Motorsport: Season's last chance at top spots for young man in a hurry

Van Gisbergen's in his second season. Photo / Getty Images

The last round of the 2010 Australian V8 Supercars is about to ignite the streets of Homebush, Sydney this weekend and the mantle of the best New Zealand V8 Supercar driver is now firmly in the hands of 21-year-old Shane van Gisbergen.

Up to the past couple of years, Greg Murphy has been the standout performer in the class winning four Bathursts and consistently finishing the series in the top 10.

Of late, his fortunes have faded a little and despite the odd flash of brilliance, consistency has eluded Murphy and he languishes back in 19th on the points table. Of the other Kiwis, Jason Richards has performed well on occasion, Fabian Coulthard has had more bad luck than good and hasn't featured much, and Steven Richards has had a year to forget.

The man who has stepped up to fly the flag is young van Gisbergen, who's in only his second full season racing the big taxis. The Stone Brothers Racing SP Tools Ford Falcon team, for whom he drives, set a target of finishing at the sharp end of the championship this year and they haven't been disappointed.

"We're in sixth in the championship at the moment with a chance to get to fifth and that would be awesome," said van Gisbergen, who's 120 points behind Garth Tander with 300 on offer.

"The goal for the team this year was top six but my personal goal was top five. This year was a building year to get ready for next year when we go for the big prize."

The 21-year-old remains inside the top 10 despite a late race crash in Melbourne a fortnight ago.

If his form at the Gold Coast meeting in late October is anything to go by, where he podiumed twice, he should again be mixing with the front-runners at Homebush this weekend for the last round of the 2010 series.

"Our car seems to like street circuits and the hotter temperatures, and I like driving on street circuits because you can really give it a go," said van Gisbergen.

"But if it rains or not, it's going to be the same for everyone and we're just going to push as hard as we can."

After an impressive start and consistently strong results through the middle of the season, van Gisbergen has had a trying second half of the season with a mystery engine problem slowing him down at Phillip Island and equipment failure [a broken bolt in the steering assembly] at Bathurst and Sandown.

"The season's been up and down and we plateaued a bit mid-season. Then the Gold Coast race was really good for us and we started to come good, but then it all went away.

"The endurance races really hurt us where little things went wrong and put us out of the hunt [for the title].

"I'll still really be going for it this weekend to get on top of the podium for my first race win," said van Gisbergen.