McLaughlin’s Bathurst dreams dashed again
AFTER producing the “Lap of the Gods”, Ford’s recordbreaking Scott McLaughlin was reduced to mere mortal status at yesterday’s Bathurst 1000.
In a huge blow to his Supercars championship hopes, McLaughlin’s Great Race lasted just 74 laps before he retired with mechanical issues at a wet Mount Panorama.
A day after “the greatest day of my life”, McLaughlin cut a shattered figure as another shot at becoming King of the Mountain slipped through his grasp.
“We really had a really good shot at it, in the wet as well,” McLaughlin said.
“Unfortunately that is how it goes, it’s a tough old race to win – I just have to move on.”
No one saw McLaughlin’s fizzer coming – certainly not anyone who witnessed his heroics barely 24 hours earlier.
Quite simply, McLaughlin could do no wrong ahead of the 161-lap classic. He left the Bathurst faithful in shock and himself in tears of joy on Saturday when he clocked two minutes, 03.83 seconds – the fastest Supercars lap ever seen on the infamous Mount Panorama street circuit.
McLaughlin became the first to crack the 2min 04sec barrier on the mountain after shattering the record mark he had set barely 24 hours earlier in Friday’s practice.
It earned him the new “Lap of the Gods” tag, coined when fellow New Zealander Greg Murphy shattered the lap record in 2003.
It seemed the sky was the limit yesterday.
Instead he came crashing back to earth.
After the heavens opened, the pole sitter went wide in the slippering conditions on the first corner on lap four, relinquishing his lead and falling back to sixth.
Then his Falcon began to falter, losing oil pressure.
Suddenly McLaughlin’s Bathurst curse had struck again.
Remarkably the Ford gun has never finished on the Bathurst 1000 podium. His best finish is fifth in 2015.