Motorsport: Kiwi duo's season of contrasts

Shane van Gibergen is ready to make a tilt at the title. Photo / Getty Images

The 2010 Australian V8 Supercar series, from a New Zealand point of view, has been a tale of two drivers. The young upstart Shane van Gisbergen is at the pointy end of the table in third, while the most successful Kiwi V8 driver, Greg Murphy, is languishing at the bottom.

Van Gisbergen is bringing back the glory days for Stone Brothers Racing after a few lean years since the team won back-to-back titles in 2003, 2004 and 2005 with Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall.

This weekend, the V8 circus heads to Winton Motor Raceway for the seventh round. After James Courtney's two wins last time, in Queensland, Jamie Whincup's lead has been slashed to 24 points and van Gisbergen is hoping to hang on to Courtney and make his own run at the title.

"It's pretty good being third in the championship. We were seventh going into Queensland," said van Gisbergen. "We had an advantage last week being at our test track. Now we have to go to the Victorian teams' track. Hopefully we'll have our car sorted straight out of the truck so I can get a couple more podiums this weekend."

Despite the hiccup at Hamilton, where no Kiwi drivers covered themselves in glory, van Gisbergen seems to steadily be getting quicker at each round and is beginning to consistently mix it with Whincup, Courtney, Garth Tander and the like.

"The car is quick and I'm getting to understand it better. I'm still picking up stuff at each round and figuring it out more at each race. I'm really enjoying it, the team's working well and mechanically the car is good," said van Gisbergen.

It's a confident van Gisbergen who's looking forward to upsetting the Victorian teams on their home track. He knows it'll be hard work beating them but is optimistic he can take it to them and cause an upset. "It's going to be tough but not impossible," he said.

At the other end of the table Murphy, by his own admission, is sounding a bit like a broken record. There's no one thing he or the team have been able to pinpoint as to their lack of form, rather a series of mechanical woes compounded by some driver errors. "It's been an horrific run and I don't have all the answers," said Murphy.

"In some cases it's just a matter of doing a better job. I'm partly to blame as I've made a couple of pretty stupid mistakes that have been costly. We've been really quick in practice but come nowhere in the races. It just doesn't make sense."

TeamVodafone's Craig Lowndes won both Winton races last year, while this could be the last weekend Toll Holden Racing's Tander will use his current car, as the team will roll out a new model for the next round.

Tander will want a good weekend to continue his charge up the table after a dismal first round. He is fourth.

FPR's Mark Winterbottom has his tail up after an altercation in race two at Ipswich severely damaged his car. He feels the rebuilt car is ready.

The weather will have a big say on how the grid will look for race one as the big swings in temperature affects the level of grip. There is a 40-lap race over 120km today, with a longer 67-lap, 200km race on Sunday.

V8 POINTS
1. Jamie Whincup 1191pts

2. James Courtney 1167

3. Shane van Gisbergen 984

4. Garth Tander 972

5. Craig Lowndes 969

6. Rick Kelly 908

7. Lee Holdsworth 903

8. Mark Winterbottom 894