Comeback king on track after GC600
JAMIE Whincup is closing in on his seventh Supercars Championship title after a dramatic day at the Gold Coast 600.
Scott McLaughlin pushed his DJR Team Penske Falcon back to pit lane after upstaging his Red Bull Holden Racing rivals in the fastest ever race on the streets of Surfers Paradise yesterday.
McLaughlin came from 13th on the grid, the furthest back a Gold Coast 600 winner has ever started, to claim his sev- enth win of the season.
His incredible victory was orchestrated by the brains trust of Shell V-Power Racing, engineer Ludo Lacroix, who snuck ahead of Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen with a daring race strategy.
McLaughlin cut his fuel consumption so fine he ran dry after a celebration burnout and had to push the car back to victory lane with the help of officials.
“It’s up there (with my best win of the year),” McLaughlin said. “We were 13th and nothing was looking too good but Alex (Premat, co-driver) saved the day (moving to fifth).
“I never got told anything (about conserving fuel). I got the fuel alarm on the last lap. I knew we’d be fine.
“I just stuffed the burnouts up. I’ll push the car back to victory lane any time.”
Van Gisbergen qualified fastest but his co-driver Matt Campbell surrendered the lead to Whincup’s partner Paul Dumbrell and the defending champion had to settle for third behind Whincup.
Whincup now leads the championship on 2580 points after overtaking DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard (2563), who went into the weekend with a 91-point lead but suffered with results of 19th and ninth.
Whincup, 34, claimed his last championship in 2014 and said he would not be taking a conservative approach in the final two rounds of the season.
“Everyone wants the lead and I haven’t led all year,” he said. “It’s nice to be leading now but all that matters is who’s leading after race two in Newcastle. We need to be aggressive until the end.”
Four races remain.