Shane van Gisbergen has turned out to be an unbeatable monster on road courses. While his strong background in Australian circuits helps him outpace the field, his foot technique is also something worth marveling at. His secret? A craft called ‘heel-toe,’ where he uses his right foot to brake and simultaneously flick the gas pedal, a technique that smooths downshifts and maintains momentum through turns.
Advertisement
Interestingly, this technique was prevalent in NASCAR before shift patterns evolved and sequential gearboxes made clutch use for gear changes largely unnecessary. Today, Cup Series drivers use their left feet to brake and are finding it difficult to learn the trick that is making all the difference between them and the Supercars champion.
When Leigh Diffey asked him about it in 2023, van Gisbergen noted that it’s how things have always worked in his part of the world. He said, “It’s normal to me. I always right-foot brake and heel-toe. It’s what I’ve grown up doing. I only started left-foot braking last year in a rally car. So, yeah, to me, it’s normal. But I guess they don’t do it here anymore.”
So, what makes it difficult for his competitors to adopt the same technique? Limited practice times and a ban on open testing mean they can only try the method during live races. And that’s not a viable option with so much at stake. It would simply take them eons to match their current speeds by using the heel-toe technique.
Kyle Busch explains why it won’t be easy to learn the heel-toe technique
The Cup Series field is currently at the Sonoma Raceway for the 20th race of the 2025 Cup Series season. Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch was asked about van Gisbergen‘s road course expertise ahead of Sunday’s event, and he made some self-aware admissions.
“He [van Gisbergen] is really, really good,” he said. “He has the heel-toe method, I know. So, for me to try to figure that out, it would be until my retirement before I am even 10% as good as he is at it. So, that’s out the window.” He also believes that switching over to the right foot to brake and twisting the ankle at awkward angles all feel too convoluted and require efforts way above his pay grade.
Many other drivers carry similar opinions. Christopher Bell, for one, told NBC Sports that he wouldn’t even know where to begin if he wanted to learn the method. The time commitment it requires deters most from even trying.
