Van Gisbergen had done everything right in the run up to yesterday's race by putting his car on pole in the hope of staying out of trouble when the lights went out.
Well, things didn't quite go according to plan. It all started to go wrong when he was caught napping when the lights went out. Title contender and teammate Jamie Whincup hooked up perfectly to jump the rest of the field while Van Gisbergen was swamped by Lowndes and McLaughlin.
Things didn't improve much for the Kiwi heading into the chicane on the first lap when Mark Winterbottom muscled his way through forcing Van Gisbergen to cut the chicane dropping him to sixth.
Eight laps latter the wheels metaphorically really started to fall off for the Kiwi when he tried to fire up the inside of Winterbottom turning the Ford driver and incurring a pit lane penalty dropping him to 18th.
From then on it was a matter of making the most of a pretty dire situation. To the great delight of everyone watching, we saw a truly gifted driver strut his stuff in a manner that all aspiring race car drivers would do well to study and emulate.
"I was too conservative at the start, got bumped around at one and then got a hit at two. I just wasn't assertive enough and not like I normally do by throwing the car in and getting it done [Winterbottom pass].
"After the penalty I had nothing to lose so just went crazy and hit everything except other people. I knew I had to salvage as much as I could and not lose too many points to Jamie. I just went as fast as I could and was on the limit all the time," said Van Gisbergen.
While Van Gisbergen was trying to salvage as much as possible during the race, Whincup on the other hand was having the time of his life way out front and was never challenged the entire race.
"I knew what was going on the whole time and we were looking okay in the middle of race with Shane back in 20th," said Whincup. I also knew both cars were extremely quick and Shane was on green [new] tyres for the last stint.
"Since Bathurst I knew it was a long shot and we gave it all we had. He deserves it more than anyone as we got beaten over the year."
Meanwhile Van Gisbergen's scintillating drive had fans and teams alike on their feet and holding their respective breaths. He was like something out of a Pacman video game gobbling up car after car from ninth.
On lap 60 he set a new lap record and three laps later dispatched Todd Kelly and Craig Lowndes to grab fifth place and the championship title.
Not happy with just finishing fifth to clinch the title, he had his sights set on a podium finish.
"I managed to get past Scotty [McLaughlin] and then James [Courtney] was so slow he couldn't get out of his own way. I tried to save my spot but Scotty was attacking me. I didn't really want to pass James, but he sort of forced to me to," said Van Gisbergen with a rye smile.
Supercars points
1. Shane Van Gisbergen 3218
2. Jamie Whincup 3048
3. Scott McLaughlin 2695
4. Craig Lowndes 2686
5. Will Davison 2499
6. Mark Winterbottom 2420
7. Chaz Mostert 2289
8. Michael Caruso 2178
