GREAT SCOTT: MCLAUGHLIN ON TRACK FOR SHOT AT HISTORY AFTER WINTON HEROICS
ANOTHER race, another chapter in the Scott McLaughlin Mustang march as the Ford star romped to his 10th win of the Supercars season by sweeping the round at Winton Raceway yesterday.
After starting on pole, the St Stephen’s College product wasn’t threatened throughout the race as his teammate Fabian Coulthard came in second to give DJR Team Penske its sixth one-two finish for the season.
Only a late safety car – called 10 laps from the finish when Will Davison ran off the track – denied McLaughlin a runaway win after the field was condensed.
Seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup claimed third for the Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
McLaughlin already has more race wins this season than he did for the entire year in 2018 (nine) en route to his maiden Supercars title – and there is still nine rounds to go.
The defending champion has again extended his championship lead over Coulthard from 232 points to 244, while Whincup moved up from
sixth to fifth in the standings.
“It has been an amazing weekend, two wins for our team, a pole and a one-two,’’ McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin’s victory came after a drama-filled win on Saturday when he tangled with Coulthard on lap one and raised eyebrows with an off-track shortcut that was deemed legal by officials.
Coulthard, who finished 15th on Saturday, said he needed to lift if he was to catch McLaughlin.
“He’s fast, there is no two ways about it. I just have to lift my game,’’ Coulthard said.
“But it’s not easy. He’s a class act, the race wins, the poles, he is on another scale.”
Less than halfway through the Supercars season, McLaughlin is already on track for one of the most dominant seasons on record.
Only five other drivers in history have had more than 10 race wins in a season – Craig Lowndes, Whincup, Mark Skaife, Garth Tander and Marcos Ambrose. Lowndes holds the record for most race wins in a year with 16 (1996), which McLaughlin has plenty of time to catch.
Earlier, McLaughlin set a lap record to claim his ninth pole position of the season, shading the previous best qualifying lap set by Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert in 2016.
It was McLaughlin’s 56th career pole position.