"I'm just trying to forget about winning there last time," the 22-year-old said before crossing the Tasman this week. "This is a new year and we have to go out there and try and do what we did last year and put two good days together."

That said, bar a trying time at the opening round of this year's V8 Supercar championship in Adelaide where tyre choice and pit strategy issues disguised his speed, the young Kiwi has had a strong start to his fifth full season on the V8 Supercar circuit.

Early in March he qualified third and won the final race at the AGP meeting in Melbourne then later in the month he finished a close second to Jamie Whincup in the second race at the most recent series round in Tasmania.

Last year, of course, the Hamilton round was where van Gisbergen claimed his debut series win, qualifying third but slipping back to 16th place in the first race after dramas in the pits, but coming back to qualify fourth then win the main race on Sunday.

It was a fairytale finish to the event for the proud Kiwi and the win was followed by his first one on Australia soil in Darwin just two months later.

So far this season Ford Performance Racing has been the standout team with Will Davison currently leading the points standings with 567 points, 18 more than second placed Team Vodafone Racing's Jamie Whincup with Davison's FPR teammate Mark Winterbottom third and van Gisbergen fourth.

Stone Brothers Racing is certainly holding its own, however, with all three drivers - van Gisbergen, new signing Lee Holdsworth and Tim Slade - in the top ten points-wise heading to Hamilton.

This weekend's event will be the last on the 3.4km downtown Hamilton street circuit with the smart money on the annual V8 Supercar meeting in New Zealand returning to Pukekohe though a final decision has yet to be made let alone announced.

There will be four practice sessions on Friday for the V8 Supercars with one qualifying session and one 59-lap race per day on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday qualifying starts at 10.20am with the Top 10 Shootout to follow at 11.45 and the first race to start at 3.05pm.

On Sunday qualifying for the second race is due to start at 11.00 am and the race itself at 3.05pm.

Ends

2012 V8 SUPERCAR SERIES

Points after Rnd 2

1. Will Davison 567
2. Jamie Whincup 549
3. Mark Winterbottom 471
4. Shane van Gisbergen (SP Tools Ford Falcon) 432
5. Lee Holdsworth 387
6. Garth Tander 368