Shane Van Gisbergen showed his class after the first Supercar race of the weekend at The Bend, acknowledging Zak Best, the young wildcard driver who started from pole position, finishing in fifth, after his efforts went seemingly ignored by the race commentary team both during and after the race
“He drove really well,” said the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver of Best, with whom he shared the front row.
“You could tell he was looking around a lot in his mirrors.”
“It’s a big moment for him but he nailed the start and to stop and got away, and he was driving really well, had a lot of grip.”
“It was good to race with him and when I got past him, he was clean and aware of where I was, and he’s doing a really good job.”
Van Gisbergen affirmed he had to be somewhat more cautious around someone he is not used to racing against but had no complaints ,“He’s pretty good and I’m sure he’ll go pretty good in the future.”
The moment 🤩 your pole sitter for Race 21! pic.twitter.com/B5q9ATXlqN
— Tickford Racing (@TickfordRacing) July 30, 2022
The Elephant in the Room
It wasn’t until Best had qualified on pole position that Supercars announced they had allocated both wildcard drivers , Zak Best and Jordan Boys, tyres from a different batch from which the ‘main game’ teams were running on. Not expecting, it seems, to have Zak Best show such speed and out-qualify the entire field.
This led to his efforts in the race appearing to be largely overlooked, when normally you would hear ‘Skaifey’ extolling the virtues of the young driver and how he was ‘Racing with the best operators in the world! This is as good as it gets!’ , instead ‘crickets’, hardly a mention, and no post race interview, when the pitlane reporters spoke to the first through sixth placed drivers but strangely no fifth place driver.
One thing is certain, Zak Best has gained a lot of new supporters this weekend.
