Penske crew muscles up

DEFENDING champion Scott McLaughlin has unveiled the new Ford Mustang the DJR Team Penske star hopes he can steer to backto-back Supercars crowns.

McLaughlin and teammate Fabian Coulthard yesterday pulled the covers off the new Mustang GT, which will debut on the Supercars grid at the Adelaide 500 this month.

The Mustang replaces the Ford Falcon, which was given the perfect send-off last year when McLaughlin claimed his maiden Supercars crown in Newcastle.

His title win avenged the heartbreak of a missed opportunity in 2017 when Red Bull Holden Racing Team rival Jamie Whincup swooped to claim his seventh championship.

McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske will lead the charge in the American muscle car, which is set to ignite a fresh chapter in the Ford versus Holden rivalry.

The New Zealand racer said he could not wait to hit the track in his brand-new Mustang.

“We’ve spent a lot of time developing this new car and to now see it in Shell VPower colours is awesome,” McLaughlin said.

“It looks fast standing still, so I can’t wait to see how it performs on the streets of Adelaide in a couple of weeks.

“We want to do it again this year, we want to go hard as a team and try and backto-back, team’s championship and all that sort of stuff. We have plenty of goals in mind.”