Pared-back regulations deny Mclaughlin a clean sweep
Australian Supercars made an actionpacked return to real-world competition last weekend with three fascinating sprint races at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Despite the series traditionally not thriving on short races, a number of regulation changes injected unpredictability into the rapid-fire, 80-mile-apiece format.
The most significant alteration, at least in terms of the on-track action, was a limit on tyres. Each driver had just 20 new softcompound Dunlops at their disposal from the end of practice onwards, which had to be stretched across three qualifying sessions, plus a top 15 shootout, and the trio of races.
It meant everyone had to bear tyre pain at some point, which effectively ruled out any chance of a single driver earning a clean sweep across the weekend.
In Saturday’s opener both Scott Mclaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen went for broke on rubber, albeit through different strategies. Mclaughlin chose to push early and defend late, while van Gisbergen went for a long first stint and used the famously high Sydney degradation to reel the DJR Team Penske Ford in over the closing laps. It led to a thrilling battle, Mclaughlin holding on as van Gisbergen struggled with aero wash despite the better rubber fitted to his Triple Eight Holden.
Come the second race, however, the two Kiwis were never in the fight. Needing to conserve tyres, they both plummeted in the first stint, leaving Jamie Whincup and Nick Percat to streak away at the front.
Percat – who hadn’t won since Adelaide in 2016 – could smell blood. Having only taken on two tyres during Saturday’s race, he called for his Brad Jones Racing team to fit four new boots. When Whincup only took on two tyres, Percat was in the box seat. He ran down the seven-time champion in the second stint before sprinting to a fairytale win in his 199th start.
By the final race there was a wide range of tyre condition throughout the field. Mclaughlin, on pole thanks to a recordbreaking lap in qualifying, had good enough
SYDNEY (AUS)
Race 1 Scott Mclaughlin
DJR Team Penske (Ford Mustang GT) Race 2 Nick Percat
Brad Jones Racing
(Holden Commodore ZB)
Race 3 Scott Mclaughlin
DJR Team Penske (Ford Mustang GT) rubber to get the job done, but it wasn’t easy. Tickford’s Lee Holdsworth had been ultra conservative to that point, opting for two tyres in both of the races so far. It meant he had rubber to burn in the finale, and he was just 1.5 seconds shy of running a fast-starting Mclaughlin down at the finish.
The 20-tyre limit has already been locked in for the Winton, Darwin,
Sandown, Tasmania and second Sydney rounds, but with the added element of mixed compounds. Each driver will have three sets of hards and two sets of softs.
Other back-to-basics changes included just two rattle guns during pitstops and a limit on data logging. The latter proved particularly popular with drivers, who didn’t have to sit through long evening debriefs.
“I don’t think I looked at any squiggly lines,” said Percat. “You just come in and tell your engineer what’s going on. I enjoyed that side of the format. I enjoyed that you didn’t have to sit there and have your eyes go square looking at lines all night…”
Mclaughlin added: “I really enjoyed being able to tell the guys which [anti-roll] bar positions I was in, rather than them just telling you where to go. All this data and all this crap doesn’t put bums on seats.
It’s all about the racing.”
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