To their Great Race glory
Out of all the drama Pye and Warren Luff came home second in their Holden, while
Fabian Coulthard and Tony D’alberto got something out of the race for DJR Team Penske with third. Coulthard also emerged as the new championship leader, having profited hugely from the misfortune heaped upon his team-mate and Whincup to grab a 91-point lead.
Sunday’s chaotic, thrilling affair was a fitting end to what had already been a special weekend at Mount Panorama. On Saturday, Mclaughlin etched his name into the Bathurst record books with one of the greatest – if not greatest – laps of all time in the Top 10 Shootout.
There was a sense that something extraordinary was going to happen during pre-qualifying practice on Friday, when Whincup’s unofficial lap record – a 2m04.909s – was decimated by no fewer than six drivers. And it was Mclaughlin leading the charge, lowering the record with a 2m04.147s, the
Kiwi more than half a second clear of the field.
That was impressive enough, but in a way it was expected. Saturday’s effort, however, was something different. In the notoriously tricky one-lap Shootout for pole, Mclaughlin didn’t just break the 2m04s barrier for the first time, he smashed it with a 2m03.831s.
That time left him four tenths clear of Reynolds and therefore secured a comfortable pole, but it was more than that. It was the new ‘lap of the gods’, the greatest lap of The Mountain since Greg Murphy’s 2m06.859s in the Shootout in 2003.
What made the whole deal even sweeter is that Murphy was Mclaughlin’s childhood hero. And it was Murphy, now a Supercars pitlane reporter, who was first on the scene when Mclaughlin climbed out of his Penske Ford.
“That was probably the main thing that went through my mind when I saw the 3.8,” said Mclaughlin when he reflected on the lap later that evening. I looked up to [Murphy’s] lap. Basically for me, Supercars was it.
“That was a pretty special day that one, for not only myself as a fan, but New Zealand as a country, and it was a day I will never forget. This one is another day I will never forget. It was cool to do it, and then for him to interview me at the end, that was pretty special too.” 1 David Reynolds/luke Youlden (Holden Commodore) 161 laps in 7h11m45.5456s; 2 Scott Pye/warren Luff (Holden) +3.8995s; 3 Fabian Coulthard/tony D’alberto (Ford Falcon); 4 Dale Wood/chris Pither (Holden); 5 Shane van Gisbergen/matt Campbell (Holden); 6 Michael Caruso/dean Fiore (Nissan Altima); 7 Todd Kelly/jack Le Brocq (Nissan); 8 Jason Bright/garry Jacobson (Ford); 9 Tim Slade/andre Heimgartner (Holden); 10 Chaz Mostert/steve Owen (Ford).
1 Coulthard 2431; 2 Jamie Whincup 2340; 3 Scott Mclaughlin 2334; 4 Mostert 2208; 5 van Gisbergen 2142; 6 Reynolds 1803.