Hot Scott under fire from van Gisbergen

THE gloves are officially off in the Supercars title fight after Shane van Gisbergen hit back at series leader Scott McLaughlin in yesterday’s Ipswich SuperSprint at Queensland Raceway.

Holden’s van Gisbergen got the jump on pole-sitter McLaughlin at the start of the Ipswich round’s 200km finale and went on claim the checkered flag by more than two seconds ahead of the Ford star. Ford’s Chaz Mostert was third, his first podium since last October’s Gold Coast 600.

The stage is now set for a championship dogfight between 2016 series winner van Gisbergen and McLaughlin, who narrowly missed claiming his debut drivers’ title last year.

Van Gisbergen’s fourth win of the year has whittled McLaughlin’s series lead down to just 131 points with seven of the season’s 16 rounds remaining.

“That [start] dictates the race here,” van Gisbergen said.

“If we start up there [front] we can race with them [McLaughlin’s Ford]. The cars are very even but we are missing something in qualifying consistency — we needed to get that start. But I am enjoying the title fight.”

It was a shot in the arm for van Gisbergen after McLaughlin appeared unstoppable in Ipswich.

McLaughlin claimed pole before leading Saturday’s 39lap race from start to finish to beat van Gisbergen home by more than four seconds. And the flying Kiwi looked set to deliver more of the same in yesterday’s 65-lap race after again taking out pole position.

But van Gisbergen wasn’t to be denied yesterday. He had a blistering start for the second straight day, getting the jump on McLaughlin to snatch the lead by the first turn.

The next round is the Sydney SuperNight 300 from August 3-4.