A proud Kiwi, Shane van Gisbergen heads to NASCAR a three-time champion, three-time Bathurst winner and a legend of Supercars.
A proud Kiwi, Shane van Gisbergen heads to NASCAR a three-time champion, three-time Bathurst winner and a legend of Supercars.
Van Gisbergen headed into 2023 as the defending champion, having won 21 races in a record-breaking 2022 campaign. Van Gisbergen crushed the field in '22 and scored a second Bathurst 1000 victory.
He returned in '23 and pushed Brodie Kostecki all the way, coming up short after a double DNF in Adelaide. Regardless, with a third Bathurst win in tow, van Gisbergen set off for the States with his legacy secure.
He claimed the title in 2016, his first season with Triple Eight, and after an up-and-down '17 fell just short in the fierce '18 fight against Scott McLaughlin.
2019 was not so close, but van Gisbergen again flew the Triple Eight flag with five race wins and a further seven podiums.
It marked van Gisbergen’s third time as series runner-up, having also done so in 2014 while at Tekno Autosports.
He finished 2020 with his first Great Race win, before he left everyone for dead in 2021 and clinched a second drivers' title.
It is now more than a decade since van Gisbergen burst onto the Supercars scene with Team Kiwi in the middle of 2007.
During a torrentially wet weekend at Oran Park, he finished 13th in one race and set the third-fastest lap in another.
Stone Brothers Racing became van Gisbergen’s home in 2008, continuing to demonstrate brilliant car control in the wet.
As he matured, performances became far more consistent and he teetered on the brink of victory until breaking through on home soil at the Hamilton street circuit in 2011.
He left SBR at the end of 2012 in controversial circumstances when it was due to become Erebus Motorsport, eventually linking with Tekno.
Van Gisbergen took his first victory driving a Holden on his Tekno debut in Adelaide in 2013, winning nine races over his three-year tenure.
Since joining Triple Eight, van Gisbergen has also won a PIRTEK Enduro Cup and is twice a winner of the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.
He continues to build an impressive record in sportscar racing that includes winning the 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup with McLaren and the LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour the same year for the same marque.
In 2022, he also made his Le Mans debut and took to rallying, the highlight being points on his World Rally Championship debut.
However, few results made as many waves as his first-up NASCAR win on the Chicago streets in 2023, which paved the way to a new era for the superstar.