Holden star Shane van Gisbergen says they are closing the gap on Ford after a nail-biting Supercars finish at the Ipswich SuperSprint.
Van Gisbergen on Sunday almost pipped DJR Team Penske gun Scott McLaughlin. The championship leader has dominated in his Ford Mustang all season winning 14 of 20 races.
But Holden clawed back some ground at Queensland Raceway over the weekend, with Jamie Whincup snapping a 24-race win drought on Saturday and van Gisbergen finishing just 0.701 seconds behind McLaughlin on Sunday in race two.
The drivers’ title is almost out of the reach as McLaughin holds a 433-point lead over teammate Fabian Coulthard and is 520 points clear of van Gisbergen.
But van Gisbergen is confident he’ll compete with the Ford stars for the remainder of the season.
« I think it’s track specific but certainly I think we’ve made our car a lot better in the low speed stuff, » van Gisbergen said.
« I feel like we’re certainly improving, Jamie’s car was really good yesterday and mine was good today, two good weekends in a row is certainly positive. »
McLaughlin said Holden were always going to come back into the fold and added that was good for the sport.
« It was only a matter of time before they were going to get their stuff together and sort it all out, they’re a class outfit and have been the top of the league for so long, » McLaughlin said.
« Shane is a world-class driver and they were always going to sort it all out eventually. We’ve definitely had a leg up this year, but we ran kind of linear last year and the year before so we had an understanding.
« It was a matter of time but we’re certainly pushing on to make sure we can keep as much of a gap as we can.
« The category is built to be close, built to have battles like that and I think it’s good for the sport it’s getting close again. »
Supercars resumes at Tailem Bend on August 23-25.
http://www.espn.com/v8-supercars/story/_/id/27275756/holden-closing-supercars-gap-ford
