Great Scott three-peat

McLaughlin claims his third straight Supercars title

SCOTT McLaughlin calls Jamie Whincup the GOAT — the Greatest Of All Time — but the 27-year-old New Zealander is rapidly setting records that could see himself take that Supercars title.

The Shell V-Power Racing driver picked up his third Supercars championship in a row, a feat last achieved by Whincup when he took four titles in a row between 2011 and 2014.

McLaughlin has become only the fourth driver in the 60 years of the Australian Touring Car Championship to achieve the trifecta, following in the footsteps of Ian Geoghegan (1966-69) and Mark Skaife (2000-2002).

He proclaimed that it would take a perfect drive to accumulate enough of a points buffer to seal the 2020 championship at the penultimate round at The Bend Motorsport Park — and the perfect drive it was.

McLaughlin started the weekend 215 points ahead in the championship race, and needed to leave the OTR SuperSprint with a minimum of 300 points in front of his nearest rival to ensure he could fail miserably in the last round and still take the prize. In the end, the margin was 305. “We had to do a perfect job, which we kind of did,” he said.

McLaughlin sealed the title from Whincup, battling the Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver to the finish line in the last race of the weekend, passing the chequered flag one spot in front of him in the last race, in second place. To finish one spot in front of him was all he needed to do.

McLaughlin inched further away from Whincup over the course of the OTR SuperSprint thanks to two pole positions that gave him track position.