Shane van Gisbergen is pulling double duty this weekend at Mount Panorama, contesting round two of GT World Challenge Australia and the Bathurst 6 Hour.
The current Supercars points leader will steer a Mercedes AMG GT3 in a pair of one-hour races across the weekend before hopping into a BMW M4 for Sunday’s feature endurance event.
Van Gisbergen missed the opening round of the GT World Challenge Australia series at Phillip Island after he broke his collarbone in a mountain bike accident.
His recovery effort is still ongoing, but van Gisbergen was given the ‘all clear’ for the weekend on Tuesday.
“I’m really excited to get back into our GT car,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I missed the first round in Phillip Island, but any time you get to drives laps around Bathurst is awesome, especially in a GT car which is always cool. I’m really looking forward to it.
“I’ve been working a fair bit with Iman [Prince Jefri], especially on the simulator and track days at Norwell Motorplex, and even did some races with other cars on track so he can get a feel for everything.
“There’s nothing you can do to prepare yourself for Bathurst other than race laps, which is going to be the hardest thing.”
Should van Gisbergen find success in the Bathurst 6 Hour, the Kiwi could become only the second driver to have won the 6 Hour, 12 Hour and 1000km endurance races.
Paul Morris currently holds the title of being the only man to have achieved such a feat.
Other notable Kiwis on the 6 Hour entry list include Craig Baird (Holden HSV VE), Madeline Stewart (HSV Astra VXR) and Matthew Payne (Subaru BRZ).
The weekend can be caught live on Sky Sport 5 on both Saturday and Sunday.
Viewing times can be found below: (All times NZT)
GT World Challenge Australia
- Q1 – Sat 11.05 am
- Q2 – Sat 11.35 am
- Race 1 – Sat 4.15 pm
- Race 2 – Sun 10.50 am
Bathurst 6 Hour
- Q – Sat 6.40 pm
- Race – Sun 1.15 pm
Shane will do well