PRETTY much ignore ‘epic’ competition from rivals, forget any pressure, go fast and have fun at the Mount.
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It may sound like a somewhat unusual approach for a man attempting to retain the Supercars championship lead by winning a race which has thus far eluded him, but Shane van Gisbergen has never really been conventional.
He takes different race lines through corners, pulls off passing moves in areas where others err on the side of caution, opted to have #97 on his car instead of #1 after he won the championship and had a V8 drift car built for him.
Still, his unconventional approach has certainly worked for him.
The Red Bull Racing star will line up for Sunday’s Bathurst 1000 with a slender 55-point lead atop the Supercars championship over Scott McLaughlin thanks to his second placing in last month’s Sandown 500.
With 300 points on offer to the winner of the Great Race, van Gisbergen knows he needs another good performance to retain his lead. Yet he sees no reason to alter his usual approach nor does he feel any additional pressure.
“It’s just the same as every other race, you’ve got to have no mistakes and a fast car, be there all day and turn it up at the end when it counts,” he said.
“We just need to let everyone else deal with their stuff and we’ll do the best we can. We need to make sure we get everything right and turn up to Bathurst with a fast car and go out there and have some fun.
“It’s certainly one you want to win, but I'm not singling it out, I want to go there and get a great result and get as many points as I can for the championship too.
“We're not feeling any pressure ourselves I don’t think, but we've got to keep our heads down and keep improving because everyone else will be trying to keep up.”
Van Gisbergen’s second placing at Sandown alongside co-driver Earl Bamber was his 15th podium of the season thus far. It was part of a Triple Eight Race Engineering podium clean sweep as Jamie Whincup claimed the chequered flag and Craig Lowndes ran third.
The team’s cars were markedly faster than their rivals and while it gives him confidence, van Gisbergen knows the infamous 6.213 kilometres of the Mount Panorama circuit is a different sort of challenge.
"It does give you confidence, but those Bathurst races, anything can happen, so we just need to keep focused and it will happen for us,” he said.
"I think Bathurst is a completely different ball game, it’s a different track and a lot of big differences compared to tracks that we’ve just come from.
“I do think we are in a strong position, but the competition as always is going to be epic when you get the Bathurst.”
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