KEY POINTS:
Four months after being signed by Stone Brothers Racing to drive the Team Kiwi Racing (TKR) Ford Falcon in the Australian V8 Supercar series, 18-year-old Auckland racing driver Shane Van Gisbergen says he is still pinching himself.
"Not all the time, but sometimes I'll be thinking about something
else and it will hit me," Van Gisbergen says. "The fact that I'm about to get into the TKR car and go out on to the track with guys who I've grown up reading about in the magazines.
"I said at the press conference when they announced that I had got the drive that it was a dream come true and it is."
Since signing for Stone Brothers Racing and replacing New Zealand motor racing icon Paul Radisich, Van Gisbergen has notched up five V8 Supercar starts.
His first was at the Oran Park round near Sydney in August. He has since gone on to complete the two endurance rounds of the season at Sandown in Melbourne and Bathurst in rural New South Wales.
Last weekend, he competed in the series' annual away round at Bahrain in the Middle East.
At all three Australian rounds, Van Gisbergen was quick from the get-go, being ninth fastest in practice at Oran Park, 10th at Sandown Park and ninth again at Bathurst.
Once the other drivers bolt new tyres on for qualifying, the 18-year-old slips back down the ranking but Stone Brothers Racing's Ross Stone stressed right from the start that 2007 is a learning year.
There's plenty to learn too as the talented teen - who first caught the eye of the Stone Brothers during his winning 2005-2006 New Zealand Formula Ford season - admits that there is a huge difference between the single-seaters he cut his racing teeth on and the big, powerful tin-top he now drives.
"With the Toyota [the TRS single-seater he used to finish second overall and claim the Rookie of The Year title in New Zealand last season], corner speed was everything. That's what wings-and-slicks cars are all about.
"With the Falcon, you've got a lot of horsepower but you can really only use it in a straight line. And you can't slide them around either because that loses you time, so you have to be precise with when and where you brake, and where you feed the power back in." After last weekend's away round in Bahrain, the remaining two rounds of the 2007 V8 Supercar series are a little closer to home - the penultimate race at Symmons Plains in Tasmania over November 17-18, and the grand final at Phillip Island on December 1-2. Heading into the Desert 400 at Bahrain, Van Gisbergen had nine points and was second in the Rookie of The Year standings, just seven behind Holden driver Shane Price, despite having only competed in four rounds.