{"id":241203,"date":"2022-09-27T21:45:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T21:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=241203"},"modified":"2022-09-28T01:58:18","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T01:58:18","slug":"bathurst-champ-learning-crazy-new-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=241203","title":{"rendered":"Bathurst champ learning 'crazy' new trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

With one of the most diverse and successful portfolios in motorsport, it's hard to believe racing all-rounder Shane van Gisbergen<\/a> has much more to learn.<\/p>\n

But that's exactly what the two-time Supercars<\/a> champion is in the midst of doing, discovering a whole new discipline of racing.<\/p>\n

Rally.<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship.<\/strong><\/em> All the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Kiwi has nearly two decades of experience on asphalt, winning numerous titles and races including the Bathurst 1000<\/a>, Bathurst 12 Hour, and Bathurst 6 Hour.<\/p>\n

Away from the pressure cooker of Supercars, van Gisbergen has found his vice sliding between trees across the countryside of Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Despite his relative inexperience, van Gisbergen took a Rally of Auckland historic class win on his rally debut in his father Robert's bright red Ford Escort RS1800.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A day later, he triumphed in the Battle of Jack's Ridge rally sprint, the first time he'd competed in a top-flight rally car.<\/p>\n

Now, a little under two years on from his debut, van Gisbergen is set to take on Rally New Zealand \u2013 the 11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship.<\/p>\n

As van Gisbergen explained to Wide World of Sports, rallying is a world away from circuit racing.<\/p>\n

"The way I've been describing to people, it's like going to Bathurst for the first time and doing two laps in a rental car at 60 km\/h and then you've got to go straight into the top 10 shootout. No practice, just flat out into it," said van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n

"The first time you're driving the car, you drive it at road speed, and then the first time you're pushing, you're on the clock. There's no warm-up, you're just straight into it. It's pretty crazy in that regard."<\/p>\n

Rally isn't without its frustrations, however.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unlike circuit racing, a relatively small mistake can have enormous consequences, as van Gisbergen found out when he slid off the road on his way to a win in Hawke's Bay.<\/p>\n

"Especially because it was such a stupid one," he said of the error.<\/p>\n

"Just a small off but a silly mistake with big consequences. That was simply all the stages were fast, open, and flowing, except one. I just didn't change my driving style quick enough and made an error at the start of the stage.<\/p>\n

"It's hard. When I make an error or stuff something up, I think about it too much and think about processing it. You don't get another go at that corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"If you stuff it up you're never going to see it again, whereas in circuit racing you get a minute and then you're back there again and you've got to fix what you did wrong last time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"That's the hardest thing is just clearing the mind, resetting, and just keep pushing because you've got the whole stage to go. It's quite a different mindset."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/OfficialWRC\/status\/1571559683982229504<\/a><\/p>\n

Rally New Zealand is a far cry from the one-day rallies he's contested at home and in Australia.<\/p>\n

The event takes in four days of competition, with a ceremonial start on Thursday followed by a special stage at the Auckland Domain backdropped by the Auckland Museum.<\/p>\n

A total of 276.44 km of competitive stages will take place over the four days. Friday's running is the longest of all with 157.98 km of running across six stages.<\/p>\n

Before the competition gets underway, there's plenty of preparation that must be done between he and his co-driver making for a week-long event.<\/p>\n

"There's three days of the rally. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you do the recce (reconnaissance) of those stages," said van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n

"You have your notes, which you read through, but also you video it as well. Then when you go through your notes, you recheck them, and edit them as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I don't try to memorise any of the stages at all, just maybe some tricky bits or intersections, but otherwise you just go off all of the pace notes.<\/p>\n

"I've only ever done one rally. The prep, it goes right into the night. So to do three days in a row for each day, it's going to be pretty full on.<\/p>\n

"It should be good. I'm just trying to keep it pretty lowkey to start with. For sure, it's a long week, so I kind of need to store up the energy a bit and then straight into Bathurst too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It's two massive weeks coming up. It's amazing how an event starts on the Monday and then runs until Sunday. A full week long, but I'm up for the challenge.<\/p>\n

"I've got an open mind to learning and keep building up the experience."<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen has a knack of being competitive in whatever he drives. If it's got four wheels, most expect him to be up the front.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, his definition of success is simply finishing the rally.<\/p>\n

"I'm sure the competitive side will come out once I've got the helmet on," he said.<\/p>\n

"But how I'm approaching it, as I said, I've got an open mind, learning and getting better and better each day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"The way to get better is to do every stage and be there on Sunday. I just plan on building on what we've been learning so far and be there at the finish.<\/p>\n

"Whatever I finish is probably not going to change what I'm doing in the future. It's just a cool experience and I'm loving having a crack at rally.<\/p>\n

"It's my family background. I'd love to do more in the future. Circuit racing will probably always be my focus."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That family connection will be in full effect at the rally.<\/p>\n

"He's been right into it," van Gisbergen said of his father, Robert.<\/p>\n

"It's given him a new lease on life, or a new focus, this year. Obviously he hasn't been able to do a lot of racing with me the last couple of years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Doing the rallies in New Zealand, the first one I managed to win, which was cool. To have that, that was our first rally together I guess. It was a pretty cool experience.<\/p>\n

"We did a test day on the Monday after Pukekohe [Supercars] and Dad had his car there too, which was awesome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"He's driving again and he'll be driving on Sunday at Jack's Ridge too. It's pretty cool."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With one of the most diverse and successful portfolios in motorsport, it's hard to believe racing all-rounder Shane van Gisbergen has much more to learn. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241205,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241203\/revisions\/241205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}