Van Gisbergen closes gap

Shane van Gisbergen came away from the latest round of Supercars action with the second biggest points haul of all the drivers despite a “bit of a battle” with his car.

The Kiwi ace scored achieved sixth, second and fourth-placed finishes at the Darwin Triple Crown over June 17-18.

It leaves him fourth in the championship, one place behind his Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate Broc Feeney who gained the most points at the weekend.

The results meant the pair closed the gap to the Erebus Motorsport duo of Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, who both failed to finish on the podium across all three races in Darwin.

Van Gisbergen was 172 points behind current championship leader Kostecki going into the round, but now only sits 110 points off the top.

"We had a lot of problems on Friday and basically lost all our practice sessions, but to come out with second on points for the weekend and for Broc to finish first on points for the event is awesome,” says van Gisbergen.

“It doesn’t feel like we’re competitive but in reality, we’re fast, so I don’t really understand why that is because it’s a bit of a battle [in the races].”

Van Gisbergen is now off to the United States to make his Nascar Cup Series debut in Chicago on July 2 before returning to Supercars, which resumes with the Townsville 500 on July 7-9.

Drivers’ standings

1. Brodie Kostecki, 1,164 points
2. Will Brown, 1,105pts
3. Broc Feeney, 1,073pts
4. Shane van Gisbergen, 1,054pts
5. Chaz Mostert, 985pts