Red- hot Scott a pace ace with Bathurst lap record

SCOTT McLaughlin rewrote the V8 records books yesterday, with the Ford flyer setting the Bathurst lap record to become a Mount Panorama legend on a day that also saw him score a qualifying win.

In the newest “Lap of the Gods’’, McLaughlin became the fastest V8 driver in Bathurst history when he clocked 2min04.14sec to smash the former record by almost a second.

Beating a long line of record- holding legends including Peter Brock, Greg Murphy and Jamie Whincup, the DJR team Penske star broke Whincup’s former mark of 2: 04.90 twice during a 60- minute practice session.

“It felt awesome,’’ McLaughlin said. “I’m pretty blown away to be honest.’’

Becoming Bathurst’s fastest man midway through the prequalifying fling, he reset his own record with a 6.2km blast with 12 minutes remaining in the session.

McLaughlin revealed he made a time- costing mistake.

“On the first two sets it was a little bit twitchy and then on the last it was a bit better, but I just made a mistake on the second- last corner.’’

The Ford recruit clocked 295km/ h down Conrod Straight after dancing his way across the mountain in a near perfectly engineered Falcon.

“It’s a good feeling,’’ McLaughlin said. “But I tell you what … you’re holding on.’’

McLaughlin was not the only man to break Whincup’s record, with Chaz Mostert momentarily holding the record.

With cloud covering pro- viding a lightning- quick track, the Prodrive Racing Australia driver reset the record when he blasted his way to a 2: 04.74.

“It’s been a tough lead- up to qualifying for us, we have been struggling in third practice and also today,” he said.

Known as the “Lap of the Gods’’, Greg Murphy set a time of 2: 06.05 in a lap to claim the Bathurst 1000 record in 2003, a time that stood for 11 years.