Spoiler alert: SvG denied his moment of greatness

With a washed-out race ensuring he cannot be beaten at the season ending Bathurst 1000, van Gisbergen joined the 13 legends who have won multiple titles when he was awarded his second crown.

“It is still pretty fresh but it has been an awesome year,” van Gisbergen said.

“We have had ups and downs but we came here and executed every race and did what we needed to do.”

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Having lurked in the shadows of his teammate Jamie Whincup — the greatest championship driver of all time — van Gisbergen this year won 14 races to announce himself as the leading contender to become the next V8 great.

The Red Bull Ampol driver was crowned a two-time king at Sydney Motorsport Park after the final race of the Sydney Super Night was red flagged because of torrential rain.

It was an anti-climax to the title fight with the weather stopping van Gisbergen from sealing the deal with a win.

Van Gisbergen heads into the season ending Bathurst 1000, beginning December 3, with an unbeatable 349 point lead over Whincup.

“It sucks that we couldn’t put on a show,” van Gisbergen said.

“But it has been an awesome time and super cool to win another championship.”

While some will say the championship was gifted to him when Scott McLaughlin relinquished his crown by switching to Indy Car, van Gisbsergen led from start to end to win the title with a full round to spare.

The Kiwi driver also took out the Sydney Cup.

“We haven’t been fast enough this year but we have gotten the results and been consistent,” van Gisbergen said.

“We haven’t made the mistakes that the others have. We had one bad race but we were up there for the rest of them.”

Van Gisbergen will now chase the greatness he seemed certain to achieve after winning his first title in 2016.

After accounting for Whincup and seemingly ending his record-breaking reign, most thought the Kiwi was about to begin a period of domination to rival his teammate.

But Whincup rebounded to even further his own legend by claiming his 7th crown in 2017.

Van Gisbergen’s march to become an immortal was again derailed in 2018 when Scott Mclaughlin arrived onto the V8 scene in his thunder stealing Ford.

McLaughlin went on to claim three straight crowns before quitting the sport.

While some will claim the former DJR/Penske super-star would have made it four had he not gone off to chase his American dream, van Gisbergen’s name is now etched on the championship trophy twice.

“It is my life dream and my life goal,” van Gisbergen said.

“I won the first one and just wanted to do it again. Now I want to do it again. It is an awesome feeling. I want to keep racing here as long as I can. It seems a while ago that I won my first one so it is a very cool feeling.”

Deflating Sydney finale as drivers look to Bathurst

— Rebecca Williams

Torrential rain ruined Supercars final hit-out before the Bathurst 1000 after officials ruled it too dangerous to race in a deflating finish to the month-long Sydney swing.

As soaking rain descended upon Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday, the penultimate race of the championship did not turn a lap in anger before the 250km race was called off.

The race was declared a non-event with no points awarded — as less than 50 per cent of the race distance was completed — handing series leader Shane van Gisbergen his second Supercars crown and the Sydney Cup.

The New Zealand ace holds an unassailable 349-point lead over his Triple Eight teammate Jamie Whincup leading into the season-ending race at Mount Panorama.

As heavy rain settled in at SMP, the start to the race was initially delayed by 15 minutes and once the race started the first five laps were completed behind the safety car before the race was red-flagged.

Road sweepers were even sent out onto the circuit while the race was suspended in a bid to disperse the rivers of water on the track.

Opinions were divided up and down pit lane as to whether the cars should start racing.

But with the biggest race of the year just two weeks away, ensuring the cars remained intact was a priority for many in the field.

The race was officially called off by officials at 4.25pm amid concerns over the amount of standing water on the track.

Seven-time champion Whincup, who had earlier had a hairy moment in a wet and wild qualifying, said it was some of the worst conditions he had seen.

“It’s clearly unbelievably wet,” Whincup said.

“I can’t think of a day that is just this constant rain all day. We have had some big showers but not constant weather like this.

“There are a lot of factors at play. The driver in me wants to go out there and have a crack and see what happens.

“But certainly for the Queensland teams, we can’t get home so if you do hit a river and accidently get T-boned or something, we are not allowed back into our state to fix the car and get ready for the biggest race of the year in two years’ time.

“We have got to be a bit smart about it.”

While most drivers headed to the garage while the race was suspended — with Walkinshaw Andretti United star Chaz Mostert spotted tucking into party pies — pole sitter Nick Percat remained in his car willing the race to restart.

Earlier, Percat claimed the second pole position of his career in a slippery top-10 shootout for what would have been his penultimate race for Brad Jones Racing before he makes the switch to WAU next year.

