Motorsport: Competitiveness not gender behind SVG's departure

Shane Van Gisbergen celebrates after winning the Supercars Drivers Championship. Photo / Getty Images

Betty Kilmenko has fired a shot at newly crowned Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen claiming he is sexist but the truth is much more easily explained.

The Erebus Motorsport owner has fired up at the New Zealander after he recently explained his controversial decision to walk away from Stone Brothers Racing just as the team was being sold to Klimenko and being re-branded to Erebus.

Van Gisbergen did walk away from a contract and the circumstances around his retirement from the sport were murky especially when he turned up at round one the following season driving for a rival team. He announced his retirement from the sport at the end of 2012 and headed back to New Zealand without a drive. At some point an opportunity to drive with Tekno Autosports came up and he agreed to a deal that kept him with the Queensland outfit for 2013-16. Just when he first discussed the Tekno move is unclear and, after some legal threats, a settlement was reached out of court that allowed van Gisbergen to drive for the Holden team.

Klimenko certainly had reason to criticize the 27-year-old but claiming his refusal to drive for Erebus was that "he didn't want to drive for a female" doesn't stack up.

The reality is that van Gisbergen's career was on the up and he could see a progression to being a regular race winner and even championship contender if he remained in a competitive team. But with Klimenko taking over and swapping from the Fords that Stone Brothers had run to Mercedes meant starting a project from scratch and that wouldn't have worked with van Gisbergen's career on the rise.

The Erebus cars, driven by Lee Holdsworth, Tim Slade and Maro Engel in 2013 finished the championship in 20th, 22nd and 28th respectively while van Gisbergen finished fifth in his new Tekno Autosports team that used Triple Eight-supplied gear, winning two races and banking eight podiums.

The decision had little to do with gender or personality but was quite clearly about competitiveness. A lack of loyalty might have been a fairer criticism.

There is definitely an argument to say that van Gisbergen didn't paint himself in glory with how he handled the 2012-13 off-season but Klimenko's dummy spit at a time when the sport is applauding van Gisbergen reeks of sour grapes.

Klimenko has been a welcome addition to the Supercars scene bringing a big personality and colourful approach to her team's racing. She remains a popular figure in the paddock too but she's being very unfair in her criticism of van Gisbergen.

It is even more surprising given Klimenko's own driver David Reynolds scored the team their first podium finish of the year on Sunday.