SHANE van Gisbergen’s victory in today’s Race 20 of the Repco Supercars Championship in Townsville has driven his car into the history books.
His Triple Eight Race Engineering-built and run ZB Commodore (chassis 888A-054) has become the most winning chassis in the history of the Australian Touring Car/Supercars Championship.
The win was the car’s 29th championship race win, moving it by another Triple Eight chassis, Jamie Whincup’s former Vodafone Commodore VE II nicknamed ‘Kate’, for the record.
Whincup’s chassis (the car now owned by the seven-time Supercars Champion) won its 28th race at Winton in November 2012, but it now makes way in the record books for the Kiwi’s car with the potential of more wins given 14 races remain in the 2022 championship.
van Gisbergen debuted the chassis at the 2020 Adelaide 500 and has driven it in every Supercars Championship race since.
He and Garth Tander drove it to victory in the 2020 Bathurst 1000 and the Kiwi used it to win the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.
The chassis also scored Triple Eight’s 200th championship race win in van Gisbergen’s hands in Townsville in August 2020.
It’s won 29 races from 78 starts, a winning percentage of 37.18%, and has finished on the podium 49 times for a podium percentage of 62.82%.
By comparison, Whincup’s ‘Kate’ Commodore (used across the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons) won 28 of its 70 championship race starts (a winning percentage of 40%) and finished on the podium in 50 of those races (a podium percentage of 71.43%).
The #97 Red Bull Ampol Commodore was in fact sold some time ago to a private collector, who did the deal with then-Team Principal Roland Dale in 2020, prior to the car’s victory in that year’s Bathurst endurance classic.
The new owner is set to take delivery of the car at the end of the current Repco Supercars Championship season.
