Motorsport: Shane van Gisbergen eyeing up more race wins

Shane van Gisbergen has had plenty to celebrate this year. Photo / Getty

Supercars leader Shane van Gisbergen isn't thinking about winning another championship this weekend at round two of the double-header in Townsville. It's too early in the season to be wondering about another title, and all he's concentrating on are race wins.

"It's a bit crazy with all the Covid stuff kicking on, which is pretty bad for a lot of people, so it's good idea to get a few more races in while we can," van Gisbergen told the Weekend Herald.

"I'm trying to be up front every race and not thinking about [championship] points yet. It's too early to be thinking about the championship, I just want to be out in front race by race."

If it were possible, the Kiwi would race every weekend if he could, so going back-to-back weekends is a perfect fit. Last weekend saw the first of the Townsville race weekends with two 250-kilometre races, while this weekend is a SuperSprint round.

Van Gisbergen was dominant during the longer races, chasing down his teammate Jamie Whincup to grab two race wins to increase his lead at the top of the points table. He's dominated the season so far with 10 wins and the next most successful driver is Chaz Mostert on two wins.

"Our cars were really good last weekend, but they can always be better. There's always something to learn. We still had over and understeer and other things and want to make the car better. There will be a few things we'll try this weekend to improve it," said van Gisbergen.

"We've had a good set-up for both qualifying and the race, which helps a lot. We didn't need to tweak much between the race and qualifying, which is cool and our tyre life was good and that really helps in longer races.

"Our cars have been good here for a couple of years now, and I think it's because how well they ride the bumps and look after the tyres."

Van Gisbergen's Red Bull Ampol Racing are the team to beat at the moment with the likes of DJR's Shell V-Power Racing pairing of Anton Der Pasquale and Will Davison, Walkinshaw Andretti United's Mostert and Tickford Racing's Cameron Waters struggling to keep up.

It doesn't look good for the rest of the field with everyone being back on the same circuit and using the same tyres. Sure, there are three 39-lap races this weekend (as opposed to 88-lap races last weekend), but van Gisbergen and Whincup combined to win four of the six races across last year's Townsville double-header.

"On this type of track we always seem to go alright. Last weekend it was a little bit surprising how fast we were, but I'm sure this weekend it'll be closer," said van Gisbergen.

There is one race today and two tomorrow.