“Unfortunate” turnaround leaves Shane van Gisbergen bitter as his Hometown hopes crumble

Shane van Gisbergen shared his 'unfortunate' experience racing back home in New Zealand. SVG suffered a crash in his sprint car at Baypark Speedway, saying it was his first time flipping in a race.

Van Gisbergen is a 35-year-old New Zealand professional racecar driver heading to the NASCAR Cup Series next year. He recently entered a sprint car race where his No. 97A United Truck Parts sprint car crashed after making contact with the No. 28M car of Ayrton Hodson on turn 1.

Per X (formerly Twitter), Shane van Gisbergen posted onboard footage of his crash on dirt.

"Well, that was my first ever flip! Unfortunately got collected by someone and took a bit of a ride," SVG wrote.

The three-time Supercars champion continued by commending the safety crew and his United Truck Parts team for attending to his crash.

"Thanks to the safety crew for doing an amazing job. The United Truck Parts team are having at rebuilding the car and we should be racing tonight at Baypark again," he added.

Shane van Gisbergen also posted the crash on Instagram. Daniel Suarez told him to take it easy, while Christopher Bell welcomed him to sprint car racing.

Shane van Gisbergen Instagram post - Source: @svg97 on IG

Fortunately, the driver didn't sustain any major injuries.

The Baypark Speedway stop was part of SVG's sprint car schedule in New Zealand. He will enter the race at Waikaraka Park on January 1 before competing at Western Springs Speedway.

Van Gisbergen will soon suit up for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series for his rookie campaign. The Kiwi will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for the new and third seat at Trackhouse Racing, teaming up with Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain.

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Shane van Gisbergen spole about missing home during NASCAR season

In an interview with Speedcafe TV, Shane van Gisbergen opened up about missing home while pursuing a NASCAR career in the US. The interview came on the heels of his first full-time Xfinity drive where he scored three wins and made a playoff appearance.

SVG said:

“It's been a lot, it's been different, I do miss home a lot [...] it was a very tough start to the year. We probably could have left in a little bit of a better spot. It took [girlfriend, Jessica Dane] a bit to get comfortable as well and then my mom was quite sick early in the year as well as soon as I moved over so it was very difficult in the first half of the year.” [4:56]

However, the New Zealander said the situation improved after a few races and finding a place to live.

“Once we got settled and some momentum with racing and then we found our own place where we wanted to live, it's really been a lot better these last few months on the off-track stuff," the NASCAR driver stated. [5:21]

Shane van Gisbergen will continue building his career away from home with his first full-time Cup Series schedule with Trackhouse Racing next year.