‘Silly games’ get win
SUDDENLY the gloves are off in the Supercars championship after series leader Scott McLaughlin took aim at Holden rival Shane van Gisbergen’s “silly games” at Townsville on Sunday.
Van Gisbergen was the toast of pit lane at the Townsville SuperSprint after claiming both of Sunday’s 39-lap races, marking his first wins of 2020.
But two-time defending series champion McLaughlin was less than impressed with the Kiwi.
He was seeing red after van Gisbergen not only passed him for the lead on turn 11 with four laps left in the round’s finale following a safety car, but held the Ford gun up long enough for Holden teammate Jamie Whincup to also sneak past.
McLaughlin described van Gisbergen’s late move that also let Whincup pass as “pretty average”.
“I would have just loved to have a one-to-one battle with Jamie,” he said.
“It was pretty average that big push off at the end there. I get it he (SVG) is playing the team game there but it would be nice to have more of a fair battle. I get the team game (but) I feel like it’s a bit early for those silly games.”
Van Gisbergen said he was simply doing what was best for his team, Triple Eight Race Engineering.
“He (McLaughlin) is spitting chips about that one, as you would I guess, but I’m just doing the team thing and helping Jamie to get through as well,” he told Fox Sports.
Whincup also made no apologies, even appearing to have a thinly veiled crack at McLaughlin’s DJR Team Penske teammate Fabian Coulthard by saying some rivals were a “one plus one” outfit.
While McLaughlin impressed throughout the Townsville SuperSprint, Coulthard — who sits a distant seventh in the championship — continued to struggle and finished eighth in Sunday’s finale.
“I guess it just comes down to (the fact) we run a two-car team ... (and) we’ve both got the same opportunity (to win),” Whincup said of their Holden team’s one-two finish in race three.
“It’s generally sometimes a negative because you’ve got to pit behind the second car or he takes points away from you but today, if anything, it was a help and that’s the advantage of running a two-car team instead of a one-plus-one.”
Van Gisbergen had endured 22 frustrating races in 2020, so his back-to-back wins in Townsville SuperSprint raised his spirits.
MAC KEPT HONEST
For once not everything went McLaughlin’s way on Sunday.
He started from 10th in Sunday’s finale and moved to the lead thanks to an early lap seven pit stop, but his old tyres ensured he was reeled in by Holden duo SVG and Whincup with four laps left.
“I had nothing left. I was trying my best. If we didn’t have the safety car we might have had a real good shot,” McLaughlin said.
BATTLERS’ WARNING
The form guide was almost thrown out the window on Sunday after Supercars battlers Brad Jones Racing dominated qualifying.
The small Albury-based Holden outfit upstaged the big boys to be the toast of pit lane when first ex-Bathurst 1000 champion Nick Percat and then teammate Todd Hazelwood emerged fastest in backto-back qualifying sessions on Sunday morning.
It was the first career pole for both drivers.
To boot, Percat was second fastest behind Hazelwood in the second qualifier to mark BJR’s first front row lockout since Phillip Island in 2013.