final drive - Mundo Motorizado

Retired
aged 23,
back two months later
V8 Supercar star Shane van Gisbergen announced his shock
retirement after a troubled 2012. Now the New Zealander
tells ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN why he’s already back
This will probably go down
as the shortest retirement
in V8 Supercar history. Last
November, series frontrunner
Shane van Gisbergen announced he was
walking away from the sport. At just
23 years of age, and with a seemingly
lucrative drive at Stone Brothers
Racing, the Kiwi made the decision to
give it all up, citing “personal reasons”
and declining to comment further.
Now, just over two months later, he’s
back with a brand-new deal with Tekno
Autosports to drive a Triple Eightbuilt
Holden Commodore in 2013.
Let’s get something straight: this
whole thing wasn’t solely a stunt to
break van Gisbergen’s contract with
SBR, which was due to run until 2015.
When he retired, he intended to retire.
Between an ongoing rift with SBR
management, and the year-long
flirtation between the team and
millionaire property mogul Betty
Klimenko (which eventually morphed
into a complete takeover), van
Gisbergen had decided he would rather
not race at all than stay at SBR. So he
decided to retire. He was ready to take
some time off, but on the other hand
there was the chance that he may be
tempted back if another offer arose…
“The way things were last year
was not good,” says van Gisbergen.
“Turning up to the race track, I just
didn’t want to be there. I wasn’t
Leading the way at
Sandown in 2012
56 autosport.com January 31 2013
van GisberGen Cv
Born May 9 1989
From Auckland, new Zealand
2012 6th in V8 supercars
2011 4th in V8 supercars
2010 6th in V8 supercars
2009 12th in V8 supercars
SVG in Stone Bros Ford
2008 15th in V8 supercars
2007 2nd in Toyota racing series;
V8 supercar debut
2006 1st in new Zealand formula
ford championship
in a good frame of mind. I had a
contract with SBR that was through
to 2015, so I made the decision
to stop completely.
“I had planned to take the
year off. I spoke to some other
teams, but having a contract in
place made it hard. So I thought
‘OK, I’m just going to stop, try
some other forms of racing
and just cruise’.
“I had a few plans for things in
New Zealand. I tested a rally car,
and started looking at options for
2013. It was good fun, and it gave
me a chance to see that I could
still enjoy my racing.”
Why van Gisbergen was so
desperate to get out of the SBR
environment is complicated. On
the face of it, the new era of SBR/
Erebus looks fantastic: a new
owner with plenty of cash; a
new deal with AMG to bring
Mercedes cars into V8s; and a
shiny new C63 to drive during