Stunned McLaughlin plummets back to earth
AFTER producing the “Lap of the Gods”, Ford’s recordbreaking Scott McLaughlin was reduced to mere mortal status yesterday.
In a huge blow to his Supercars championship hopes, McLaughlin’s Great Race lasted just 74 laps before he retired with mechanical issues.
A day after “the greatest day of my life”, McLaughlin cut a shattered figure as another shot at becoming King of the Mountain slipped away.
“We really had a really good shot at it, in the wet as well,” McLaughlin said.
“Unfortunately that is how it goes, it’s a tough old race to win – I just have to move on.”
No one saw McLaughlin’s fizzer coming – certainly not anyone who witnessed his heroics barely 24 hours earlier.
Quite simply McLaughlin could do no wrong ahead of the 161-lap classic.
He left the Bathurst faithful in shock and himself in tears of joy on Saturday when he clocked 2min 3.83sec – the fastest Supercars lap ever seen on the circuit.
McLaughlin became the first to crack the 2min 04sec barrier on the mountain after shattering the record mark he had set barely 24 hours earlier in Friday’s practice.
It earned him the new “Lap of the Gods” tag at Mount Panorama, first coined when fellow New Zealander Greg Murphy shattered the lap record back in 2003.
It seemed the sky was the limit yesterday. Instead he came crashing back to earth.
“Yesterday will always be pretty special in my mind, knowing that we were the fastest car in the dry,” McLaughlin said.
“But (right now) I feel pretty weird, it hasn’t really sunk in but I can’t change anything.
“Sometimes luck is not on your side and you need luck on a day like this.
“We had a really good chance today, it sucks when it is out of your hands.
“It’s the Bathurst 1000 – you want to win it.”
After the heavens opened, the pole sitter went wide on the first corner on lap four, relinquishing his lead and falling back to sixth. Then his Falcon began lost oil pressure. Suddenly McLaughlin’s Bathurst curse had struck again.