Percat had booked prime position on the grid ahead of van Gisbergen and David Reynolds.

It had been treacherous conditions in qualifying to determine the shootout field with Whincup suffering a scary high-speed crash when he skidded off the track at high speed at turn one and slammed into the tyre wall.

After four consecutive weeks of racing at SMP, the Supercars field now has next weekend off before the sport’s marquee event at Mount Panorama on December 5.

Van Gisbergen will start a hot favourite to defend his Bathurst 1000 crown with Garth Tander after sealing the 2021 championship.

Percat’s parting present in qualifying slide-fest

Nick Percat has claimed pole position in a slippery top-10 shootout for Sunday afternoon’s final race at Sydney Motorsport Park before the season-ending Bathurst 1000.

Ahead of his penultimate race for Brad Jones Racing before he switches teams next year to Walkinshaw Andretti United, Percat locked in just the second pole of his career for the final 250km instalment of the four-week SMP swing.

On a sodden track, Percat claimed prime position on the grid ahead of Triple Eight’s series leader Shane van Gisbergen and Kelly Grove Racing’s David Reynolds.

Tim Slade and Todd Hazelwood rounded out the top five in the wet shootout.

After repairs to his car after sliding off the track and slamming into the tyre wall in a scary incident at turn one, seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup was able to book himself seventh place on the grid.

Percat said the conditions were tough but had improved since the morning’s treacherous qualifying session.

“It was hard, I knew roughly what I had to do,” Percat said.

“I picked the spots where I wanted to make sure I positioned the car well to get really good drive and watching the other guys, I could hear them wheel spinning a lot.

“I think that’s where the BJR car was mega, it just had such good traction so it held the corner well.

“(There was) a lot more grip, less rivers and way more grip so you had a lot of confidence to attack the entries. The track condition probably suited us a bit more, this morning it was a little bit dicey and I was happy to make the 10 but obviously the car was a bit of a jet.”

The 2011 Bathurst 1000 champion was now focused on delivering another win for BJR before he left the squad.

“I told (team boss) Brad when we had our discussions at the start of the year (about leaving) that I’m not going to give up on you and we are still going to win some trophies and so far we have got one trophy and now we’ve got a pole position.”

Whincup’s horror smash in treacherous conditions

Seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup has suffered a scary high-speed crash in a rain-drenched qualifying session at Sydney Motorsport Park.

In wet and treacherous conditions in the session to determine the top-10 for this afternoon’s shootout, the Triple Eight star cannoned off the track at a wild and slippery turn one before crashing into a tyre wall.

Whincup was able to reverse the car out of the wall and return to the garage but his session came to an early end for repairs to be made.

Moments later Brad Jones Racing’s Todd Hazelwood hit trouble at the same turn and also put his car into the tyre wall.

But both Whincup (seventh) and Hazelwood (third) had set fast enough qualifying times to book themselves a spot in the top-10 shootout.

Kelly Grove Racing’s Andre Heimgartner set the fastest qualifying time to take provisional pole ahead of fellow New Zealand racer and series leader Shane van Gisbergen, who can tie up the Supercars championship in this afternoon’s 250km race – the last before the Bathurst 1000.

Heimgartner said he relished the conditions.

“I love those sort of conditions, it’s good fun just going into the corners hoping I don’t fly off the track,” Heimgartner said.

“It obviously doesn’t mean too much because we have got the top-10 shootout coming.

“Everyone says we race in the wet heaps over there (New Zealand) but I reckon I have raced more in the wet here than I have in bloody New Zealand.

“Turn one is the only real sketchy place but apart from that it’s all pretty good.”

The wet conditions are expected to continue for this afternoon’s racing at Sydney Motorsport Park.

‘I WAS DONE’: HOW SVG ESCAPED CRAZY PITLANE MISERY

It was the drive that has Shane van Gisbergen on the cusp of winning the championship with one round to spare.

In a race where he proved he is every inch a champion, the Holden hero charged his way through the field to win the Sydney Super Night and extend his championship lead.

Shunted back to 9th following a nightmare double-stack, van Gisbergen stunned Sydney by picking his way past eight drivers to set up what could be a deal sealing Sunday.

“I thought I was done after the double stack”, van Gisbergen said.

“But that was awesome. The team gave me a jet so I was able to get back through the field.”

Helping van Gisbergen to the win and possibly the championship, Jamie Whincup allowed his teammate to make an easy pass in a move that helped make up for his failure to obey team orders last week.

“Jamie let me though so that was good,” van Gisbergen said.

“That was so much fun.”

