Motorsport
Gallery 1
SUPERCARS’ dirty word, parity, has been banished for another year as Scott McLaughlin and his Ford FG X Falcon hosed the opposition at Phillip Island over the weekend.
The young Kiwi picked up the broom to sweep the event, claiming two poles and two race victories – he now leads the championship by 60 points over David Reynolds.
McLaughlin’s qualifying prowess is unquestioned; with Sunday’s pole his sixth in a row at Phillip Island, and 37th of his career.
In the first stoush of the weekend, defending champion Jamie Whincup mugged McLaughlin off the line.
Whincup and McLaughlin left the line evenly, with the ZB Commodore driver holding strong around the outside of Phillip Island’s sweeping first turn to claim the lead.
Whincup stayed in the lead until the final stages of the race, where McLaughlin’s raw pace would not be denied.
Through the seemingly never-ending Southern Loop McLaughlin saw his opportunity, diving underneath the Commodore. The race victory was his, and any parity debate from earlier in the year about the new ZB Commodore having an unfair advantage was vanquished.
Whincup held on to cross the line second, but was eventually demoted to 14th with a post-race penalty.
During the first pit stop the seven-time champion deactivated his pit lane speed limiter by mistake at the merge cone near the end of pit lane. Realising the slip-up, he reactivated the limiter before the pit exit, but the damage was done.
The second race followed a similar trend, with McLaughlin once again second behind a Commodore late in the race. This time it was Erebus Motorsport’s David Reynolds who held the lead.
Lambasted for not being aggressive enough at the opening round of the championship in Adelaide, Reynolds doggedly held off McLaughlin following their final pit stops.
The race-winning move came in almost identical fashion to Whincup’s dismissal a day prior, with McLaughlin muscling his way inside at the Southern Loop.
It was a well-executed end to a near-perfect weekend for McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske.
Rick Kelly, who started the weekend thinking his Nissan Motorsport team’s schnitzel night would be the highlight of his weekend, left the island with plenty to smile about.
There was trouble in paradise at Triple Eight, with Shane van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes having unpleasant interactions in both races.
In the opening battle van Gisbergen (who put in a herculean effort to battle power steering troubles throughout the race) handed Lowndes fourth place late in the race to allow the veteran a chance to hunt down Kelly for third. Team orders called for the pair to again switch places on the final lap, which eventually promoted van Gisbergen to third, and left a sour taste in Lowndes’ mouth.
The next race of the Supercars championship is at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway in two weeks’ time
