to caput backmost crossed the Tasman for pre-season Supercars testing.

The Kiwi volition transportation his iconic No.97 crossed the summertime of speedway.

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