Shane van Gisbergen hopes his iRacing form carries over to the Clipsal 500
More news
6:00 AM Sun 6 March, 2011
Source: BigPond Sport
SP Tools driver Shane van Gisbergen has been getting plenty of race miles prior to this month’s Clipsal 500, but from the comfort of his lounge room instead of a racetrack.
The young Kiwi has been competing in the iRacing V8 Supercars Online Series, where motorsport fans and professionals race each other at virtual tracks across Australia and overseas. (NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr is just one high profile devotee of iRacing.)
“I have had a bit of free time since Abu Dhabi so I’ve been iRacing a fair bit,” van Gisbergen told BigPond Sport.
“It’s good fun and there are some really good drivers racing online.
“In terms of helping in my actual racing career, the online racing is good for training to focus for long periods of time. It helps me to concentrate and be consistent lap after lap.”
He also recently scored a win in the iRacing V8 Supercars Series.
“Yeah that was fun! (Fujitsu V8 series driver) Scott McLaughlin was in that race as well. He spends all his life on it, so I think he was pretty shattered that I beat him!” he joked.
van Gisbergen was behind the wheel of his real SP Tools #9 Falcon last Thursday at his team’s test day at Queensland Raceway.
“We worked hard on making my car a lot easier to drive, especially in qualifying trim.
“We really struggled in qualifying for the Yas V8 400. The car was very fast but it felt quite nervous and I couldn’t string a consistent fast lap together. We still got some good race results but qualifying hurt us.
“There is nothing wrong with our race pace, but we need to start higher up on the grid to capitalise on our speed.”
The young Kiwi ‘s fourth and eighth-place finishes at the Yas V8 400 means van Gisbergen sits third in the championship, just 69 points behind leader Jamie Whincup.
At just 21 years old, van Gisbergen is now in his fourth straight season with Stone Brothers Racing.
Together with engineer Paul Forgie, they continue to work on turning his obvious raw talent into consistent and strong results.
“In my first year in V8 Supercars I finished the championship in 15th. Last year I was sixth. I feel that I’ve been improving every year and I see that continuing this season.
“Heading to Clipsal in third is a great start but we have a very long season ahead of us.
“My goal is to keep progressing and keep learning from my mistakes. The most important thing for me is to improve at each track we go to, and I think if I do that the results will follow.”
van Gisbergen will be back behind the wheel of the #9 SP Tools Racing Falcon at the Clipsal 500, held in Adelaide from March 17-20.
Shane van Gisbergen’s official website: shanevangisbergen.com
Follow Shane van Gisbergen on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SVGSBR9
