Record, what record?
race press conference.
‘‘Going into the weekend, I would have loved to have had one win at least, regardless of whether there was a record on the line or not, but to do it here [break the record] is a very proud moment, in my 100th round.’’
McLaughlin got out of his car and climbed the fence to celebrate with the 42,000 spectators who turned up to watch the day’s action.
He celebrated more than he usually does but that was partly because it’s been a weekend where he had to fight hard. He probably didn’t have the fastest vehicle, was ill on Friday and had mechanical issues with his car on that day too.
But he came through it all, for a memorable win.
‘‘When you win at home it’s bloody cool. But it hasn’t been a smooth weekend for us at all,’’ he said.
‘‘Everyone lost practice one because of the rain and in practice two we wrote off as well.
‘‘Things that we tried in the last couple of days, we wanted to finalise on Friday.
‘‘So we finally got the car to a point where it was pretty fast throughout the whole race and there was a bit of relief.’’
Fellow New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen finished second, closing down McLaughlin over the last 10 laps, although without much chance of taking the lead.
Van Gisbergen was also cheered by the crowd, which was a big turnaround from 2018, when he was booed by spectators for blocking his compatriot from getting out of his car after the race.
‘‘It was a different atmosphere to last year on the Sunday but it was a pretty cool weekend,’’ Van Gisbergen said.
‘‘Both days were pretty good. [Yesterday] the car wasn’t as good and I wasn’t quite as clean in qualifying.’’
Chaz Mostert finished third.