Battle of the young guns
SCOTT McLaughlin will go head-to-head with fellow young-guns Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters in a starstudded top-10 shootout today after conquering qualifying in his flying Ford.
Setting up an intriguing battle, McLaughlin, 24, survived a red flag to win a crash-marred qualifying session.
Fellow Ford guns Mostert, 25, and Waters, 23, also survived to make the top-10 shootout a battle of generation next.
Hitting the track hours after breaking the Mount Panorama lap record during a furious Friday practice session, McLaughlin clocked 2min 04.22sec to hold off a fast-finishing Dave Reynolds and book top spot for today’s grid-setting shootout.
Only Erebus driver Reynolds, who finished second, could split McLaughlin from his young gun rivals Mostert and Waters.
“The car is pretty good and we are trying to make the most of it,’’ McLaughlin said.
“I have a lot of confidence in the car and we were able to go 4.3, 4.2 and then 4.1 in practice which is pretty awesome.
“At that speed, there’s a lot going on and you are holding on for dear life.
“It’s nice to be able to do three consistent laps in a row and be comfortable each time with that.
“We made a few tweaks with each stop and each time we made it better. The stop between practice and qualifying, we made our car a little bit worse so we will work on that.’’
McLaughlin was all eyes ahead with the Penske pilot out to win his first Bathurst top-10 shootout.
“It is nice to make the shootout,’’ McLaughlin said. “And I will have a go. Just to make the shootout is awesome and I’m excited for that. It is one of the best sessions of the year. It is going to be a lot of fun. It might be our last dry session of the weekend.’’