Stone Brothers Racing

Shane van Gisbergen takes win on epic day for Stone Brothers Racing

Stone Brothers Racing’s (SBR) V8 Supercar prodigy Shane van Gisbergen, today chalked up his second career win in Australia’s premier motorsport category after a masterful display of driving at the Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin this afternoon.

And while van Gisbergen’s drive in the #9 SP Tools Racing Falcon will steal the headlines, SBR’s other charges Tim Slade and Alex Davison also contributed to the Team’s best performance since the opening round of the Championship at Abu Dhabi – placing fourth and eighth respectively.

Van Gisbergen’s road to the top spot on the podium today wasn’t an easy one, after a tough qualifying session saw him having to start the race from 12th place on the grid – but this wasn’t a deterrent to van Gisbergen who once again delivered a performance well beyond what would normally be expected from the youngest driver in the field.

Relying on the strategy of holding back until the end of the race – when it counts – SBR again proved they had the right combination of driver, machine and engineering ‘know-how’ to get their three Falcons across the finish line inside the top ten.

Opting to start today’s 200km race on the harder compound ‘Control’ tyre, van Gisbergen, Slade and Davison switched to the softer ‘Sprint’ tyre with around 25 laps to go – and with the expected optimal ‘life’ of the soft tyre to be around 15-20 laps, the gamble was made that a Safety Car period would help extend this window and provide the opportunity for our boys to make further ground in the closing stages.

Unlike yesterday, where the late Safety Car caused all sort of problems for SBR, today it was a godsend and helped SBR’s strategy along, with all three drivers reeling in those in front of them in the closing stages of the race - with Slade and his Lucky 7 Racing Falcon nearly scoring his maiden V8 Supercar podium, and Davison coming from dead last after an off-track excursion earlier in the race to finish well inside the top ten.

Today’s excellent result sees van Gisbergen move back into third in the Driver’s Championship just 261 points from leader Jamie Whincup and 105 from second placed Craig Lowndes. It also cement SBR’s second place in the Team’s Championship behind Triple 8.

After regrouping at their Yatala base, SBR will now prepare for their assault on event seven of the 2011 V8 Supercar Championship which will be held on the streets of Townsville on 8-10 July.

V8 Supercars – Stone Brothers Racing Supports Earthquake Appeal ...

Spyker Squadron General Manager, Peter Van Erp, said: “we take a sabbatical from race this year to focus our resources on the development of a new GT racer based supercar C8 Aileron new Spyker, instead of continuing to spend money on a car at the end of its cycle of development.”. On the long-term future of Spyker Squadron and for his role in the promotion and the technical development of road cars Spyker is a strategically important and positive step.

Greater attention will also be paid to the commercial branch of the division of Spyker Squadron, specifically through the sale of its new C8 Aileron GT car to customer teams. Squadron is already in talks with a number of potential buyers for the supply of cars and full customer support packages in race.

“Many of our crew have friends or relatives who have been affected by this disaster and there are many others out there who need our help”, said SBR Team Principal Ross Stone.

“We will develop the car for the new class GTE, although after his first season we will assess if the demand is sufficient to develop a variant depending on the specifications of the FIA GT3.”. This would be relatively simple and would increase potential customer for the car and associated race support packages. We already draw customer race teams wishing to purchase a car off the shelf, with requests for information from Europe and the far East, “continued Van Erp.”

“I hope that pointing people in the coming weeks (through the stickers on our cars) which still has need of our support, we can help to make a difference”, he has added.

V8 Supercar Teams, Perkins Engineering, Kelly Racing, Holden Racing Team, Holden Dealer Team, Dick Johnson Racing, Stone Brothers Racing

Autocourse Champ Car Official Yearbook 2003-2004

American Motorcyclist

American Motorcyclist

American Motorcyclist