Holy smoke, a Kiwi quinella
Mclaughlin, van Gisbergen to duel for Supercars title
Scott Mclaughlin won yesterday’s thrilling race at the Auckland Supersprint to keep the battle for this year’s title on a knife’s edge.
Mclaughlin came into the weekend 14 points ahead of Shane van Gisbergen in the championship and they’ll head to the final round of the season in Newcastle with the same margin separating them.
Jamie Whincup would have finished second, but slowed down on the final lap to let team-mate van Gisbergen get past him to pick up more valuable points.
It was a turnaround from Saturday where van Gisbergen won and Mclaughlin was second, but yesterday Mclaughlin’s car had more pace and he claimed the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, because winning yesterday’s race is a deciding factor.
‘‘Today was amazing,’’ Mclaughlin said. ‘‘To win the JR Trophy for the first time was very special.’’
Mclaughlin said he understood why Whincup gave up second-place finish to help out his Triple Eight Race Engineering and said his team would have done the same if they were in that situation.
‘‘I expected it,’’ he said. ‘‘I didn’t know where Shane was, so I knew he was probably in third when Jamie backed off a fair bit.
‘‘It is what it is and we probably would have done the same.’’
The title will be decided in Newcastle, as it was 12 months ago, when Mclaughlin lost out to Whincup. But Mclaughlin says he’ll be better prepared to handle the occasion this time.
‘‘It’s a nerve-wracking time for both of us,’’ he said of himself and van Gisbergen. ‘‘But I’ll try to use the experience I had last year.
‘‘The media commitments are obviously going to be high and we’ll try to work around that.
‘‘But I know what to expect this time – last year I was going in a little bit shy and didn’t know what was going to happen.
‘‘Off track I understand, on track it’s going to be the same, we’ll stick to the process and get on with it.
‘‘I’m sure Shane is going to be right there and it will be like this weekend. At the end of the day, we’ve got two races and I’ve just got to beat him twice.’’
The was 41,232 spectators at Pukekohe Park Raceway yesterday and 110,678 over the weekend, over 5000 more than last year.
New Zealand fans are gripped on the battle between Mclaughlin and van Gisbergen. Usually they cheer on all Kiwi drivers, but now they’re having to take sides.
‘‘It was the first time I’ve been booed [in New Zealand], but this weekend was one of the coolest experiences,’’ van Gisbergen said.
‘‘Seeing everyone today, everyone had been saying how bad it was on social media, but I stayed off that last night.
‘‘Coming to the track, everyone was so friendly and cheering for us both. Then in that moment in the shootout when all the Kiwis were in it, I watched the first two I watched Andre [Heimgartner] go out and the crowd go nuts and I even did a little fist pump when Richie [Stanaway] went to the top.
‘‘The passion here rivals Bathurst it’s so awesome, and we need to have a race in the South Island to embrace it more.’’
Fabian Coulthard finished seventh, Andre Heimgartner was an impressive eighth, while Richie Stanaway was 20th. Bring on Newcastle.