As Shane van Gisbergen “Gets Old,” He Finally Lives His Teenage Dream

Shane van Gisbergen took the racing world by storm when he flew past the checkered flag in his debut Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course last month. A part of Trackhouse Racing‘s ambitious Project91, SVG’s NASCAR run was supposed to be a one-off event, but after the scintillating display at Chicago, there was no way for him to not come back across the Pacific.

Ahead of his second Cup Series appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, the Kiwi sensation went for a walk around Indianapolis’s Gasoline Alley alongside RACER‘s Marshall Pruett and Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks to talk about his origins and driving career.

“You were the next guy”: Shane van Gisbergen’s journey across continents

SVG’s racing career is one for the storybooks. Beginning his career competing in quarter midget and kart racing, he went on to become the 4th most successful racing driver in Supercars Championship history. Now making his presence known around the tracks of America, his racing caliber and potential was not something that Marshall Pruett witnessed for the first time. The veteran journalist had first met SVG back in 2010, when he was in just his 3rd full season racing the V8 supercars.

Quite excited about the long journey himself, Marshall reminisced about how SVG had been a pup when they met for the first time but had now gotten quite old with a lot of greys in his hairline.

Talking about SVG’s “across the world” journey, Marshall asked, “You were the next guy, you were showing yourself, you were on the way. Hadn’t won a race yet, but you got that solved and started adding more […] Even back then when we spoke, you said I’d love to try some of this, ‘I’d love to come to America.’ How’s the stream working out mate?”

Just a fledgling driver of around 20 at the time, SVG had expressed his desire to race in America in the future. 13 years later, he has come to realize the dream—and in some fashion. Responding to Marshall’s question, SVG talked about how it had been an awesome and fun experience expanding his presence across the motorsports world. He said, “I did a lot of DT stuff in Europe. GT here, and yeah, now to come and try NASCAR and seeing what Project91 was doing last year, to come and be part of it. And then now, it’s leading to more. Very, very cool.”

Watch This Story: Trackhouse Boss Justin Marks Could Lose SVG to Bigger Nascar Sharks

With SVG definitely feeling the vibes of being an international motorsports star, the one person he can thank for facilitating the entire sequence of events that made him shoot to fame in America is Justin Marks.

The success of Project91 and SVG’s part in it

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When Shane van Gisbergen piloted Trackhouse Racing’s #91 Chevy, he did more than just become the first NASCAR debut driver in 60-odd years to win a race. He brought home to team owner Justin Marks some much-needed validation for his innovative and ambitious project which was to bring in international drivers and have them run beside American stock car racing’s finest.

Recounting the thought process that went behind bringing in SVG for Project91, Justin Marks talked about living in the Australian corner of the world when he was young and how there were a lot of little things that nudged him toward the decision.

Marks said, “But yeah, I mean, it was always sort of on the board to try to get a guy like Shane from down there […] Now the opportunity existed to bring someone like that in to do something really incredible that the sport has never seen before and obviously we did that in Chicago.”

By conquering much around the world and now becoming the hottest property in America’s racetracks with the aid of Project91, Shane van Gisbergen has already entered his name into the pages of NASCAR history. The heights that the 34-year-old could reach from here are potentially limitless. With a comfortable 19th-place finish in his first race on an oval and a 10th-position finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in his 2nd Cup Series appearance, it seems that the man has nowhere to race but forward into the halls of fame.

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