He might be racing in NASCAR these days, but Shane van Gisbergen delivered the Supercars title in his first year driving the Red Bull-backed Triple Eight Race Engineering entry and now Will Brown has.
Reflecting back on van Gisbergen’s maiden season with the perennial Supercars leaders, the New Zealand ace had been a thorn in Triple Eight’s side when at Tekno Autosports.
Announced prior to the start of the 2015 season as a third Triple Eight entry, van Gisbergen made no comment leaving it to then-team principal Roland Dane.
“Given the growing trend of larger teams and the intense competition that this brings, we felt that this is the ideal time to add another entry to our championship campaign to enhance the competitive depth of the team,” said Dane said.
“With Jamie, Craig and now Shane at the wheels of the Triple Eight Holdens, we will be fielding the strongest line-up in one of the world’s most closely fought categories, but for now we are focusing on the 2015 championship.”
Although it was a slow start for van Gisbergen at Triple Eight, he more than made up for it later in the season.
Taking his first win at the second event of the season at Symmons Plains, the next came at Hidden Valley some four meetings later. However from there, van Gisbergen found his stride and finished just one race outside the top 10, while just two off the podium.
Wins were at Queensland Raceway, Sydney Motorsport Park, Surfers Paradise, Pukekohe and Homebush to seal his first title ahead of teammate Jamie Whincup.
Brown also fought his teammate Broc Feeney as he won five races including the Sandown 500 on the way to the title this year.
Comparing to SVG’s maiden season, Brown has three less wins, but at two less rounds. Brown also was on the podium 19 times out of 24 compared to SVG’s 18 out of 29 races.
Van Gisbergen is now joined by Brown as winning the title in their first season at Triple Eight.