DIRT NEWS
EX-ATV STAR VAN GISBERGEN WINS BATHURST 2020
T wo of the biggest names in motorcycling are teaming up for the upcoming NZ Motocross season with Kawasaki and Whites Powersports joining to back the Bridgestone Kawasaki Race Team . From ATV quad bike star to V8 supercar legend in one easy lesson ? Shane Van Gisbergen could be just the man to give that tutorial . The 31-year-old from Auckland took his V8 Holden Commodore to win the 2020 Bathurst 1000 race for the first time on October 18 ( codriving with Garth Tander ), but interestingly , only a few among the worldwide television audience would have realised his humble motorsport beginnings , where he regularly raced an ATV ( all terrain vehicle ) in New Zealand before switching to four-wheel racing of the motorcar variety .
He used to rub shoulders and bash handlebars with such Kiwi ATV legends as Roger Macdonald , Quentin Palmer , Jason Jepson and Ian Ffitch and BikesportNZ . com and Kiwi Rider were on site to capture these photographs in 2007 , when Van Gisbergen was aged just 18 , at a time when he had just been signed as the new driver on the reformed Team Kiwi Racing ( TKR ) V8 supercar team in Australia . An athletics champion and former first-XV rugby player for Saint Kentigerns College , Van Gisbergen is no stranger to excelling at sport at the top level . As a seven-year-old , Van Gisbergen began his motor-racing career on dirt bikes , becoming a mini motocross champion , a midget speedway champion and a karting champion . He was also
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