Shane van Gisbergen is the 2021 Supercars champion. And he didn’t have to do much of anything to achieve it.
The 250km race at Sydney Motorsport Park was abandoned before it even really got going as heavy rain washed out any running.
With the race essentially binned as a nothing affair, van Gisbergen now has enough of a points buffer over teammate Jamie Whincup to be crowned champion.
It’s the Kiwi’s second driver’s title. He joins Jim Richards and Scott McLaughlin as multiple series champions to hail from Aotearoa.
“Sucks we couldn’t put on a show but super cool to win another championship,” van Gisbergen said. “Over the moon.
“Can’t thank the team enough. It’s been an awesome season. Our cars have been fast almost everywhere, so super stoked.”
The field did complete five laps, albeit all behind the safety car before race control deemed conditions too unsafe to continue.
Once back in the garage, there wasn’t too much action going on.
Most drivers resorted to sitting out the rain in their pit garage. Some ventured up and down the lane and chatted among themselves.
The boys at Erebus even got the footy out for a kick around.
Overall, the general consensus was the rain was too intense to consider restarting.
“It’s disappointing for the fans but it is really wet out there, and it’ll probably be pretty hair if they send us back out,” Will Brown said during the suspension.
“With all the spectator hills, [the rain] sort of runs off the hills and down onto the circuit, so there are a lot of rivers. It is pretty sketchy,” Tickford’s James Courtney said.
Tim Slade suggested the lack of circulating on the track made it impossible to clear the standing water,
“If we are not running around, [the circuit] is just going to fill up even more,” Slade said.
Race control called off the race just before 6.30 pm NZT.
Van Gisbergen also claimed the inaugural Sydney Cup, which is awarded to the driver with the most points over the past four rounds at SMP.
“It’s been awesome,” he said about winning the Cup. “We haven’t been the fastest, but we’ve been consistent and got those results.
“We had one bad race but for the rest of them we were always up there.”
With the Supercars title wrapped up, van Gisbergen now sets his sights on a successful Bathurst 1000 title defence in December.