Macca hits top gear on Bend

SCOTT McLaughlin has laid down the perfect drive to win the first race of the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend, further extending his championship lead as the Supercars season inches towards the finale at Bathurst.

McLaughlin, from Shell VPower Racing, started his Ford Mustang on pole position, led the field at the first turn and never surrendered top spot during the 31-lap race.

Behind him the fight for the minor podium positions provided most of the on-track entertainment as Jack Le Brocq, Cameron Waters and Shane van Gisbergen ran three-wide up to the first turn, with Le Brocq gaining two spots to emerge the victor in that battle after starting in fourth.

But it was van Gisbergen, from the Red Bull Holden Racing Team, who took second place at the end of the race, opting for a long first stint and using his fresher tyres at the end to catch up to McLaughlin.

The Holden Commodore driver finished just 0.6 seconds behind the winner. Waters passed the chequered flag in third, six seconds after the front two. “Scott was just too good,” van Gisbergen said. “I couldn’t get close enough to get a lunge.”

McLaughlin said he thought an early pit stop might have been a wrong move by his team so made sure he completed a few “perfect laps” to ensure he had the tyre life to hold off the competition.

“Shane was coming at me pretty hard there,” he said of the final laps of the race.

“I just looked after my stuff after we got out of pit lane.

“At the end of the day, I was able to hold him off.”