Shane Van Gisbergen Unbelievably Wins In Sandown

This time two weeks ago, Shane Van Gisbergen was having surgery on his collarbone, which he injured in a mountain bike accident.

Fast forward to today, and he has won at Sandown.

It’s perhaps the most unbelievable drive I have ever seen.

I’ve written and talked a lot about how brilliantly Van Gisbergen has been driving recently, but his performance today at Sandown was on another level.

If I’d injured my collarbone, I doubt I’d be able to carry out day-to-day tasks, let alone win a motor race.

It’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole of superlatives and hyperbole when writing about Van Gisbergen, but it’s hard not to when you’re witnessing such greatness.

The Kiwi started race three of the Supercars Championship in 17th position, and was quickly up into the top ten.

In the early stages, it was a case of giving Van Gisbergen a round of applause for gaining a few places and making the most of things.

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Out front, it was Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert who started on pole, breaking the qualifying lap record at Sandown as he did so, and putting to bed the qualifying niggles he’d had in Bathurst.

Alas, a long-awaited win for Mostert was not to be.

His start wasn’t great, and he was swamped not only by Cameron Waters, who started alongside Mostert on the front row, but by Mark Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup too.

Mostert was the first to pit on lap nine, and it initially looked like the undercut was working, particularly so when he took the lead on lap 20 after Waters, Winterbottom and Whincup had all pitted.

However, an 11-lap deficit in terms of tyre life is difficult to handle, and Waters was closing in on Mostert at a rate of around half a second per lap.

After spending a few laps right behind Mostert trying to find a way past, Waters re-took the lead of the race on the main straight on lap 34.

It was at this point that Van Gisbergen sprung a surprise on everyone by grabbing second position through turn two as Waters, Mostert, and Whincup were battling one another.

Having pitted on lap 26, Van Gisbergen had now become a contender for the race victory, which he secured on the final lap of the race.

Waters finished second and Whincup finished third, while Winterbottom fell behind after the pit stops to come home in fourth, and Mostert was cast adrift in sixth.

Also notable is the form of Dick Johnson Racing, who still seem to be a bit out of sorts.

Anton De Pasquale qualified in sixth and finished fifth, and was running with the lead group for a time, while Will Davison was out of it the whole way through, actually ending up finishing two laps down due to car troubles caused by a rallycross-style trip across the grass at turn three.

He was only at the back end of the top ten when the incident happened in the latter stages of the race.

What puzzles me is that De Pasquale considers the car to be solid, yet DJR seem to be stuck in no-man’s land between the frontrunners and the rest of the pack.

It’ll be interesting to see how that story develops.

In a league of his own at the moment though is Shane Van Gisbergen who, in the words of Supercars reporter Chad Neylon, is ‘The Miracle Man’.

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