Van Gisbergen will travel to Sandown
Shane van Gisbergen will at least travel to Sandown for this weekend's Supercars round as his race to recover from a broken collarbone continues.
The Triple Eight driver was involved in a mountain biking crash a little over a week ago that left him with a broken collarbone.
He underwent surgery immediately and is now in a race to be fit enough to take part in this weekend's second round of the Supercars season at Sandown.
Part of his recovery included sitting out last weekend's GT World Challenge Australia series at Phillip Island , where he was meant to share T8's Mercedes with Prince Jefri Ibrahim.
While it's yet to be decided if he'll race this weekend or not, a Triple Eight spokesperson confirmed to Motorsport.com that his recovery is "on track" and that he will definitely travel with the rest of the team to Melbourne later this week.
The decision to race will then be left to van Gisbergen, with no firm deadline on making that call.
That opens the door for van Gisbergen to at least try driving the car in the two half-hour practice sessions on Saturday morning.
It's widely thought that van Gisbergen's Bathurst co-driver Garth Tander is the preferred stand-in should one be required.
Tander lives in Melbourne and will be at the circuit anyway due to his TV commitments.
Van Gisbergen currently leads the Supercars standings after a clean sweep at the season-opening Mount Panorama 500 last month, with a 33-point advantage over Chaz Mostert.
There are 315 points on offer this weekend, 100 per race win and an additional five per race thanks to the new fastest lap bonus rule.
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