Van Gisbergen on course for biggest title-winning margin

More history could fall Shane van Gisbergen’s way at the VALO Adelaide 500.

Van Gisbergen will be officially crowned champion at the season finale next month.

The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver clinched the crown on the Gold Coast streets last weekend.

Van Gisbergen’s title was built off the back of a record 21 wins and 27 podiums.

He almost has twice as many podiums as his closest rival Cam Waters, who he leads by 660 points.

The biggest title-winning margin in Supercars history came 20 years ago, when Mark Skaife won his fifth and final title.

Skaife was in a wave of success in the early 2000s with the Holden Racing Team.

The Supercars Hall of Famer and broadcaster belted the field 20 years ago, and won the title by 658 points.

Skaife’s season, with Greg Murphy second overall, featured seven round wins, including the first five in succession.

That winning season also included an Adelaide 500 win.

A year earlier, Skaife won the title — this time over Russell Ingall — by 603 points.

Skaife also won the Bathurst 1000 in both seasons, and van Gisbergen could join him in rare air.

Should van Gisbergen maintain or even grow his lead, he will have pieced together the biggest points-winning margin ever.

Three years ago, Scott McLaughlin won the title by 562 points — but that margin could have been even higher.

McLaughlin didn’t even start the Sunday Gold Coast race after he crashed in qualifying. Van Gisbergen won the race, and finished second overall.

In 2014, Jamie Whincup beat van Gisbergen to the title by a whopping 583 points.

Since the current points system was adopted in 2008, only five times has a driver won a title by 300 or more points.

Van Gisbergen’s Gold Coast clincher ensured the title was decided with a round to spare for a fourth season in a row.

Biggest title-winning margin

658 points: Mark Skaife over Greg Murphy in 2002
603 points: Mark Skaife over Russell Ingall in 2001
583 points: Jamie Whincup over Shane van Gisbergen in 2014
562 points: Scott McLaughlin over Shane van Gisbergen in 2019
451 points: Scott McLaughlin over Cameron Waters in 2020
339 points: Jamie Whincup over Craig Lowndes in 2012
305 points: Jamie Whincup over Will Davison in 2009
253 points: Jamie Whincup over Mark Winterbottom in 2008
238 points: Mark Winterbottom over Craig Lowndes in 2015
238 points: Marcos Ambrose over Russell Ingall in 2004