As Richard Craill said in his weekly Talkmotorsport column, “…the Supercars Championship won’t be decided on the Gold Coast this weekend, but there’s a fair chance we’ll know who can win it once this weekend is complete.”
Such is the closeness of the title fight between Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen, we still don’t have a clear picture of who may win it. What we know is that both still have a very good chance, while Jamie Whincup also has an opportunity should either falter.
What we saw over the weekend was how mistakes can determine the outcome, what we didn’t foresee is how the weather can minimize these outcomes.
First, Shane van Gisbergen got ‘pinged’ for kerb-hopping in the top ten shootout for Saturday’s race. He had been the quickest in qualifying and the penalty meant that he would start tenth, instead of up at the front of the grid.
Then during the race both Red Bull Holden Racing cars (van Gisbergen and Whincup) got ‘pinged’ for unsafe release during their cars’ pitstops.
While both cars had problems with their radios, these are rare mistakes from such a top team. It is these mistakes that allow rivals to move ahead. Such is the closeness of the racing in Supercars, it can be a matter of not who is fastest but who makes the least mistakes. The closeness of the grid is one of the reasons why we love this category.
McLaughlin came home fifth to reverse a 19-point Championship deficit into a 14-point championship lead.
In the second top ten shootout, McLaughlin did the same as van Gisbergen and also got penalised for kerb-hopping, compromising his starting position for the second race.
Then we saw Sunday’s race interrupted by some wild wet weather. Whincup’s co-driver Paul Dumbrell crashed heavily into tyres on lap 37 which suspended the race with standing water and rivers running across the track surface. Whincup admitted that at this stage his championship hopes were now over.
McLaughlin’s car was ahead of van Gisbergen and more championship points were on.
While the race restarted, proceedings only lasted another five laps behind the Safety Car and was ultimately cancelled at 4:25pm and declared a non-race with no points awarded.
Arguably the weather has kept Whincup in with a title chance and has hindered McLaughlin increasing his new championship lead. All three will head to the ITM Auckland SuperSprint (2-4 November) with four races remaining – two 200km at Pukekohe and two at Newscastle.
Perfection is required, mistakes are no longer an option.
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