Fab-four Kiwis vying to bring Peter Brock Trophy to this side of the Tasman for the third year in a row.

There is less of a Kiwi invasion for this year’s Bathurst 1000, with Greg Murphy, Earl Bamber, Scott McLaughlin and Ritchie Stanaway all unable to make the trip to Mt Panorama because of Covid-19 restrictions.

However, there are still four Kiwis who’ll be flying the flag at the Great Race today.

Shane van Gisbergen

Age: 32

Team: Triple Eight Race Engineering

Partner: Garth Tander

Last year: Winner

Best performance: First in 2020 Shane van Gisbergen has already got his second Supercars championship in the bag, with the rain two weeks ago at Sydney Motorsport Park forcing the race to be cancelled, which meant he couldn’t be caught.

With that in the bag, Van Gisbergen won’t need to drive cautiously at Mt Panorama and think about championship points.

He hasn’t always had the fastest car this year, but has been the most consistent. He’ll go in as the favourite to lift the Peter Brock Trophy. However, he knows anything can happen over 1000km, like in 2014 when he had the race in the bag, only for his starter motor to fail at his final pitstop.

Andre Heimgartner

Age: 26

Team: Kelly Grove Racing Partner: Matt Campbell

Last year: 11th

Best performance: Ninth in 2017 Andre Heimgartner has steadily earned his stripes as a Supercars driver and reached the point where he can be seen as a dark horse for the great race.

At the beginning of his Supercars career, with the now defunct Super Black Racing team, he occasionally looked out of his depth and other drivers felt they could bully him around the track.

But over the last couple of years he’s matured and this year he picked up his first win in the category, with a victory at Tailem Bend. His co-driver is fast, but can be erratic.

Fabian Coulthard

Age: 39

Team: Team Sydney Partner: Jonathan Webb Last year: Fourth

Best performance: Third in 2017 At the age of 39, Coulthard has become the elder statesman of Supercars. He’s no longer in a flying DJR-Team Penske Ford Mustang and is with a team still finding their feet.

While his knowledge is invaluable for Team Sydney, results have been poor. Of all the drivers who’ve been at every race this season, Coulthard is last in the standings. He hasn’t finished in the top-10 in any of the 29 races this year and retired in six of them.

His co-driver Jonathan Webb, won the Bathurst 1000 with Will Davison in 2016, but may not have the race pace these days to help out Coulthard.

Chris Pither

Age: 34

Team: Brad Jones Racing Partner: Macauley Jones

Last year: 16th

Best performance: Fourth in 2017

Co-driver Chris Pither didn’t have a great start to this year’s Bathurst 1000, putting his car into a wall in Thursday’s practice session. However, that can be put down as a blip that can happen to any driver at Bathurst.

Pither will have the experience to be one of the quicker codrivers around Mt Panorama, but it could be Macauley Jones that hinders his chances of being on the podium as the 27-year-old hasn’t been competitive all season.