By Mark Fogarty
Four years ago, Shane van Gisbergen was farewelled by the Supercars community as he apparently prepared to walk away from V8 racing.
Van Gisbergen didn't end up quitting and on Saturday, he clinched his first Supercars crown with a typically tenacious drive to third place in the opening 250-kilometre leg of the Sydney 500.
Shane Van Gisbergen crosses the finish line to finish in third place to win the Supercars titleCredit: Getty Images
In the course of the 74-lap grind around the brutal 3.42km Sydney Olympic Park street circuit, the fiery New Zealander went from pole position to 22nd and back to a podium placing in a roller coaster ride to seal the title.
His Triple Eight Holden teammate Jamie Whincup dominated the race, racing away from second on the grid to an unchallenged victory, but van Gisbergen's mighty recovery meant his best effort wasn't good enough to keep their title battle alive until Sunday's final race of the season.
Shane vanGisbergen is sprayed with champagne.Credit: Getty Images
By finishing third against the odds, van Gisbergen secured the championship by taking an unbeatable 170 points lead over Whincup.
Even if the record six-time V8 champion wins again on Sunday, he would still come up too short as there are only 150 points available for victory in the second 250km race, which will decide the winner of the last Sydney 500 trophy.
After eight years at Sydney Olympic Park, the Supercars season finale is next year moving to a new street track event at Newcastle, two hours north of the Harbour City.
Ironically, van Gisbergen's championship triumph came at the place where at the end of the 2012 season he said goodbye to Supercars.
Amid conjecture that he was suffering from acute depression, he had announced that he was retiring after five years with the Stone Brothers Racing Ford team because he was "burned out".
Sympathy for the shy Gold Coast-based Aucklander was widespread along the V8 pit lane and all the drivers signed a bonnet from his racing Falcon as a tribute before the Sydney 500.
To say that the Supercars fraternity was surprised when he staged a "comeback" by joining the small Teckno Autosports team for 2013 is an understatement.
As van Gisbergen, 27, now admits, his departure from SBR was badly handled, with the "burn-out" ruse the team's convenient excuse for why they were losing their star driver.
In fact, he left the team because he didn't want to be involved in its change in 2013 to Erebus Motorsport following its takeover by eccentric multi-millionairess Betty Klimenko.
Van Gisbergen deduced that Klimenko's decision to switch from proven Falcons to untried Mercedes AMGs would not go well, as he was subsequently vindicated by Erebus's costly struggle.
At a cost of tens of millions of dollars, the team scored two fortuitous race wins in three seasons before converting to Holden Commodores this year.
Van Gisbergen's covert move to Tekno was brokered by Holden, whose faith in him was confirmed by his clutch of race victories – amid wildly inconsistent results – from 2013-15.
They convinced Triple Eight team owner Roland Dane that van Gisbergen was the Supercars star of the future and early last year he signed him to a multi-year deal, expanding his front-running team to three cars alongside his established duo of Whincup and evergreen V8 veteran Craig Lowndes.
Van Gisbergen responded to the move this year by taking the fight right up to Whincup in the Red Bull Racing stable, culminating in their titanic title struggle over the past few months.
His extraordinary recovery from plummeting to 22nd place – which would have meant Sunday's race would have been a genuine title shootout – after incurring a pit lane drive-through penalty for causing a collision with newly deposed defending Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom.
A timely safety car intervention allowed van Gisbergen to switch to fresh tyres and charge through the field, racing to a title-clinching fifth place with 10 laps to go.
Not content with cruising home in the safe spot, he attacked and passed Scott McLaughlin's Volvo for the fourth last lap, then engaged Holden Racing Team's James Courtney in a tense duel to claim third on the second last lap.
His willingness to risk wrapping up the title with a race to spare by battling hard to get onto the podium was indicative of the aggression and flair van Gisbergen has displayed this year under the stabilising guidance of the overpowering Triple Eight squad.
His maiden Supercars championship caps a triumphant year for van Gisbergen, who has also made a name for himself in international GT3 sports car racing.
He began the year with a flamboyant victory in the Bathurst 12 Hour GT endurance race at the famous Mont Panorama circuit in a factory backed McLaren 650S GT3.
Van Gisbergen also helped the McLaren team capture the European GT Endurance Cup, which the team clinched in his absence due to a clash with September's Sandown 500.
An unusually inveterate racer who is happy to race anything anywhere, he is also in contention to win the Intercontinental GT Challenge, which will be decided at the Sepang 12 Hours in Malaysia next Sunday.