SVG to stay in wildcard car amid T8 investigation

Shane van Gisbergen will remain in Triple Eight’s wildcard chassis for the OTR SuperSprint amid ongoing investigations, the team has confirmed.

Van Gisbergen reverted to chassis 888A-063 — the third Camaro built by the team for the 2023 enduros — for the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.

The reigning champion was straight on the pace, winning from pole on Sunday after sweeping Saturday practice and challenging for the podium.

Speaking afterwards, van Gisbergen quipped he "remembered how to drive" in the new chassis, having toiled aboard his original car.

The swap came after van Gisbergen was undone by handling issues at the Darwin and Townsville events aboard chassis 888A-060, which he debuted in Newcastle.

Triple Eight ran both cars, as well as Broc Feeney’s car, at the post-Sydney ride day, and handling differences were uncovered between all three cars.

After Sydney, Red Bull Ampol Racing Team Manager Mark Dutton clarified that the issues to 888A-060 weren’t related to van Gisbergen’s crash in Tasmania in May.

In a team statement, Dutton said the decision to keep van Gisbergen in 888A-063 for the OTR SuperSprint was centred on the team’s workload.

Van Gisbergen helped 888A-063 to victory in Sydney

Dutton said the team thought it had determined the root cause of the problem, but will continue its investigations after findings from the Sydney ride day.

After The Bend, the team will have four weeks to prepare all three cars for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, with Craig Lowndes and Zane Goddard to race a Supercheap Auto-backed Triple Eight wildcard.

888A-063 made its racing debut at the hands of Goddard at June’s betr Darwin Triple Crown, with van Gisbergen briefly driving the car during a test day prior to Sydney.

“Following Shane’s chassis change for the Sydney SuperNight, the team had a ride day on the Monday following the event which presented an ideal opportunity for all our drivers to test the handling of each of our three cars,” Dutton said.

"Jamie [Whincup] cycled through all three chassis and identified that the steering felt different in all three cars.

"We now have our crew working hard to better understand the origins of these differences so we can better rectify them. The variance between all three cars from a ‘driver feel’ perspective is too great.

"We will continue with the same chassis that we ran with at Sydney, as we believe this is the best decision for the team’s workload, as completing car swaps takes a lot of time and that time is better spent continuing to identify the root cause of these differences.”

Van Gisbergen is third in the championship heading to the OTR SuperSprint, which will be held on August 18-20.

Triple Eight will run three Camaros at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on September 15-17, and the Repco Bathurst 1000 on October 5-8.