Van Gisbergen chassis swap for Sydney
Shane van Gisbergen has been shifted to a different chassis for this weekend’s Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.
The reigning Supercars champion arrives in Sydney just 72 points behind championship leader, Erebus Motorsport's Will Brown.
Van Gisbergen has been plagued by handling issues in recent rounds aboard his regular chassis, 888A-060.
The Kiwi has been moved to Triple Eight Race Engineering’s wildcard chassis, 888A-063, for this weekend's Sydney round.
The wildcard chassis has been tested twice and raced once, by Zane Goddard in Supercheap Auto colours in Darwin.
Van Gisbergen was permitted to turn laps in 888A-063 during Goddard and Craig Lowndes’s recent test day at Queensland Raceway.
The 34-year-old is winless since Race 7 in Perth in April, and suffered his first DNF in Tasmania in Race 11 after an early-race crash.
Since the crash, van Gisbergen has claimed one podium in six starts, but has finished no lower than sixth.
The team has managed to engineer van Gisbergen out of trouble after he was 17th and 25th in Darwin practice, and third and fourth in Townsville practice.
Most recently, van Gisbergen slumped to 25th in Townsville qualifying, and fought back to fifth, only to battle through ongoing issues.
Speaking after Townsville, van Gisbergen paid tribute to his crew as they tried to resolve the issues.
“The biggest credit for this weekend goes to our mechanics,” van Gisbergen said.
"They busted their asses all weekend to try and make the car go better, but we keep finding so many problems.
"The steering had a mind of its own, my throttle was jamming and cutting out, and my brakes weren’t working.
"At every brake zone, I was hoping my throttle was going to return and had my foot hovering over the clutch in case that happened."
Chassis 888A-060 has made the trip to Sydney, and is set to be used in Monday's ride day.
Including the wildcard, Triple Eight will run three cars at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.
Van Gisbergen will share the #97 with Richie Stanaway, with Broc Feeney partnered by Jamie Whincup in the sister #88 Camaro.
Supercars will hit the track in Sydney on Saturday for Practice 1 at 12:15pm local time/AEST.
