Van Gisbergen explains practice incident
Shane van Gisbergen was frustrated to find trouble early in the Bathurst weekend.
Van Gisbergen set the early pace in Practice 1 at Mount Panorama on Thursday.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver has vowed to attack Bathurst, given he has a large points buffer.
Van Gisbergen arrives in Bathurst with a 525-point lead over Cam Waters.
With 15 minutes remaining, van Gisbergen suffered a big scare across the top.
The #97 Commodore overcorrected at Reid Park, with van Gisbergen brushing the wall.
Had van Gisbergen been even two inches to the left, he would have risked a larger impact and being spat across the track.
He instead got away with it, managed to bring his car back to the lane, and wound up sixth overall.
“I hit the wall,” the 33-year-old said.
“I just drove it back slowly; I'm not sure about the arms, I knew the wheel [rim] would be bent.
“I think the suspension’s okay, it’s whether we put the rim back on or a next set of tyres.
“It’s early days.. it’s tough, I wanted to have a clean session one.
“I’m pretty pissed at myself for doing that, but the car felt good.”
Van Gisbergen returned to Australia earlier this week following his World Rally Championship debut.
The Kiwi finished ninth overall at Repco Rally New Zealand.
While he had little trouble adapting back to his Supercar, van Gisbergen said he still had some fine-tuning left.
“I’m trying to have a proper go, I’m trying to get used to this thing again,” he said.
“It’s got four times the spring rate of the thing I was driving last week.
“It feels very different, but I’m having fun.”
Van Gisbergen joined fellow front-runners Waters and Anton De Pasquale in the wars during Practice 1.
Waters triggered a red flag after he beached his Monster Mustang in the Murray's Corner sand.
De Pasquale supplemented van Gisbergen's incident with a scare of his own at Forrest's Elbow.
The Shell V-Power Racing Team driver spun under braking, before tagging the tyre barrier.
He completed a full 360-degree spin and carried on, albeit with minor damage to his rear wing.
De Pasquale cited a snagged downshift for the incident.
“The save was definitely better than the error," he said.
"Just had a half-rejected shift, then got a bit wide, the rears were trying to lock, so just trying to pick and hit the right fence.
"Just nicked it and cracked a bit of the rear wing."
Supercars will return to the track for Practice 2 at 3:55pm local time.
