SVG Stuns: Melbourne GP Shocker Sparks Furious Triple Eight Fallout
Shane Van Gisbergen’s infamous 2016 Melbourne weekend remains one of the sharper moments in his career — not for a trophy, but for a team bust-up that owner Roland Dane didn’t let slide. Fresh to Triple Eight Race Engineering that season, the Kiwi found himself in a three-way, paint-trading duel with veterans Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup in the non-championship Supercar support race at Albert Park. Van Gisbergen admits he forced a move into the tight turn three that led to contact, broken lights and a celebration cut short once the trio returned to the pits and Dane “lost it,” underscoring the team’s strict rule against hitting teammates even in no-points events. The incident became part of Triple Eight’s 2016 lore as the outfit pushed to be the dominant force in Supercars that year.
The episode has lingered in SVG’s memory as both a lesson in team codes and an early test of his place in big-lineup politics. He recalls the moment on the Dinner with Racers podcast and framed it alongside how Triple Eight’s culture — built on unity by Dane over a decade — reacted strongly to intra-team contact. That strict locker-room standard stands in contrast to the on-track aggression that marked the Melbourne clash, and it’s a reminder of what can happen when personal ambition and team strategy collide.
Today, Van Gisbergen has translated his road-course mastery into a successful run in NASCAR while deliberately sharpening his ovalcraft. After dominating road and street courses in 2025 — with five wins and seven top finishes in ten such events — SVG has worked to convert that speed into stronger oval results. He’s credited studying Kyle Larson’s approach to oval racing, particularly line choice and corner entry, as a blueprint for adapting his style. Incremental progress showed through the season: he began breaking into top-20 runs at Michigan and Darlington, landed his first oval top-10 with a 10th-place at Kansas in September, and matched some of his best oval scores with 14ths at Charlotte and Richmond.
Those gains have set Van Gisbergen up to enter 2026 with increased confidence and a clear focus on improving where he’s historically been weakest. The Melbourne incident remains a vivid lesson from his Triple Eight days, but his recent NASCAR season suggests he’s learning from past clashes and from peers — blending road-course dominance with growing oval savvy as he pursues a more complete game.
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