Shane van Gisbergen is a very late addition to the entry for this coming weekend’s Australian adventure at The Bend Motorsport Park.

The 2016 V8 Supercars Champion will make it an all-Kiwi effort at the impressive facility at Tailem Bend, South Australia, he’ll combine with 2019 Japanese Super Formula champion Nick Cassidy (who joins the team after missing the Shanghai season opener, Masataka Yanagida playing ‘super-sub) and double Toyota Racing Series Champion and fellow New Zealander Daniel Gaunt aboard the ‘All Black’ liveried #1 Liger JS P217 Gibson.

For Van Gisbergen, inaugural race winner at The Bend in 2018 in Supercars, the Asian Le Mans Series’ 4-hour event on Sunday will mark his prototype racing debut after success in GTs and Touring Cars. He will though be one of very few in the field to have raced at the facility, albeit not on the full 7.7 km ‘Endurance’ track format.

The opportunity arose for the 2018 and 2019 Supercars’ championship runner-up as a later replacement for car owner Nobuya Yamanaka who has had to withdraw from the event at short notice.

Shane van Gisbergen: “It’s an exciting opportunity to join Eurasia Motorsport at The Bend this weekend. It will be my first time in a prototype and at a track that will suit them perfectly! Getting to join some great friends in Daniel Gaunt and Nick Cassidy will be a lot of fun, and I’ll be leaning from their experience in the car to help get me up to speed as quickly as possible.”

Nobuya Yamanaka: “Obviously I am really disappointed to not be driving myself this weekend, but I am also very excited that the team New Zealand car can have an all New Zealand driver line-up in my absence. New Zealand is a very important place for me personally as well as my businesses and I am proud to have these three amazing Kiwi drivers in my car.”

Picture top copyright VUE Images / Red Bull Content Pool