SVG ENJOYING HIS SWEET MOMENT IN TIME – SAYS DANE

Shane van Gisbergen is sitting pretty as he rolls towards his second Supercars championship title, according to his boss at the Red Bull Ampol Racing team, Roland Dane.

“He is in that sweet spot,” Dane tells Auto Action.

Other drivers have won individual races, but no one has been able to mount more than token resistance to van Gisbergen and it’s his team-mate at The Bulls, retiring racer Jamie Whincup, who is second in the series.

None of this is a surprise to Dane, who tells AA that he sees no signs of significant change in his lead driver in 2021.

“I don’t necessarily think he has changed really,” Dane says of SvG.

“I think that what happens with touring car drivers, in my experience, is there is a sweet spot in their careers. It’s where experience has been accumulated and is matched with the basic speed.”

Dane has a worrying warning for the rest of the Supercars grid, as he forecasts a continued dominance by his driver.

“With him, that could last longer than almost anyone. He is in a good place and he is comfortable, so long may it continue.”

Digging into what gives SvG his current dominance, Dane cannot pinpoint an individual strength or difference from his rivals.

“I think it’s not so much his greatest strength, but his point of difference is that he has a huge understanding of the sport.

“It’s how to race, how to read the bigger picture. And when he’s on top of his game his brain is running different scenarios during a race at a speed that most other people cannot contemplate.”

It’s an ability that many people relate to grand prix greats Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, who could be driving flat-out but still calculating the risks and rewards in various strategies.

Triple champion Jackie Stewart once avoided a crash because he was watching the crowd and realised they were looking ahead to an incident, instead of watching him.

This ability to drive mostly on instinct, freeing the brain to do other things in a race, is rarer in touring cars.

“I think, at different levels and in different ways, both Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup have it. It’s just that Shane’s knowledge of the wider sport helps him in that area,” he says.

That knowledge comes from his dips into GT racing, driving speedway and rally cars, and his interest in the history of motorsport and also the strengths and weaknesses of his rivals.

Dane, who has had a talented roster of international aces through the seats at Triple Eight and also tracks his motorsport career back to his earlier days in the UK, draws a comparison with multiple World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller.

“Yes, Yvan Muller springs to mind as someone who is a very smart racer. But, ultimately Shane and Jamie have shown that they have more speed than Yvan.

“He used his brain to maximise his situation. But both Shane and Jamie have probably got more outright speed,” says Dane.

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