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Van Gisbergen hammers Supercar record in test

Van Gisbergen - battered Queensland record

Kiwi young gun Shane van Gisbergen was the toast of the Stone Brothers Racing team at Ipswich's Queensland International Raceway yesterday afternoon (Tuesday Feb 09) after claiming both the fastest lap and a new lap record at the first official V8 Supercar test session of the season at the track.

The test was the only chance the top Queensland-based teams had of putting their new cars (and in some cases new car/driver combinations) through their paces before the upcoming season opener in the Middle East and 20-year-old Auckland-born, now Queensland-based van Gisbergen was the pace-setter in the #9 SP Tools Falcon across a range of track and weather conditions.

It was a confidence-boosting performance for van Gisbergen and one he was justifiably proud of. “We got a car balance we were pretty happy with in the morning, " he explained, "then when we put on a new set of tyres like most of the others did in the afternoon we were straight to the top."

That said, he sounded a warning about reading too much into the achievement, stressing that the real 'test' will come at the races this season. “It’s always nice to be quickest but you don’t get any trophies for a test day; we are holding out for the first race at Abu Dhabi and that’s where it all matters.”

In claiming the top time at the test van Gisbergen was comfortably quicker than fellow Ford driver James Courtney,
veteran Russell Ingall in the first of the Holden Commodores, and a four-car Ford pack consisting of Jonathan Webb, Dean Fiore, Steven Johnson and Alex Davidson.

RESULTS
V8 Supercar Test Day - Queensland Teams
1. #9 Shane van Gisbergen - SP Tools Racing : Ford Falcon FG 1:10.7414 (Record)
2. #18 James Courtney - Jim Beam Racing : Ford Falcon FG +0.0196
3. #39 Russell Ingall - Supercheap Auto Racing : Holden Commodore VE +0.1418
4. #19 Johnson Webb - Dick Johnson Racing : Ford Falcon FG +0.3109
5. #12 Dean Fiore - Bing Lee/Panasonic : Ford Falcon FG +0.4160
6. #17 Steven Johnson - Jim Beam Racing : Ford Falcon FG +0.4241
7. #4 Alex Davison - IRWIN Racing : Ford Falcon FG +0.4404
8. #51 Greg Murphy - Castrol EDGE Racing : Holden Commodore VE +0.7105
9. #47 Tim Slade - Wilson Security Racing : Ford Falcon FG +0.8200
10. #888 Craig Lowndes - TeamVodafone : Holden Commodore VE +0.8953