The 2022 Repco Supercars Championship season has begun with defending champion Shane van Gisbergen taking victory in race one of the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight event.
The 32-year-old New Zealander used a three-stop strategy during the wet and wild race and led for most of the 77 laps.
The victory was the 55th win of van Gisbergen’s career and moves him within one place of Scott McLaughlin and Garth Tander on the list for most wins.
Race one of the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight event was van Gisbergen’s 450th career race start, coming 15 years after his debut at Oran Park in 2007.
The victory was van Gisbergen’s first win with new race engineer Andrew Edwards.
“It’s a team win, I had no idea what was happening in the middle of the race,” van Gisbergen said.
“Awesome job by the team, and pretty lucky the weather held out.”
“It’s a great way to start, but it’s a long year ahead.”
Anton De Pasquale and Chaz Mostert finished on the podium with Will Davison coming in fourth and Brodie Kostecki finishing in fifth place.
Nick Percat and Will Brown were six and seventh respectively, while Tim Slade, Broc Feeney and James Courtney rounded out the top 10.
The big question heading into the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship season will be if anyone can catch van Gisbergen? After already claiming victory in race one, it looks like the Kiwi star is on track for another successful season.
Both van Gisbergen and Triple Eight Race Engineering have made big changes for the new season with former team boss Roland Dane moving into a part-time role and former team mate Jamie Whincup taking over the team principal role.
Broc Feeney, the 19-year-old 2021 Super2 winner will replace Whincup as van Gisbergen’s team mate, while David Cauchi, Van Gisbergen’s title-winning race engineer has been replaced by Andrew Edwards from Brad Jones Racing.
“The biggest thing for me was a new engineer, with Andrew Edwards joining us, and just learning from each other,” van Gisbergen said in the Fox Sports 2022 Supercars preview show.
“We’ve been putting a lot of work in at the workshops, but … it takes a while to work out.”
“Lucky we’re in a good place. We’ve got good setups for most of the tracks that we’re starting the season at, so it should be easier to settle in.”
For the first time in his career, van Gisbergen, who also won the 2016 championship, will begin the season as the senior driver in a team.
“I’m just trying to think like everyone else,” van Gisbergen said.
“No-one else will care that I’m defending champion. We’re all starting from zero and everyone’s going out there with the hope or ambition that they’re going to be winning.”
“I’ve just got to focus on myself and start as I did last year, just be consistent and be there every weekend.”
