Van Gisbergen completes historic Bathurst triple crown
Shane van Gisbergen has carried his winning form into production cars with victory in the Bathurst 6 Hour.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver combined with Shane Smollen and Rob Rubis to claim the win aboard a Class X BMW M4.
The win helped van Gisbergen become just the second driver, after Paul Morris, to win all three major endurance races at Mount Panorama.
The #97 leads after the start
Van Gisbergen claimed a maiden Bathurst 1000 victory alongside Garth Tander last October, four years after he won the Bathurst 12 Hour, a day after he also broke the lap record around the circuit.
The 2016 Supercars champion also defeated Tander and Supercars rival Chaz Mostert in the opening Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS on Saturday, before being pipped by Tander on Sunday morning.
The current Repco Supercars Championship leader claimed pole for Sunday’s six-hour race, but was forced to overcome a five-second time penalty in the final stint.
Five seconds were added to the #97 BMW’s race time following a restart breach, but van Gisbergen crossed the line nearly 13 seconds clear of the #1 Tim Leahey/Beric Lynton BMW M3.
Bathurst 12 Hour success for SVG in 2016
Another of van Gisbergen’s fellow Supercars drivers, Tim Slade, finished fourth overall alongside Bradley Carr, with their #8 BMW M3 missing out on victory after a number of issues in the race.
Critically, Slade had to pit from the lead with just over an hour to go after a tyre issue.
Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki, who claimed his maiden Supercars podium at Sandown last month, combined with Morris and George Miedecke to finish fifth outright, winning the A2 class.
Van Gisbergen won the 2020 Bathurst 1000 alongside Tander
Morris previously won the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2007 and 2010, before winning the Great Race alongside Mostert in 2014.
Mostert previously won the inaugural Bathurst 6 Hour alongside Nathan Morcom in 2016.
Sunday’s result marked another key success for van Gisbergen, who is continuing his recovery from a broken collarbone sustained early last month.
Just over two months ago, he took victory in the New Zealand Grand Prix at Hampton Downs.
"Just gotta thank the team; it’s awesome to be part of this team," van Gisbergen told the broadcast.
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"What an awesome day. It was a bit tricky in the beginning; we thought we were losing, but we just took the pain in the CPS early.
"It worked out great, and we knew we had to pull a five-second gap, I had to push like anything through the traffic.
"I’ll be sore tomorrow, but it’s well worth it."
Van Gisbergen will be looking to extend his Supercars winning streak to seven races at the Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint across April 17-18. Tickets are on sale now.
The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo.
