There must be something about the heat and humidity of Australia’s Top End that brings out the best in young New Zealand V8 Supercar driver Shane van Gisbergen.
The Ford pilot, a winner in Darwin last year, continued his love affair with the Hidden Valley Raceway by topping the timesheets in Friday’s practice session.
The 23-year-old, the youngest driver in the V8 field, is aiming to build on his breakthrough 2011 where he picked up the first wins of his career in Hamilton and Darwin.
So far this year he’s battled his way to fifth place on the championship ladder but he’s yet to add to those two wins and the Stone Brothers Racing driver knows consistently getting himself to the front of the field is the next challenge in his career.
“I think we’re still improving … I’m still learning stuff and it all adds up but FPR (Ford Performance Racing) have really stepped up this year and so have Triple Eight (Holden’s Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes) so it’s pretty tough,” van Gisbergen said of his title challenge.
“We just need to be more consistent like we have been the past few weekends and do that every single round.
“At Perth on the Sunday we were mid-pack battlers and you can’t afford to be like that.
“(Championship leader) Will Davison has been off the podium twice so to be in the hunt you’ve got to be there every week.”
Van Gisbergen’s win in Darwin last year was capped with a memorable victory lap burnout that went most of the length of the 2.87km track and he’s promising more smoke if he can replicate that success.
“Watching the race the other day, the first time I’d seen it for a while, it was pretty good,” he said.
“This year if we have a good result I’ll have to try and do it a bit better.”