SVG 'remembered how to drive' with new chassis

Shane van Gisbergen says he “remembered how to drive” aboard the Triple Eight wildcard chassis in Sydney following an 11-race winless run.

Van Gisbergen recently broke through at the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight to win his first race since April, and fourth of 2023.

Prior to the victory, the New Zealander had been subject to his fourth longest winless run since he joined Triple Eight in 2016.

On just three occasions — 19 races between 2019 and 2020, 15 races in 2018, and 12 races in 2017 — had van Gisbergen gone longer without a win.

He put it to bed with an emphatic performance in Race 19, despite losing the lead to countryman Andre Heimgartner off the line.

Van Gisbergen was swapped out of regular chassis 888A-060 ahead of Sydney into Triple Eight’s wildcard chassis, 888A-063.

The 34-year-old briefly got behind the wheel of 888A-063 at a wildcard test day, and the new car helped van Gisbergen back into form in Sydney.

It came after van Gisbergen was plagued by handling issues in Darwin and Townsville, although the team claimed they were unrelated to his Tasmania crash.

“I’ve got to thank the guys, they’ve done so much work trying to understand what the problem I’ve been having is,” van Gisbergen said after Race 19.

“I drove out at the wildcard test day and the car was completely different.

"We knew there was something to find, we think we’ve found it in the other car.

“It’s been a difficult couple of months, but I remembered how to drive this weekend, it feels like. It’s been difficult.”

Van Gisbergen hadn't won since April

The 2023 season has been a marked different to last year, where after 19 races, van Gisbergen already had 10 wins to his name.

However, despite an off-beat first seven rounds of the season, van Gisbergen is still only 54 points behind series leader, Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki, with 1515 points left to win.

"I knew since Darwin that something’s not right with the car,” he added.

“We changed so much stuff between every session, my guys never gave up on it, they were always changing something.”

Van Gisbergen and Kostecki are Stateside ahead of their NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis.

The three-time Supercars champion will also make his NASCAR oval debut at the nearby Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the OTR SuperSprint on August 18-20. Tickets are on sale now.