Van Gisbergen claims Bathurst Triple Crown

The Kiwi completed the Triple Crown by teaming up with Shane Smollen and Rob Rubis to win today's Bathurst 6 Hour in their BMW M4.

The trio won the production car classic despite copping a five-second for a restart breach mid-way through the race.

That proved to be little trouble for van Gisbergen, who helped his car to a whopping 12s margin by the chequered flag.

The win means van Gisbergen is the second driver to claim the elusive Triple Crown, following on from his Bathurst 12 Hour win in 2016 and his Bathurst 1000 triumph last year.

"It's awesome to be part of this team [with] Shane Smollen and Rob Rubis," said van Gisbergen.

"What an awesome day. It was a bit tricky in the beginning, we thought we were losing but we took the pain of the CPS early and it worked out great.

"At the end I knew I had the five-second penalty and I just pushed like anything."

The other Triple Crown winner is Paul Morris who won the Bathurst 12 Hour when it was still a production car race in 2007 followed by the Bathurst 1000 in 2014 and the Bathurst 6 Hour in 2017.

The Bathurst 6 Hour win adds to a stunning streak of success for van Gisbergen that goes back to the end of last season.

He's unbeaten in Supercars since last October's Bathurst 1000, having scooped all five race wins so far in 2021.

He also won the New Zealand Grand Prix in January and yesterday's first of two GT World Challenge Australia heats at Bathurst yesterday.

A second place in the second GT race earlier today is his worst circuit racing result since he finished fifth in a Supercars sprint race at The Bend last September.

Remarkably van Gisbergen has won three Supercars races, the GT race and the 6 Hour while recovering from a broken collarbone and three broken ribs.

"I'll be sore tomorrow but it's well worth it," he added after today's victory.

Van Gisbergen will return to Supercars action at the rescheduled Tasmania  SuperSprint from 17-18 April.