Photo Credit: Supercars
One of the favourites for the Supercars crown in 2017 has capped off a memorable weekend in Perth with Scott McLaughlin winning today’s second SuperSprint race at Barbagallo Raceway.
McLaughlin was unbeatable at Barbagallo, winning yesterday’s opening race and breaking the race and practice lap records in his Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon.
“My aim was to get some points off the guys in the top four places and we managed to do that,” McLaughlin said.
“I was pretty disappointed after Phillip Island that we didn’t get at least one race win there. I felt like we had a strong car there.
“I think we came in 100 points off and now we are 30 so for me it’s nice and good little gain there.”
Chaz Mostert who won in Phillip Island two weeks ago, finished second in today’s race while Jamie Whincup, who is yet to win a race in 2017, finished third.
“We are starting to find a base for our car,” Mostert said.
“We still have to do some work with it yet and a lot of other stuff inside the team we need to work on as well.”
Whincup said he’s not feeling any pressure despite going four rounds without a race in 2017.
“No not at all. We are there or thereabouts. We are 20 points off or something but we would love to have a win like all 25 drivers in the category but it shouldn’t be too far away,” Whincup said.
“We will keep chipping away as we always do, go down to Winton which is a different kettle of fish down there.”
In today’s race as he did yesterday, McLaughlin led from start to finish with his team’s pit stop strategy paying dividends.
2016 Perth SuperSprint winner Mark Winterbottom finished fourth ahead of Will Davison. Defending Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen finished sixth while current championship points leader Fabian Coulthard, who finished second in yesterday’s race finished seventh.
Craig Lowndes hopes of recording his 17th race victory in Perth all but ended when West Australian youngster Alex Rullo bumped the Team Vortex Commodore as Lowndes was turning into pit lane. Lowndes spun and lost valuable ground on the pack, Rullo was handed a 15 second pit lane penalty.
For full results click here.
The win was McLaughlin’s second for 2017 and elevated him into fourth on the Coates Hire Championship Leaderboard. Coulthard extended his lead while Whincup moved into second with van Gisbergen dropping into third position.
The race victory was a fifth consecutive for a Ford driver, continuing their current run of dominance over Holden drivers. Shane van Gisbergen won the opening three races of the season in Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore.
Teams will now prepare for the Winton SuperSprint which will run from 19-21 May.