Now leading the championship by 349 points, van Gisbergen will win the title in Sydney on Sunday if he concedes less than 48 points to his only challenger Whincup.

“We will now see what happens tomorrow,” van Gisbergen said.

Van Gisbergen looked set for another Sydney fight after his Ford rival Antron De Pasquale proved perfect before the race.

In a dominant display of one lap speed, De Pasquale followed on from being fastest on Friday to winning all of the three Saturday sessions.

Beginning by humbling the field in practice, the Ford driver continued to fly by winning both the qualifying session and the top ten shootout that followed.

Going out last in the shootout, de Pasquale blasted a 1.30.45 to edge out Whincup as van Gisbergen finished fourth.

“I was very happy going out last because it looked like a lot of work for the guys who went out first,” De Pasquale said.

“The track was a lot different to what it was in qualifying so I got to watch the first few and adjust when I got to go out.

“The track was a good second-a-half-off, so I had to adjust and drive to the conditions.

“Jamie laid a good lap down so I had to push quite hard.”

Starting on the hard tyre compound, De Pasquale watched on as the soft rubber wearing Whincup blasted his way off the line to take the lead.

Whincup was scorching away at the front when an early safety car rubbed away his lead.

The safety car was even more costly for van Gisbergen after the champion in waiting was forced to double stack behind Whincup in a necessary evil that cost him seven spots.

Put back into the battle-pack, van Gisbergen survived a series of scares – including an excursion into the dirt after a De Pasquale bump – as he came from the clouds to become a contender for the win.

The Kiwi enforcer was waved on by his teammate before he hunted down Cameron Waters to steal the win.

“We earned our money today,” Whincup said.

“Well done to SVG. It was a fantastic result for both cars.”

Is there a chink in SvG’s armour as he blows it in practice?

Anton de Pasquale’s Sydney hot-streak has continued with the Ford flyer setting the fastest time in the Sydney Super Night Friday practice session.

Having dominated the previous three rounds in both practice and qualifying, De Pasquale clocked a 1min29.95sec to go quickest ahead of Brodie Kostecki and Chaz Mostert.

Series leader Shane van Gisbergen failed to fire a shot and finished the session back in 16th.

Explained: Every angle SvG must cover to claim V8 crown

Only a Sydney shocker can stop Shane van Gisbergen from taking out the Supercars title this weekend with the Red Bull racer just three clean races away from winning his second crown.

On what is shaping as a dramatic weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP) after a double vaccinated Dave Reynolds was cleared to make his return, van Gisbergen could also join legends like Mark Skaife and Jamie Whincup by winning the championship with an entire round still to be run.

Following a year of domination where he has led the championship since the very first race, van Gisbergen only has to finish in front of Jamie Whincup to replace Scott McLaughlin as the V8 king.

“I don’t think like that,” van Gisbergen said. “There is still a lot of work to do.”

Despite playing down his championship chance, van Gisbergen is so far in front that he could completely crash out of this weekend’s Sydney Super Night and still head into the season ending Bathurst 1000 with a championship lead.

The Red Bull Ampol driver is 337 points in front of his nearest rival, which just happens to be his teammate Jamie Whincup.

“The gap may seem big but it is not really,” van Gisbergen said.

“If Jamie wins Bathurst, that is 300 points alone so I have to keep focused and keep on trying to win points.”

Sealing the title in Sydney this weekend, where there will be two 150 points races, would allow van Gisbergen to go all out on the attack at Mount Panorama.

Van Gisbergen will be looking to defend his title after breaking through to claim his first Bathurst 1000 win last year.

“Obviously, we have a pretty quick car this year and the same combination as last year,” van Gisbergen said.

“So we have as good a chance as anyone, but there are some fast cars this year.

“I‘m looking forward to it, we missed fans there last year, so having the atmosphere of the people camping and walking around the track every night is pretty cool.

“Even all the atmosphere at the races we‘ve been at so far as well, it’s been so good to have the fans back.“

Van Gisbergen may want to avoid Reynolds this weekend after the Ford star was cleared to after being double vaccinated.

Reynolds missed two races after being extradited from NSW with a medical clearance to be in the state despite being unvaccinated against Covid was revoked.

“Kelly Grove Racing is pleased to announce that David Reynolds will be returning for Round Eleven of the Supercars Championship this weekend,” his team said in a statement.

“David is fully vaccinated and has fulfilled the requirements by NSW Health and Supercars to participate in this season‘s penultimate event.

“Kelly Grove Racing would like to thank Luke Youlden for the phenomenal job he has done in David’s absence, and we are excited to have him back with us at the Bathurst 1000 early next month.”