Driver does his dad proud
FATHER’S Days do not come much better than the one experienced by Gold Coast-based Kiwi Wayne McLaughlin in his home country at the weekend.
A great supporter of his talented teenage son Scott, McLaughlin went as close as you can come to receiving the perfect Father’s Day gift in the opening round of the V8 SuperTourers at Taupo Motorsport Park.
On Saturday, Scott and his Gold Coast codriver Jonathon Webb clinched pole by setting the fastest times in both qualifying sessions.
They then led the first part of Sunday’s opening 56-lap race before giving it up to Jack Perkins and young Kiwi Nick Cassidy in Greg Murphy’s Mike Pero Mortgages Commodore as Murphy is still sidelined with a back complaint.
In the second race the tide turned and McLaughlin and Webb beat home Perkins and Cassidy – leaving both teams on 580 points.
The Gold Coasters were awarded the inaugural Ashley Stichbury Memorial Trophy on a countback, based on their qualifying results.
Kiwi pair John McIntyre and Jono Lester finished third in both races in their Blackwoods Falcon to take step three on the podium.
‘‘Yeah, I guess Father’s Days don’t come much better than that,’’ said a beaming McLaughlin in the presentation area after the race.
‘‘It was a fantastic result for the team and definitely a great way to cap off a big week for us.’’
On the Thursday night McLaughlin team unveiled Auto Trade Direct.
Auto Trade Direct is a new business from the Super Retail Group (Super Cheap Auto, BCF, Goldcross Cycles, Rebel Sport, Amart Allsports, Ray’s Outdoors and FCO) and will be launched into the New Zealand market at the end of the month.
The brand is targeted towards trade professionals and the automotive industry and was unveiled at the Ingham Mercedes-Benz dealership in Hamilton.
‘‘I really think it was the car set-up rather than the driver change in the first race that hurt us and the car was just perfect for the second race,’’ of race a new week, the sponsor in McLaughlin said. ‘‘I’m just so stoked to win the Ashley Stichbury trophy and to win on debut in the Auto Trade Direct colours.’’
Ten-year-old Zac Stichbury, who was just eight months old when his father Ashley died of a brain haemorrhage in 2002, presented the winner’s trophy named in his dad’s honour to McLaughlin and Webb in what was a tremendous gesture on Father’s Day.
The confident youngster congratulated the winners, but suggested the only reason they were collecting the trophy was because his dad wasn’t around to beat them and he wasn’t yet old to get behind the wheel.
Stichbury was regarded as one of the best young talents to come out of New Zealand and set the foundation for his career by winning both the 1992-93 and 1993-94 NZ Formula Ford Championships.
He won the New Zealand TraNZam title in 2001-02 and the NZV8s in 2002, before his sudden death in May of that year at the age of 30 – leaving behind his wife Anna and blond-headed baby Zac.
The V8 SuperTourers will now prepare for the second enduro, the 500k International at Pukekohe on October 26-28 before the finale at Ruapuna, Christchurch November 24-25.